Batt O'Connor
| Batt O'Connor | |
|---|---|
| Teachta Dála | |
|
In office March 1924 – February 1935 |
|
| Constituency | Dublin County |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
4 July 1870 Brosna, County Kerry, Ireland |
| Died | 7 February 1935 (aged 64) |
| Political party |
Cumann na nGaedheal (later Fine Gael) |
Bartholomew "Batt" O'Connor (4 July 1870 – 7 February 1935) was an Irish Cumann na nGaedheal (and later Fine Gael) politician. He was a Teachta Dála (TD) for Dublin County from 1924 to 1935.
Batt O'Connor was born 4 July 1870 in Brosna, County Kerry. At seventeen he left school to become a stonemason. In October 1893, aged twenty-three he went to Boston, where he stayed five years.
O'Connor describes participating in a Saint Patrick's Day parade in Providence, Rhode Island as a key moment in his coming to political consciousness: "I walked in the procession, and in the emotion I felt, walking as one of that vast crowd of Irish emigrants celebrating our national festival, I awoke to full consciousness of my love for my country. That awaking was one of the forces bringing me home, and it led me inevitably to the day when I joined the Gaelic League two years after my return, and to another memorable occasion when a few years later I took my oath to the Irish Republican Brotherhood by the graveside of Wolfe Tone."
On his return to Ireland, O'Connor moved to Dublin, where he soon established himself as a "speculative builder" constructing houses in Anglesea Road, Dolphins Barn, Eglington Road, and Donnybrook. O'Connor also built the houses on Brendan Road, and gave the street its name, eventually getting married and settling in No.1 Brendan Road.
O'Connor joined the Gaelic League in 1900, through which he came into contact with many of the future leaders of the Independence movement, including Tom Clarke and Seán Mac Diarmada. He was sworn into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) in 1909. O'Connor enrolled in the Irish Volunteers in 1913, the same night as Éamon de Valera.
While not directly involved during the Easter Rising, (he was at home in Brosna for the first week of it), O'Connor was recognised and arrested on his return to Dublin and sent to Kilmainham Gaol, then to Richmond Barracks, Wandsworth Prison, and finally to Frongoch internment camp, in North Wales.
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