Ignatius O'Brien, 1st Baron Shandon
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Ignatius O'Brien, 1st Baron Shandon PC, QC |
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| Solicitor General for Ireland | |
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In office 1911–1912 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Andrew O'Connor |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Molony |
| Attorney General for Ireland | |
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In office 1912–1913 |
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| Preceded by | Charles Andrew O'Connor |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Molony |
| Lord Chancellor of Ireland | |
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In office 1913–1918 |
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| Preceded by | Redmond John Barry |
| Succeeded by | Sir James Campbell |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
31 July 1857 Cork, Ireland |
| Died | 10 September 1930 (aged 73) London, England |
Ignatius John O'Brien, 1st Baron Shandon PC, QC (31 July 1857 – 10 September 1930), known as Sir Ignatius O'Brien, Bt, between 1916 and 1918, was an Irish lawyer and politician. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland between 1913 and 1918.
O'Brien was born in Cork, the son of Mark Joseph O'Brien and Jane, daughter of William Dunne. He was educated at the Vincentian School there and, at the age of 16, entered the Catholic University of Ireland in Dublin but left after two years due to family circumstances. He worked as a junior reporter for the Saunders Newsletter, a Dublin Conservative daily newspaper and then for Freeman's Journal while studying part-time for the Bar. Called to the Irish Bar, King's Inn, in 1881, O'Brien was slow to build a practice and continued to support himself through freelance journalism, within three years he had established a small practice on the Munster circuit.
In 1887 O'Brien became involved in the case of Canon Keller which was to establish his legal career and reputation. Keller, who was the parish priest of Youghal, was called to give evidence in the Bankruptcy Court regarding the financial circumstances of some of his Parishioners involved in the "Plan of Campaign" rent strikes. Keller refused to answer questions of the grounds that he had obtained this information in his capacity as a confessor, and that breaching the seal of the confessional contravened Catholic Canon law. As a result, Keller was imprisoned for contempt of court. O'Brien argued in support of a writ of habeas corpus. Although unsuccessful in the Court of Queen's Bench, his argument prevailed in the Irish Court of Appeal.
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