DEATH OF JUDGE ART O’CONNOR

Irish Press 11 May 1950

DEATH OF JUDGE ART O’CONNOR

Mr. Art O’Connor, Circuit judge, died at his home, Elm Hall, Celbridge, Co. Kildare, yesterday, aged 62.  A Gaelic scholar, he was one of the first Gaelic Leaguers in Co. Kildare, and a pioneer of Sinn Fein movement.  He was a member of the Coiste Gnotha for many years.

In the General Election of 1918 he was elected T.D. for Kildare and was appointed Director of Agriculture in the First Dail Eireann. A then active member of the I.R.A., he was arrested in the “German Plot” scare in 1917 and was interned in Durham.  He continued with his national activities throughout the War of Independence. On the outbreak of Civil War in 1922, he was with the Republican forces and was captured and interned in Mountjoy and Kilmainham jails.

He took his B.A., B.A.I. and LL.D, degrees in Trinity College and was called to the Bar in 1927. He became Senior Counsel in 1944; was Standing Counsel to Revenue Commissioners 1944-’47 and was appointed Circuit Court Judge for Cork County and City in 1947. He relinquished his Judgeship to become Chairman of the Military Service Pensions Tribunal, where he was working until his death.