Draft:Judge Joseph Kerry O'Connor

Joseph Kerry O’Connor was born in Ashford, Co Limerick and educated by the Jesuits in both Crescent College Limerick and Clongowes Wood College, Kildare. During his studies he worked as a Clerk in the Dublin Metropolitan District, working part time with the Evening Herald as well as the Saturday Herald. In 1903 he published “Studies in Blue” using the pseudonym Heblon. It was a collection of short stories which previously had appeared in the Evening Herald and showed humorous descriptions of cases before the Dublin Police Courts. It is referred to in James Joyce’s “Ulysses” in the chapter “Ithaca”. The book was beautifully illustrated by Charles A. Mills R.A.H.A. . He was called to the Bar in 1900, quickly establishing himself featuring prominently in Maurice Healy’s Book “The Old Minster Circuit”. Healy noted that he had a “quick eye for a humorous situation; he seized upon an ounce of fact, added a dash of fiction, and produced a pound of amusing pastiche”. On the 14th of July 1923 he took Silk in the first call of the Irish Free State in the Supreme Court in Dublin Castle. The Irish Times noted that the Chief Justice called each Counsel by his name in Irish and then addressed them in that language noting that they went immediately after those who were now Kings Counsel. Thus, O’Connor and six others were the first Senior Counsel in the Common Law World. In 1917 he co-wrote a play in the Abbey called Blight, with Oliver St. Gogarty which played in the Abbey, under the pseudonym “Alpha & Omega”. It was said to have influenced Sean O’Casey to write “Juno and the Peacock”. As a Silk he appeared in many leading cases, most notably for the accused who were acquitted, in the infamous Honor Bright murder trial in 1926. As a Defence Counsel he was said to have few peers and was regarded by colleagues of the Bar as an Irish Marshall Hall.

In 1928 he appeared for the family in a controversial Public enquiry held in City Hall, into the shooting of an IRA man, Timothy Coughlan in the back of his head by the Gardai. He was standing counsel the Dublin United Tramway Company as well as the late Jim Larkin 

In 1932 he was appointed a Circuit Court Judge for the Munster Circuit travelling the length and breadth of the Circuit dealing with both crime and civil matters. He as a sitting Judge of the Circuit Court when the Constitution created the Cork Circuit and can be seen in a photograph in the Chief Justices room with the other circuit court judges of the time including his good friend James Sealy. He was appointed a referee under the Military Services Pensions Act and played a big part in the “buy Irish campaign” from 1932 onwards. He retired in 1942 He was a keen golfer and was a member of both Royal Dublin and Portmarnock Golf Clubs. His niece and grandnephew were both subsequently called to the Bar.

References

Ferguson, Kenneth. King's Inns Barristers: 1868-2004. Dublin: The Honorable Society of King's Inns in association with The Irish Legal History Society (2005) Sealy,Bryers and Walker (1903) Charles A. Mills R.A.H.A. "Discrepant Accidents and Accents: Social Distinction, Metro-Colonial Mimesis, and the Pseudo-Catharsis of Joyce's "Grace"Peter" (C. L. Nohrnberg, Joyce Studies Annual, Fordham University Press, 2019) The Old Munster Circuit Maurice Healy WILDY, SIMMONDS & HILL PUBLISHING Irish Times 15th July 1923; Irish Legal History of the Twentieth Century The Law School of University College Dublin – A History WN Osborough O'Connor, Ulick (1963). Oliver St. John Gogarty: A Poet and His Times. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 155