T. P. O'Connor

"Mainly About People" redirects here. For the section of "The Daily News", seeDaily News (Perth, Western Australia).

For other people named Thomas O'Connor, seeThomas O'Connor (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable T. P. O'Connor PC
Father of the House of Commons
In office 14 December 1918 – 18 November 1929
Speaker	James Lowther John Henry Whitley Edward FitzRoy
Preceded by	Thomas Burt
Succeeded by	David Lloyd George
Member of Parliament forLiverpool Scotland
In office 18 December 1885 – 18 November 1929
Preceded by	New constituency
Succeeded by	David Logan
Member of Parliament forGalway Borough
In office 27 April 1880 – 18 December 1885 Serving withJohn Orrell Lever
Preceded by	George Morris Michael Francis Ward
Succeeded by	William Henry O'Shea
Personal details
Born	(1848-10-05)5 October 1848 Athlone,County Westmeath,Ireland
Died	18 November 1929(1929-11-18)(aged 81) Westminster,London,England,UK
Resting place	St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green,London
Political party	Irish Parliamentary Party(1882–1929) Home Rule League(1880–1882)
Spouse	Elizabeth Howard ​ (m.1885)​
Alma mater	Queen's College Galway

Thomas Power O'Connor,PC(5 October 1848 – 18 November 1929), known asT. P. O'Connorand occasionally asTay Pay(mimicking the Irish pronunciation of the initialsT. P.), was anIrish nationalistpoliticianand journalist who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in theHouse of Commonsof theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Irelandfor nearly fifty years.

Early life and education

O'Connor was born inAthlone,County Westmeath,on 5 October 1848. He was the eldest son of Thomas O'Connor, an Athlone shopkeeper, and his wife Teresa (née Power), the daughter of a non-commissioned officer in theConnaught Rangers.His family were supporters of theLiberal Party.He was educated at theCollege of the Immaculate Conceptionin Athlone, andQueen's College Galway,where he won scholarships in history and modern languages and built up a reputation as an orator, serving as auditor of the college'sLiterary and Debating Society.

Career

From 1867, O'Connor attempted unsuccessfully to gain a position in theCivil Servicebefore working for theRoyal Irish Constabularyas a reporting assistant on nationalist political demonstrations.He entered journalism as a junior reporter onSaunders' Newsletter,aDublinjournal. In 1870, he moved to London, and was appointed a sub-editor onThe Daily Telegraph,principally on account of the utility of his mastery of French and German in reportage of theFranco-Prussian War.He later became London correspondent forThe New York Herald.He compiled the society magazineMainly About People(M.A.P.)from 1898 to 1911.

O'Connor was elected Member of Parliament forGalway Boroughin the1880 general election,as a representative of theHome Rule League(which was under the leadership ofWilliam Shaw,though virtually led byCharles Stewart Parnell,who would win the party's leadership a short time later). O'Connor had been invited to stand as theLiberalcandidate for the constituency on the strength of the unflattering biography of thenConservativePrime MinisterBenjamin Disraelihe had written in 1878. However, after being persuaded by Parnell, O'Connor stood reluctantly as an Irish party candidate. Despite opposition fromIrish Catholic clergymento the selection of the reputedlyagnosticO'Connor as theIrish Nationalistcandidate, he won the seat - allegedly with some support from theIrish Republican Brotherhood- because of his vocal support for the ideals of theIrish National Land League.By now a permanent resident of London, who spoke with a London accent, he did not generally speak at land rallies but was appointed to the Land League executive by Parnell. He also made four visits to the U.S. to raise funds for his party from politically engagedIrish Americans.

At the nextgeneral election in 1885,O'Connor was returned both for Galway and for theLiverpool Scotlandconstituencies, which had a large Irish population. He chose to sit for Liverpool, and represented that constituency in theHouse of Commonsfrom 1885 until his death in 1929. He remains the only British MP from an Irish nationalist party ever to be elected to a constituency outside of the island of Ireland. O'Connor continued to be re-elected in Liverpool under this label unopposed in the1918,1922,1923,1924and1929general elections, despite the declaration of ade factoIrish Republicin early 1919, and the establishment by1921 treatyof a quasi-independentIrish Free Statein late 1922.

T. P. O'Connor in 1917

From 1905, he belonged to the central leadership of theUnited Irish League.Although in his later years he was often criticised for distancing himself from the Irish community, he remained the most prominent Irish nationalist politician in Great Britain, and was on close terms with each successive government, and withDavid Lloyd Georgein particular.During much of his time in parliament, he wrote a nightly sketch of proceedings there for thePall Mall Gazette.He was a highly popular and respected figure among MPs from all parties. At the 1918 general election, following the retirement ofLiberal-LabourMPThomas Burt,O'Connor became "Father of the House of Commons",and ultimately would achieve unbroken service of 49 years, 215 days.

O'Connor supported theIrish Reform Association,and by the 1910s, he had come to accept the idea ofpartition.Having drawn the admiration of even theUlster UnionistleaderSir Edward Carson,he played a leading role in theIrish Conventionin 1917.The IrishNationalist Partyceased to exist effectively after theSinn Féinlandslide of 1918, and thereafter O'Connor effectively sat as an independent, although from the early 1910s, he had been rallyingIrish people in Great Britainbehind theLabour Party.On 13 April 1920, O'Connor warned the House of Commons that the death on hunger strike ofThomas Ashewould galvanise opinion in Ireland and unite all Irishmen in opposition to British rule.He nonetheless supported the 1921Anglo-Irish Treaty,although he subsequently appealed in vain to the British government to moderate its demand for a substantial contribution from the newly createdIrish Free Stateto the imperial exchequer.

Newspapers and journals

T. P. O'Connor founded and was the first editor of several newspapers and journals:The Star,theWeekly Sun(1891),The Sun(1893),M.A.P. and T.P.'s Weekly(1902). In August 1906, O'Connor was instrumental in the passing byParliamentof theMusical Copyright Act 1906,also known as the T.P. O'Connor Bill, following many of the popular music writers at the time dying in poverty due to extensive piracy by gangs during the piracy crisis of sheet music in the early 20th century.The gangs would often buy a copy of the music at full price, copy it, and resell it, often at half the price of the original.The filmI'll Be Your Sweetheart(1945), commissioned by the BritishMinistry of Information,is based on the events of the day.

Bust of journalist and politician T. P. O'Connor inFleet Street,London. The inscription reads, "His pen could lay bare the bones of a book or the soul of a statesman in a few vivid lines."

He was appointed as the second president of theBoard of Film Censorsin 1916 and appeared in front of the Cinema Commission of Inquiry (1916), set up by the National Council of Public Morals where he outlined the BBFC's position on protecting public morals by listing forty-three infractions, from the BBFC 1913–1915 reports, on why scenes in a film may be cut.He was appointed to thePrivy Councilby the firstLabourgovernment in 1924. However, he declined the offer of a peerage, considering theHouse of Lordsto be elitist.He was also a Fellow of theChartered Institute of Journalists,the world's oldest journalists' organisation. It continues to honour him by having a T.P. O'Connor charity fund. On his eightieth birthday in 1928, O'Connor was invited to dine withKing George V,and despite being confined to a wheelchair, he continued to attend parliamentary debates until his death.

Publications

• Lord Beaconsfield – A Biography(1879);
• The Parnell Movement(1886);
• Gladstone's House of Commons(1885);
• Napoleon(1896);
• The Phantom Millions(1902);
• Memoirs of an Old Parliamentarian(1929).

Personal life

In 1885, O'Connor married Elizabeth Howard (née Paschal), a daughter of George W. Paschal, an associate justice of theSupreme Court of Arkansas.The couple, who had no children, rarely lived together, and had separated permanently by the outbreak ofWorld War I,but remained married until O'Connor's death.

Death

O'Connor fell seriously ill in 1929; a substantial collection for him was raised in the House of Commons. He died at his flat inWestminsteron 18 November 1929 and is buried atSt Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Greenin north-westLondon.He was the lastFather of the Houseto die as a sitting MP untilSir Gerald Kaufmanin 2017.

Bibliography

• Boyce, D George (1982).Nationalism in Ireland.London.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Cottrell, Peter (2008).Irish Civil War, 1922–23.Botley, Oxford.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Walsh, Maurice (2008).The News from Ireland: Foreign Correspondents and the Irish Revolution.London.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Wilson, Trevor, ed. (1970).The Political Diaries of C.P.Scott 1911–1928.London.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

External links

• Media related toT. P. O'Connorat Wikimedia Commons
• Works by or aboutThomas Power O'ConnoratWikisource
• Hansard1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by T. P. O'Connor
• Works by T. P. O'ConnoratProject Gutenberg
• Works by or about T. P. O'Connorat theInternet Archive
• T. P. O'Connorat theBFI'sScreenonline