16 Facts About Denis O'Conor

Denis O'Conor, O'Conor Don of Clonalis, County Roscommon, was an Irish nobleman, and Member of Parliament in the British House of Commons.

Denis O'Conor had one brother Edward who became an agent for their father and then to Denis, and two sister Jane and Catherine.

Denis O'Conor was brought up in Belanagare in County Roscommon until his father moved the family to Clonalis on the death of his fourth cousin once removed, Alexander O'Conor, O'Conor Don in 1820 whom his father inherited the title of O'Conor Don.

Denis O'Conor's father's first cousin was Thomas O'Conor and therefore Denis was a second cousin of Thomas's son Charles O'Conor of New York.

Denis O'Conor's great-grandfather was the eminent antiquarian, writer and protagonist for catholic civil rights during the penal laws, Charles O'Conor of Belanagare.

Denis O'Conor's maternal grandfather was a wealthy Catholic brewer in Dublin who was descended from Lewis O'More youngest brother of Rory O'More.

Denis O'Conor's maternal grandmother was a daughter of Thomas Reynolds of Rathfarnham and Dundrum Castle.

Denis O'Conor was educated at St Edmund's College, Ware, Trinity College, University of Dublin, Lincoln's Inn and the King's Inn to train as a barrister and took the Grand Tour in the early 1820s.

Denis O'Conor moved the resolution for repeal of the legislative Union with Britain at a county meeting, on 14 January 1831, and seconded one in favour of parliamentary reform at another, on the 16 April 1831.

Denis O'Conor was elected unopposed to the seat, which he held until his death in 1847.

Denis O'Conor's father had been an emancipationist and O'Conor continued in this tradition, always voting with Daniel O'Connell.

Denis O'Conor was neither a prominent nor a particularly effective parliamentarian.

Denis O'Conor was by disposition a conventional Whig rather than a repealer, but family loyalty kept him in O'Connell's camp.

However, when O'Brien was looking for signatures Denis O'Conor demurred because, in Wyse's opinion, he was afraid of what O'Connell would say.

On 6 July 1846, Denis O'Conor was appointed Junior Lord of the Treasury in Lord John Russell's government; he was one of five Irish MPs who obtained junior ministerial posts as a result of the Irish party's alliance with the whigs.

Denis O'Conor was a founding member of the Reform Club and a member of Brooks's in London as well as being a member of the Stephen's Green Club in Dublin.