Batt O’Connor (18701935) to be honoured in his native Brosna

A COMMEMORATION will be held in Brosna in honour of the life and times of Bartholomew ‘Batt’ O’Connor on Sunday, February 17, at 2pm.

The event will be held in The Square in the village at 2pm, and Seán Kelly MEP will be the guest of honour and will unveil a plaque in memory of the man and of the occasion.

Bartholomew ‘Batt’ O’Connor was born in Brosna on July 4, 1870. and was educated at the local national school.

He worked with his father and brother as a stonemason and in 1893 emigrated to the USA.

He returned in 1898 and moved to Dublin. In 1904 he branched out as a sub-contractor and began building houses.

He joined the Gaelic League in Dublin and later the Irish Volunteers and was sworn into the IRB. During Easter 1916 he was sent to Kerry to await instructions about the Rising planned in the county.

However, upon hearing of the arrest of Sir Roger Casement and the loss of the German guns, he returned to Dublin and was arrested by the police.

He was taken to Kilmainham Jail, where he was sentenced to be shot but was deported to Wandsworth Jail and later Frongoch prison camp in Wales.

He formed a close friendship with Michael Collins after their release and helped him in re-organising the IRB network and the Sinn Féin organisation.

O’Connor was entrusted with the gold collected from the Dáil loan and buried it under the concrete floor of his house.

This was never found despite frequent raids during the War of Independence.

He was elected as a Sinn Féin councillor in 1920 and soon became chairman of the council, which swore allegiance to Dáil Éireann.

His various houses were used as safe-houses during the War of Independence, and he himself was on the run throughout 1921.

He persuaded Michael Collins to go to London to form part of the Anglo-Irish Treaty delegation.

He remained a councillor for Cumann na nGaedheal after 1922 and was a joint treasurer of the party.

He was elected to the Dáil in 1924 and remained a TD until his death in 1935.

His funeral was attended by many of the then-Fianna Fáil government.

Photo by John Reidy Seán Kelly, MEP and iar-Uachtarán Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, will speak at a commemoration and unveil a plaque in Brosna on Sunday afternoon.