Charles Andrew O'Connor

Charles Andrew O'Connor PC (31 December 1854 – 18 October 1928) was an Irish judge, who served as the last Master of the Rolls in Ireland, and one of the first judges of the Supreme Court of Ireland. His judgement in a crucial habeas corpus case R. (Egan) v. Macready, is still influential.

Born on New Year's Eve, 1854, he was the third son of Charles Andrew O'Connor, solicitor, of Roscommon. His mother Catherine was the daughter of C. G. Smyth. O'Connor was educated at St Stanislaus College and went then to Trinity College, Dublin, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1876, and in 1877 was elected Auditor of the College Historical Society. In 1876 he was admitted to the Middle Temple and two years later he was called to the Irish Bar. In 1890 he obtained his Master of Arts.

O'Connor was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1894 and was chosen a bencher after two years. He was appointed First Serjeant in 1907 and became Solicitor-General for Ireland two years later. In 1911 he took over as Attorney-General for Ireland, on which occasion he was sworn of the Privy Council. In the following year, he succeeded as Master of the Rolls in Ireland, which he held until the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922. O'Connor retained the position in the new state for the next two years until its abolition in 1924. Subsequently he received an appointment as justice at the Supreme Court of the Irish Free State, retiring after one year in 1925. He was one of only two judges of the old regime who were thought worth retaining by the new Government, which acted on the advice of Hugh Kennedy, the first Chief Justice of Ireland, who believed that O'Connor had demonstrated his integrity and independence of mind in the Egan case (below).

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