John (Johnny) Connor, sometimes using O’Connor, was the
first Clann na Poblachta TD ever elected in Kerry and, apart from his daughter,
Kathleen, who succeeded him, is the only Dáil representative the party had in Kerry. He dropped the ‘O’
from his name to ensure his name moved further up the ballot paper.
Born in Farmer’s Bridge near Tralee, Connor was an Old
IRA man who played a prominent role in the War of Independence. He was involved
in numerous ambushes and skirmishes in the late 1910s and early 1920s such as
the attacks on police barracks in Gortatlea, Brosna and Scartaglin. He was
jailed in Tralee and Mountjoy for his Civil War involvement.
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| Johnny Connor |
A farmer and an auctioneer, Connor emigrated to Chicago and
returned home in 1930. He married Margaret Corkery of Ashill. He joined Clann
na Poblachta and was elected to Kerry County Council in October 1948. He was
one of four Clann councillors elected in what was the new party’s first local
authority electoral outing. He had contested the general election of February
1948 in Kerry North in the year his party helped form the first inter-party
government under Taoiseach John A Costello. He did not win a seat however.
Connor also stood in 1951 but it was 1954 before he made
it to the Dáil, when he took the fourth and final seat with 5,003 votes. His
republican background and his advocacy of the needs of the farming community in
Kerry were instrumental in his success.
After just over a year in the Dáil however, tragedy
struck when Connor was killed in a car accident on 11 December 1955 as he was
returning to Tralee from Dublin, having attended a meeting of the Clann na
Poblachta national executive. The
accident occurred at Ballyduff on the Castleisland to Abbeyfeale road, where a
memorial to him still stands.
His party leader, Sean MacBride delivered the graveside
oration at his funeral days later. Mr Connor’s death prompted the first ever
by-election held in the constituency of Kerry North, at which he was succeeded
by his 21 year-old daughter, Kathleen O’Connor (Fitzgerald).
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