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John O'Connor (1 July 1899 – 11 December 1955), known politically as Johnny Connor, was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for the Kerry North constituency from 1954 to 1955.
In 1929, he married Margaret Corkery. During the Emergency (the era by the which World War II was referred to in Ireland), he was once again jailed (February 1941) with Jim Crofton on charges of still being active in the IRA, this time by a Fianna Fáil government.MacEoin, pg 685 During this time he was in the company of others charged with the same crime and became politically interested. Following his release, he joined Clann na Poblachta, which had strong IRA links and was led by former IRA Chief-of-Staff Seán MacBride.
He was elected to Dáil Éireann on his third attempt, at the 1954 general election as a Clann na Poblachta TD for the Kerry North constituency, unseating sitting Fine Gael TD John Lynch. He was the first Clann na Poblachta TD elected in County Kerry. Clann na Poblachta had won ten seats at the 1948 general election, but after the collapse of the first inter-party government, it had been reduced to two TDs at the 1951 general election. Connor's victory was the party's only gain in 1954.
During Connor's time as TD, his daughter Kathleen O'Connor acted as his de facto secretary. Kathleen was studying to become a teacher at a college in Dublin at the time and used her spare hours to act as his assistant.
Connor was killed in a road accident near Abbeyfeale in December 1955. His funeral was attended by numerous high-profile politicians from across the country, including Taoiseach John A. Costello, Richard Mulcahy and leading figures from all the major political parties. John A. Costello gave a eulogy, citing Connor's honesty, sincerity, integrity and warmth as his best qualities.
Following the funeral, Seán MacBride asked Connor's widow to stand in the forthcoming by-election for her husband's seat. When she refused, MacBride turned to Kathleen and pleaded with her to stand, saying that she was Clann na Poblachta's only hope for survival, as the party's fortunes had greatly soured after the first Inter-Party Government of 1951. The by-election for his Dáil seat was held on 29 February 1956 and resulted in victory for Kathleen, then only 21 years old. She became the youngest TD ever at that time and was in fact so young she was still not registered to vote.
She stood down from the Dáil at the 1957 general election.Heirs to the Kingdom: Kerry's Political Dynasties by Owen O'Shea (O'Brien Press, 2011)
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