MP Black & Co in Malahide looks like a typical solicitors’ practice, but managing partner Maureen Black has an extraordinary story to tell.

Her grandfather, John S O’ Connor, fought in the 1916 Rising with her grand-uncle Tommy O’Connor. While Tommy was asked by the leaders of the Irish Republican Brotherhood to abandon his solicitors apprenticeship, John qualified ten years after the Rising and went on to have a very successful practice on Upper Ormond Quay. Tommy worked for the Cunard line and was on board the Carpathia when it went to the rescue of the Titanic, receiving a bronze medal for his actions that night. He eventually became an officer in the NY office of the Chilean Government.

The story of both men, including their role in the 1913 Howth gun-running incident, John’s relief at being protected from a hostile Dublin crowd after the Rising, and Tommy’s intelligence work for Michael Collins in the War of Independence, is detailed by Lorcan Roche.

• See the January/February 2016 Gazette.

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