her political views, Brodrick remained a member of the Church of Ireland and played the harmonium in the church in Sneem. She continued to operate a co-operative shop in Caherdaniel. She lived a very frugal life, reputedly wearing the same pair of boots for seventeen years.13 Albinia Brodrick died at the age of ninety-three at her south Kerry home on 16 January 1955. In her will, she left most of her wealth (£17,000) to republicans ‘as they were in the years 1919 to 1921’. The vagueness of her bequest led to legal wrangles for decades. In February 1979, Mr Justice Seán Gannon ruled that the bequest was ‘void for remoteness’ as it was impossible to determine which republican faction met her criteria.14
3
‘Castleisland swam in porter … and drunkenness prevailed’
The Councillor Unseated for Plying Voters with Drink
When proceedings began at the courthouse in Castleisland at one o’clock on a warm summer afternoon in 1908, the room was described as being ‘packed to suffocating point and the windows had to be thrown open’.1 A large crowd, including several journalists, had gathered to hear a series of dramatic and sensational charges against the recently re-elected county councillor, John Kerry O’Connor, who was being accused by his election opponent, Denis J. Reidy, of winning his seat in the Castleisland Electoral Division by illegal and corrupt means. Among the charges brought against Councillor O’Connor were ‘bribery, corruption and intimidation of the greatest character, general treating, public houses kept open in every part of the constituency, and free drinks supplied’ to voters during the election campaign. The presiding magistrate, Commissioner Maxwell, was told that, because of the way O’Connor had procured many of the votes he received, Reidy was seeking his unseating by order of the court. Reidy also wanted the result of the recent election to Kerry County Council held in the Castleisland Electoral Division to be declared void. John Kerry – better known as J.K. – O’Connor was a prominent Castleisland businessman and a Justice of the Peace who presided over the Petty Sessions court hearings in the district. Ironically, given what was to follow, O’Connor had presided over a court hearing in which fourteen men were charged in connection with a brawl in Ranalough near Currow during the 1906 parliamentary election campaign which resulted in an electioneer and a local constable sustaining injuries.2
O’Connor was no political novice. He had been a member of the Tralee Board of Guardians and was elected a member of the first Kerry County Council in April 1899, representing the single-seat electoral division of Castleisland. In that poll, there had been a contest for the only seat available. Redmond Roche of Maglass, also a Justice of the Peace, had been declared elected by a margin of just three votes. An immediate recount sought by O’Connor produced the same result: 469 for Roche and 466 for O’Connor. On the day after the count, however, a ballot paper was found on the floor of the Grand Jury Room in Tralee where voting had occurred. A recount was sought again and all the ballots were examined by the local Under Sheriff T.C. Goodman and legal representatives. The newly discovered paper was found to be valid, as it bore the official stamp. O’Connor was duly elected with one vote to spare over Roche.3 O’Connor was a high-profile supporter of John Murphy, MP for East Kerry, in his political battles with his nemesis, Eugene O’Sullivan. The court hearing was told that O’Connor was a man of influence: a draper, a meal and flour merchant, a creamery proprietor and auctioneer who ‘had business dealings with the great bulk of the electorate, a great many of whom were deep in his books’.4
O’Connor retained his seat in the council elections of 1902 and 1905. He served on several local authority committees, including the Asylum Committee, and was a member of the Tralee and Fenit Pier and Harbour Commissioners. At the 1908 poll which has held on 3 June, O’Connor was challenged, however, for the single seat on offer by another local businessman, Denis J. Reidy. Reidy was active in the Irish Land and Labour Association and had strong political support in the division. O’Connor prevailed by 555 votes to Reidy’s 525 and he was declared elected by the returning officer, Maurice Moynihan. Reidy moved immediately to have the result declared void. The losing candidate believed that he had sufficient evidence to prove that the victor had achieved the result by illegal means. The court petition led to a sensational ten-day court hearing in which Castleisland was portrayed as being drowned in alcohol on a bacchanalian scale and rife with bribery, intimidation and political corruption. It was little wonder that the courthouse was packed to capacity as the court case began.
***
Petitioning the courts to have the result of an election declared void was nothing new in Kerry or elsewhere – though none of the previous cases involved such a catalogue of porter-induced skulduggery at the polling stations. At the 1910 general election, for example, John Murphy, who was strongly supported by J.K. O’Connor, petitioned to unseat the winning candidate, Eugene O’Sullivan, the East Kerry MP, alleging vote rigging, personation and intimidation and the election was declared void. The 1911 local elections saw a former chairman of Kerry County Council, St John Donovan, petition for the unseating of Tralee publican, Thomas Healy, who had beaten him to the seat in the Ardfert division. The court heard charges of ‘an orgie [sic] of perjury’ as allegations of treating voters on the roadside and supplying drink to voters at a dance were made against Healy. Healy’s barrister was the Irish Parliamentary Party MP Timothy Healy, who said that there had been a ‘collusion of perjury between Mr Donovan’s relatives’ and remarked that ‘in this instance, it was not Satan reproving sin but Bacchus reproving booze’.5 The court declared Thomas Healy’s election, however, to be null and void.
***
‘Intimidation of the greatest character’
The Castleisland case opened on Tuesday, 25 August 1908, at Castleisland courthouse before Commissioner Maxwell. Denis J. Reidy, the petitioner, was represented by his solicitor, David Roche, instructing Serjeant John Francis (J.F.) Moriarty, King’s Counsel – from Mallow and well known in political circles – and junior counsel Bernard Roche. J.K. O’Connor, the respondent, was represented by solicitor R.C. Meredith, who instructed A.M. Sullivan, King’s Counsel (later a member of Sir Roger Casement’s defence team when he was tried for treason in 1916) and E.J. (Ned) McElligott, his junior (later a Circuit Court judge; his family owned the Listowel Arms Hotel). The returning officer for the poll was Maurice Moynihan, who was represented in court by Joseph Mangan, solicitor. The court heard allegations that J.K. O’Connor had won his seat on the county council by bribing voters, supplying them with drink and intimidating them into supporting him. Barrels of porter had been placed at polling stations and Reidy’s election rallies were disrupted by personation and ‘gross rowdyism’. O’Connor’s wife, Hanoria, was one of his principal and ‘most active’ agents. She had distributed whiskey to voters on the canvass and had driven many voters to the polls on polling day. One voter alleged that she had received a shilling from Mrs O’Connor in return for a promise to vote for her husband. A few days before polling, witness Jeremiah McMahon described being canvassed by the O’Connors:
J.K. and his wife went into the house. He asked for a vote, and witness said he would give it to him. ‘He asked me on the road would I take a drink of whiskey … and I said I would. Mrs J.K. was there. I drank out of a tumbler with a handle on it. Mr O’Connor filled out the whiskey and I drank it.’ (Laughter). That was about the 26 May.
‘Terrorism’ of O’Connor’s supporters
The second day of the case opened with the sensational claim, made by Denis Reidy’s counsel Serjeant Moriarty, that on leaving the courthouse the previous evening, ‘three witnesses for the petitioner were beaten’ and subjected to ‘terrorism’ by O’Connor’s supporters. A man had been arrested and the commissioner warned that there could be no repetition of such behaviour. The long line of witnesses continued. Before voting at Knocknagoshel, witness Timothy Warren claimed to have been offered a ‘quarter of ground free for the year’ by an associate of O’Connor’s. Another man, Thomas Leane, claimed to have been offered a free return ticket to America. Several witnesses reported receiving but not
