Showing 7 results

Authority record
Solicitor

Bacon; Tom

O'Connor's Solicitors, Clare Street, Dublin

Brenan, Henry F.

  • Person
  • b. 1886

Henry Francis Brenan was born in Dublin of a County Kilkenny family from Eden Hall, Ballyragget and qualified a solicitor in 1907. He was the son of a solicitor and was apprenticed to R. M. McNamara, a Dublin solicitor. After upwards of three years with McNamara, Mr Brenan came to Tullamore in 1910. In 1914 he became a partner with George Hoey in the firm of Hoey & Denning, Tullamore. At aged 30, Brenan was duly appointed on 27 July 1916 to hold the combined offices of crown solicitor and sessional crown solicitor. In October 1921 Brenan’s resignation as crown solicitor in before the Treaty was under duress from the IRA or it may have been self-serving in that he was under pressure to give up the town clerkship of Tullamore Urban District Council if he did not resign the crown solicitorship. This arose out of a Dáil Eireann letter to the council and, after mid-1920, Sinn Féin instructions to all councils not to co-operate with British institutions of government.

Ennis, James A.

  • Person
  • d. 1983

James A. Ennis (NUI) (E 1925), a native of Rhode, County Offaly, was educated at Mount St Joseph, Roscrea and later at University College, Dublin and qualified in 1925. A year later he was admitted a solicitor taking first place in Ireland in his final examination. He took over the Rogers practice on James Rogers being appointed county registrar in 1926. James Ennis became a member of the Tullamore Urban District Council in 1932 and later its chairman. Like his father he became a member of Offaly County Council representing Fianna Fáil of which he was a committed member. He was appointed county registrar for Offaly in September 1943 when his old partner, James Rogers decided to give up the registrarship and return to private practice. Prominent in bridge circles he was also a foundation member of the Offaly Archaeological and Historical Society and was its treasurer for many years. James A. Ennis died in March 1983 and is buried at Rhode cemetery. He had retired from the position of county registrar in 1971 but went back into private practice at his residence for a few years following his retirement as county registrar.

Goodbody, Lewis

  • Person
  • 1866-1933

Lewis Goodbody was a son of Lewis Frederick, one of the five sons of Robert of Mountmellick, and was born at Clara in 1866 and died there at Drayton Villa on 8 January 1933, aged 66. He was educated at Birkdale, Lancashire and at Trinity College, Dublin from where he graduated in 1887. He joined the firm of Tisdall & Goodbody, later Goodbody and Tisdall, then of 15 Dame Street and Tullamore on qualifying as a solicitor in 1891. In 1893 he was active in the campaign to save the union and defeat the Gladstone home rule bill and was hon. secretary to an anti-home rule demonstration in Tullamore. Tisdall was pushed out in 1901 and the new firm of A & L Goodbody commenced in 1902. Lewis Goodbody was a keen sportsman with a strong interest in cricket and motoring. He was an original member of the Irish Automobile Club and his firm were the solicitors to the Irish Dunlop Company’s stock exchange prospectus in 1899. Goodbody lived in Kilcoursey, Clara throughout his life and what with inherited wealth and business acumen his establishment was able to support a governess, a cook and a parlour maid. Lewis Goodbody died at Clara at the age of 66 and was buried at the Friends Burial Ground, Clara. He was survived by his wife, Edith Lisetta Pim and two daughters and one son. The latter spent much of his time in India and died there in 1974.

Kennedy, Kenneth A.

  • Person
  • 1894-1974

Kenneth Arthur Kennedy was the youngest son of Doctor J. M. Prior Kennedy, JP, of Elmfield, Tullamore King’s County, and Anchoretta H. Jacob. He was born on 3 April 1894 and was educated at St Columba’s College and Trinity College. K. A. Kennedy was called to the bar in 1917 and qualified as a solicitor in 1924. He was a solicitor with A & L Goodbody with offices at Dame Street, Dublin, Moate and Tullamore becoming a partner by 1930. Alfred Goodbody had died in 1924 in the same year as Kenneth Kennedy qualified. In 1930 Kenneth Kennedy, Lewis Goodbody and George Acheson Overend acquired the fee simple as joint tenants of premises at High Street, Tullamore held on lease since 1913. Lewis Goodbody died in 1933 and the ownership of the firm was shared between G. O. Overend and Kenneth Arthur Kennedy, but not necessarily in equal shares. In 1947 a new partnership arrangement was entered into between Overend and Kennedy and the following year Kenneth Arthur Kennedy acquired the entire interest in the building at High Street for £800. The A & L Goodbody, Tullamore partnership appears at this time to have comprised of G. A. Overend, Kenneth A. Kennedy and G. G. Overend. The Tullamore building was to serve the Tullamore firm now known as Goodbody & Kennedy until 1989 when the business was sold to Dermot Scanlon by Kenneth C. P. Kennedy. He had been active in the firm up to his death on 9 December 1974 at the age of 80 and had served his clients in Tullamore for fifty years. He married Mary Lawrence in 1924, the same year as he qualified as a solicitor. She was better known locally as Bean Uí Chinnéide and was a keen landscape painter and with her husband a lover of nature. Mr Kennedy’s tombstone at Clonminch fittingly records – /He loved his birds/ and he loved his bible/The word of God/ a Lantern to his feet/. Court tributes were paid to Mr Kennedy by District Justice Tormey at Tullamore district court and on behalf of the solicitors by Mr Eugene Hunt.

Rogers, James

  • Person
  • d. 1967

James Rogers of 12 Lower Ormond Quay, Dublin and Tullamore was admitted a solicitor in March 1907 and was from Aughamore near Knock, County Mayo. After a short period in the Ordnance Survey Office he took up law and served his apprenticeship with the firm of A & L Goodbody at their Tullamore office. He established the firm of Rogers & Company at High Street, Tullamore, a few doors from where he had been trained probably in 1908 or 1909. He was enthusiastic about the Irish language and culture and was prominent in the Gaelic League and was subsequently employed in defending Sinn Féin prisoners connected with the ‘affray’ at Tullamore in March 1916. Rogers was election agent for the Sinn Féin candidates in 1918 and supervised all funds of the republican loan in County Offaly. He was election agent for the ‘Free State party’ in April 1922 and in 1923 was appointed state solicitor for County Offaly, the position of crown solicitor having been disposed with. Rogers resigned in August 1926 on his being appointed first county registrar for County Offaly. He married in April 1944 Miss Mary J (Mollie) O’Donnell, a daughter of Mr J. Rodney O’Donnell OBE and Mrs O’Donnell of 4 Royal Marine Terrace, Bray and the best man was the circuit court judge, William Gleeson. James Rogers retired from the position of county registrar in 1943 and returned to private practice, conveniently switching place with his old colleague, James A. Ennis. The move may have been for economic reasons in view of his impending second marriage. He had taken a keen interest in local history and was the founder of the Offaly Archaeological and Historical Society in 1938. James Rogers died in June 1967 some sixty years after he qualified. His old firm was closed by the Law Society in 1982 following the difficulties experienced by his successor, Eugene Hunt.