O’Connor Power’s uncle, John Power, a tenant farmer, had a keen interest in politics* and the Power family was close to Nationalist leader, Matt Harris. Patrick Power, O’Connor Power’s father, worked in Ballinasloe, and the family has been described as ‘middle class’. Did Harris swear O’Connor Power into the Irish Republican Brotherhood before he left for Lancashire in 1860?
In February 2008, I gave a talk in Ballinasloe library. The retired National School teacher, Mattie Ganly, RIP, approached me, saying, ‘I always told my students about O’Connor Power.’
*See Post Property Valuation, 7 December 2012.