There is now a John Lawlor Wikipedia site. Lawlor (c.1820-1901) was a prominent sculptor and Irish Nationalist. He was the uncle of James Joseph O’Kelly, the Fenian parliamentarian, and Aloysius O’Kelly, the painter.
Statuary was often used as a hiding place for documents, guns and ammunition.
Lawlor’s London home was a safe meeting place for members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood. Was it here that O’Connor Power kept his private papers?
The location of Lawlor’s bronze bust of O’Connor Power MP (1881) remains unknown.