O’Connor Power died shortly after de Valera’s escape from Lincoln Jail. Just over thirty years later, in early October 1950, de Valera returned to the prison as a distinguished guest. The Anti-Partition of Ireland League (Great Britain) hosted a dinner for the Irish leader at the Saracen’s hotel in Lincoln, and the local newspaper, the Lincolnshire Echo, recorded the event.
O’Connor Power’s great-nephew, Russell Stanford, welcomes Dev.
De Valera had a long and close relationship with Blackrock College. Russell was educated there alongside de Valera’s sons.
The future Archbishop, John Charles McQuaid, taught latin and greek to Russell and his brother, Cuthbert. Both boys won the classics entrance award to Trinity College Dublin. They went on to study medicine in UCD.
Russell had one of the first two NHS group practices in the UK. His home, Donaghadee, was an ‘open house’, renowned for generous hospitality. See Russell’s obituary in the British Medical Journal.
See Page ‘Dev and Lincoln Jail’.
Archive of the Irish in Britain