John O’Connor Power’s mother was from Roscommon, most probably from Clashaganny, Tulsk, where John was born.
In Finnegans Wake, James Joyce describes ‘O’Colonel Power’ as ‘latterly distented from the O’Conner Dan’. Was John, through his mother, Mary O’Connor, laterally descended from an O’Conor Don, High King of Ireland? Or does Joyce imply he was the spiritual heir to Charles O’Conor Of Belangare?