
Owen O'Shea
Author, Historian, Researcher of Irish Politics and Irish History
Member of Irish Association of Professional Historians
Member of Political Studies Association of Ireland
PRO of Kerry Archaeological and Historical Society
Latest Article from my Blog

The TD who was too young to vote for herself
The extraordinary and dramatic story of the 1956 by-election in Kerry North and the candidate who was too young to vote for herself When the Clann na Poblachta TD for Kerry North, Johnny Connor (O’Connor) was killed in a road accident between Castleisland and Abbeyfeale just two weeks before Christmas 1955, it led to the only by-election ever held in that constituency. Connor, from Farmer’s Bridge near Tralee, had won a seat for the party
Blog Articles
Occasional meanderings and insights into Kerry’s past with a focus on electioneering, election results, key political figures, political culture, and the dramatic ups and downs of politics in the county over the past century.

The TD who was too young to vote for herself
The extraordinary and dramatic story of the 1956 by-election in Kerry North and the candidate who was too young to vote for herself When the Clann na Poblachta TD for

“They are all Free State girls”: the shocking killing of a young Kerry woman in September 1923
Twenty-two-year-old Johanna (Hannah) O’Connor had not a care in the world and was in ‘the midst of gaiety’ as she made her way home from a dance in Glenbeigh on

The Kerry plot to assassinate Eoin O’Duffy
The Blueshirts, a quasi-fascist organisation in the 1930s, had a small but active presence in County Kerry during 1933 and 1934. Their bombastic leader, Eoin O’Duffy was the subject of