Peter O'Brien, 1st Baron O'Brien, PC, QC (29 June 1842 – 7 September 1914), known as Sir Peter O'Brien, Bt, between 1891 and 1900, was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

lawyer and judge. He served as

Lord Chief Justice of Ireland The Court of King's Bench (or Court of Queen's Bench during the reign of a Queen) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The Lord Chief Justice was the most senior judge ...

between 1889 and 1913. In his lifetime he was universally known as ''Peter the Packer,'' due to the skill he displayed as Attorney-General in securing verdicts by packed juries.

Background and education

O'Brien was born at Carnelly House, Clarecastle,

County Clare County Clare ( ga, Contae an Chláir) is a county in Ireland, in the Southern Region and the province of Munster, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council is the local authority. The county had a population of 118,81 ...

Biography
clarelibrary.ie. Accessed 24 December 2022. the fifth son of John O'Brien,

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Limerick Limerick ( ; ga, Luimneach ) is a western city in Ireland situated within County Limerick. It is in the province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region. With a population of 94,192 at the 2016 ...

, and his wife Ellen Murphy, daughter of Jeremiah Murphy of Hyde Park,

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns a ...

. He was a nephew of Mr. Justice James O'Brien of the

Court of King's Bench (Ireland) The Court of King's Bench (of Queen's Bench when the sovereign was female, and formerly of Chief Place or Chief Pleas) was one of the senior courts of common law in Ireland. It was a mirror of the Court of King's Bench in England. The King's Be ...

. He was educated at

Clongowes Wood College Clongowes Wood College SJ is a voluntary boarding school for boys near Clane, County Kildare, Ireland, founded by the Jesuits in 1814, which features prominently in James Joyce's semi-autobiographical novel ''A Portrait of the Artist as a Yo ...

and

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

and was called to the

Irish Bar The Bar of Ireland ( ga, Barra na hÉireann) is the professional association of barristers for Ireland, with over 2,000 members. It is based in the Law Library, with premises in Dublin and Cork. It is governed by the General Council of the Ba ...

in 1865.

Legal and judicial career

O'Brien joined the Munster circuit and built up a successful practice, and in 1880 became a

Queen's Counsel In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a King's Counsel (post-nominal initials KC) during the reign of a king, or Queen's Counsel (post-nominal initials QC) during the reign of a queen, is a lawyer (usually a barrister o ...

. The following year he was appointed Junior

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Counsel at Green Street,

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, becoming Senior in 1882, and was made a bencher of the King's Inns in 1884. He was one of the principal prosecutors in the

Phoenix Park murders The Phoenix Park Murders were the fatal stabbings of Lord Frederick Cavendish and Thomas Henry Burke in Phoenix Park, Dublin, Ireland, on 6 May 1882. Cavendish was the newly appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland and Burke was the Permanen ...

, and it is said that his life was threatened as a result. He unsuccessfully stood for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

as the

candidate for

in 1879: his defeat is said to have been due to his opposition to

Irish Home Rule The Irish Home Rule movement was a movement that campaigned for self-government (or "home rule") for Ireland within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It was the dominant political movement of Irish nationalism from 1870 to the e ...

. In 1887 O'Brien was appointed

Solicitor-General for Ireland The Solicitor-General for Ireland was the holder of an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office. The holder was a deputy to the Attorney-General for Ireland, and advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. On ra ...

, becoming

Attorney-General for Ireland The Attorney-General for Ireland was an Irish and then (from the Act of Union 1800) United Kingdom government office-holder. He was senior in rank to the Solicitor-General for Ireland: both advised the Crown on Irish legal matters. With the ...

and an Irish Privy Counsellor the following year. He was finally appointed

in 1889, holding the office for 24 years. As Attorney General he was considered to be a highly efficient civil servant; even

Arthur Balfour Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, (, ; 25 July 184819 March 1930), also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the ...

, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, who thought poorly of most of the Irish Law Officers who served under him, praised O'Brien for his hard work. He showed great skill in "packing" juries in politically sensitive cases with jurors who could be trusted to convict, thus earning the nickname "Peter the Packer", which stuck to him all his life. Opinions on his judicial ability vary. A. M. Sullivan wrote that as a pupil of the great Chief Baron

Christopher Palles Christopher Palles (25 December 1831 – 14 February 1920) was an Irish barrister, Solicitor-General, Attorney-General and a judge for over 40 years. His biographer, Vincent Thomas Hyginus Delany, described him as "the greatest of the Irish judg ...

he must have learned the principles of

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

but, though intelligent, he was generally too lazy to apply them. Palles himself is said to have remarked of one of O'Brien's judgments "you never learned that law from me!". However, his judgement in ''R. (Bridgeman) v. Drury''

894 __NOTOC__ Year 894 ( DCCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Byzantine–Bulgarian War: Stylianos Zaoutzes, leading minister and ...

2 I.R. 489 where he refused to allow the members of

Dublin Corporation Dublin Corporation (), known by generations of Dubliners simply as ''The Corpo'', is the former name of the city government and its administrative organisation in Dublin since the 1100s. Significantly re-structured in 1660-1661, even more sign ...

to charge the ratepayers of Dublin for a particularly lavish picnic, is still often quoted both for its legal principle and its remarkable wit and humour. His judgment in ''Ussher v Ussher'' (1912), on whether a

marriage Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between ...

conducted according to the

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rite can be valid if there is only one witness to it, has also been praised as "careful and erudite." Hr was notoriously susceptible to female charms: it was said that a pretty young lady was generally treated as a conclusive witness for whichever side she appeared. He was created a

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...

, of Merrion Square in the County of the City of Dublin, on 28 September 1891, and was ennobled as Baron O'Brien, of

Kilfenora Kilfenora ( ga, Cill Fhionnúrach , meaning 'Church of the Fertile Hillside' or 'Church of the White Brow') is a village and a civil parish in County Clare, Ireland. It is situated south of the karst limestone region known as the Burren. S ...

in the

County A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

of Clare, in 1900.

Personal life

Lord O'Brien married Annie Clarke, daughter of Robert Hare Clarke of

Bansha Bansha () is a village in County Tipperary in Ireland. The village is part of the parish of "Bansha and Kilmoyler" (united in 1858) in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly. It is in the historical barony of Clanwilliam. Bansha i ...

Castle,

County Tipperary County Tipperary ( ga, Contae Thiobraid Árann) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. The county is named after the town of Tipperary, and was established in the early 13th century, shortly after t ...

and his second wife Anne Butler in 1867 and had three children: James, who died young, Ellen (who died in 1930) and Anne Georgina. His only son having predeceased him, he died without male heirs at Airfield, Stillorgan,

County Dublin "Action to match our speech" , image_map = Island_of_Ireland_location_map_Dublin.svg , map_alt = map showing County Dublin as a small area of darker green on the east coast within the lighter green background of ...

on 7 September 1914, his barony and baronetcy thus becoming extinct. His daughter, Annie Georgina O'Brien, published an affectionate memoir of her father a few years after his death. His main personal foibles were his refusal to wear the judicial

wig A wig is a head or hair accessory made from human hair, animal hair, or synthetic fiber. The word wig is short for periwig, which makes its earliest known appearance in the English language in William Shakespeare's ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona' ...

, and a lisp so pronounced that it often made his remarks from the Bench difficult to follow. Maurice Healy in his own memoir ''The Old Munster Circuit'' described O'Brien as a man of considerable legal ability and great natural kindness, who was deservedly very popular. On the other hand, he was rather vain and self-important, and inclined to stand on the dignity of his office.Healy, Maurice ''The Old Munster Circuit'' London Michael Joseph Ltd. (1939)

Arms

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrien, Peter Obrien, 1st Baron 1842 births 1914 deaths Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom Irish barristers Solicitors-General for Ireland Attorneys-General for Ireland Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Lords chief justice of Ireland Serjeants-at-law (Ireland) Irish Queen's Counsel Peers of the United Kingdom created by Queen Victoria