The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-02-25
INTERESTING INTERVIEW WITH THE,
MEMBER FOR LIVERPOOL.
7. P. o'cOHRoa, THE NOTED JOURNALIST
HE BELIEVES IN 4 PARLIAMENT IN
IRELAND'S CAPITAL.
B|0GRAPHER OF PARnELL AND DlSRAELI
HOME RULE TO BECOME INEVITABLE
WHEN PARTIES AGREE.

One of the London correspondents
gives the following account of an in
view with Y. p. OCcnnor, NJ. p, on the
question of home rule for Ireland:
Home rule, which went into a decline
the day Parnel! met Kitty O'Shea, and
which went down into the grave with
that cold politician. is going to be rrsur-
rected at the session of parliament just
opened and is going to be kept alive
hereafter, unless the present good in
tentions Of the Irish Natonalists ful.
One OF the most interesting and broad
minded of those Nationalists is Thomas
Power O'Connor NJ p, and likewise m.
A. P.,' journalist. bographer of Parncll
and BeaconsilclG, and founder of news
papers. Mr. O'Connor is one of the
most approachable men in parliament,
and II is not excessively difficult to get
into his inner sanctum at the office of his
latest journalistic enterprise, IN. a. P,"
which, being interpreted. means MAINLY
About People, The Offices are II
stones throw from Trafalgar square,
and are guarded by pretcrnaturaliy
small boy. whose dignity is even greater
than that of his employer.
Mr.. OConnor is universally known as
"Tay Pay" but that hardly does Justice
to his brogue, of which you can catch an
infection only now and then, and which
is marked just strongly enough to lend
charm to his conversation. Yet it is re-
lated that after talking into Il phono-
graph for the first time, and upon hear
ing his voice. reproduced, he exclaimed
with some alarm, Good gracious, have I
a brogue like that?"
He usually dresses in the sobcrcst
black, even to his satin four-in-hand but
there is fun enough in his brown eye to
prevent any suggestion of somhcrncss
and would give II good account of him
self if the occasion arose. When asked
him if ii had ever arisen. he laughed and
said no" He is not one of the fighting
1IlSHIlltH. ne Is HloIc SllIcWu ANA
worldly than the other Nationalist lead
ers. and is the only one of them who
goes much into London society, although
he told me he had never met the prince
of Wales-an individual who, by the
way, MIR. O'Connor seemed to think was
better disposed toward Erin than he gem
orally iS rrplitp1 with hpipp
A fluent, not to say multiloquont, OBJ
server of Mr.. O'Connor recently publish
ed Il sketch of him. The Introduction to
that sketch is especially interesting, be-
cause the subject of it pointed il out to
me and said it was all right:
Most people know II. P.,' but few are
acquainted with r. p. O'Connor. 'T. p
is an open secret, an emotional organiZl-
tion, an entity that is public as st.
Paul's; ~ p reads his history in the
nations eyes; the door of his personality
is wide open all the day like that Of a
seaside boarding house in the summer;
he is forever frank on the ills and
achievements OF himself and humanity
through the whole expansive gamut
from dietary to doom; but r. =. O'Con-
nor is shrinking and uncommunicatvc
individual. 'T. r. is an acting drama,
coherent, simple, and preserving all the
unities; II. p. O'Conor is fortuitous
concoursc of contradictions; an Irish
man with an aversion to potatoes; an, NJ.
A. who dcspiScs the classics; a skcptic
who is sllpcrsttous Il WiStful pagan IL
polished, political pcpys, with a dash Of
Launcelot; renlist who admits that he
has got his guiding notions of life from
the pages OF fiction; finally a hlmani-
tartan who has snbtly turned ON into
Ego. ...
TRAINED in the Queens college, Gal
way, he began his London journalistic
career on the Daily Telegraph, resigned
early, and was sorry for 1t, because he
starved and studied wistfully, as he
says, the windows OF sausage shops
through n melancholy procession of un-
bcfricndcd days. He Scribblcd his slash
ing study of DisraGli upon odd scraps of
wrapping paper, got it published, and
made a leap into the light. Drifting
deeper into politics, he was attracted to
Parncll and Biggar in the period when
obstruction was king, and at last entered
parliament as member for Galway in
1880"
in the opinion of Mr.. O'Connor, and OF
other members of parliament, the home
rule question is going to assume an i'm
portance in this session that it has not
had before since the Unionsts an
nounced in 1896 that homo rule was
dead. Oddly enough, it is to the Union
lists themselves, as much as to their old
Liberal allies, that the Irishmcn look for
aid The house of lords would pass a
homerule measure for the Unionis,s
when they wouldn't do 1t for the Lib
erals. Besides. home rule is not one