Pat O'Brien (Irish politician)

He trained as a mechanical and marine engineer but subsequently moved to Liverpool where he set up a business as a coal merchant.

He became known to Charles Stewart Parnell, who chose him as candidate for North Monaghan at a by-election in February 1886 after Timothy Healy, who had won the seat in 1885, elected to sit for South Londonderry.

He went to catch the steamer for Ireland without returning home for his coat, but borrowed one which was several sizes too large from a friend he met in the street.

He always had a camera with him on Land League campaigns, and took photographs of scenes of eviction which he exhibited on a barge in the Thames opposite the House of Commons to members on the Terrace and crowds on Westminster Bridge.

At the following election in 1892 the Parnellites did not contest North Monaghan, where a split in the Nationalist vote would probably have given the seat to the Unionist candidate.

Stephen Gwynn recorded of Redmond at O'Brien's funeral that 'Then, and then only in his lifetime people saw him publicly break down; he had to be led away from the grave'.