Dictionary of Irish Architects 1720 - 1940

Architect, of Dublin. Brendan O'Connor, a son of the building contractor and nationalist activist, Batt O'Connor, of Donnybrook, Dublin, was born in 1911 and attended Castleknock College. He studied architecture at University College, Dublin, from 1930 to 1935, and was a founder member of the college Architectural Society. After leaving college, he spent a year in London, working first for the London County Council and then with a small design team acting for a developer. He had established an office at 34 Dame Street by 1939,(1) but designed no significant buildings until after the war. He died in 1986, survived by his wife, Eileen, née Devlin, two daughters and three sons, the eldest of whom, David, also became an architect.

O'Connor's practice was a small, but varied, one. Works singled out for mention by John O' Gorman in his obituary, are a small church at Rosgoill, Co. Donegall,(2) a clothing factory at Naas, Co. Kildare, and a spinning factory at Sligo Town,(3) two houses at Carrickmines,(4) flats at Shannon and vocational schools at Kilternan, Co. Dublin, and Garristown, Co. Meath.(5)

RIAI: winner of Institute Prize, 1933;(6) elected member, 1936.(7)

See WORKS, for works up to and including 1940 only.



References

All information in this entry not otherwise accounted for is from the appreciation of O'Connor by Brendan Ellis in the Irish Times, 16 October 1986, from the obituary by John O'Gorman in RIAI Year Book (1990), 65, and from information supplied to Sean Rothery by O'Connor himself (n Jones file O29).

(1) RIAI membership lists.
(2) See Architectural Survey (1955), 10-13(illus.).
(3) For both of these see Architectural Survey (1958), 34-35(illus.).
(4) For one of these, see RIAI Year Book (1949), 30-31(illus.) and Paul Larmour, Free State Architecture:  Modern Movement architecture in Ireland, 1922-1949 (Kinsale: Gandon Editions, 2009), 77,79(illus.).  
(5) For further works see Jones file O29.
(6) JRIAI (1934), 10.
(7) JRIAI (1936), 13.


3 work entries listed in chronological order for O'CONNOR, BRENDAN


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Building: CO. DUBLIN, DALKEY, KNOCKNACREE ROAD, THE WHITE HOUSE
Date: 1937
Nature: New house in International Modern style.
Refs: Paul Larmour, Free State Architecture:  Modern Movement architecture in Ireland, 1922-1949 (Kinsale: Gandon Editions, 2009), 49,52(illus.).

Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUBLIN, BAGGOT STREET UPPER, NO. 036 (WATERLOO HOUSE)
Date: 1938
Nature: New lounge bar in International Modern style.   With Fergus Ryan.
Refs: Paul Larmour, Free State Architecture:  Modern Movement architecture in Ireland, 1922-1949 (Kinsale: Gandon Editions, 2009), 69-70,71(illus.).


Building: CO. DUBLIN, DUNDRUM, J.C. KERINS
Date: 1942a
Nature: Design for public house.
Refs: Shop front illus. in The Bell 4, no. 1 (April 1942), 32 (copy in IAA, RPC.96.5).