Dictionary of National Biography, 1927 supplement/O'Brien, Peter
O'BRIEN, PETER, Baron O’Brien, of Kilfenora (1842–1914), lord chief justice of Ireland, the fifth son of John O'Brien, of Ballynalacken, co. Clare, M.P. for Limerick 1841–1852, by his wife, Ellen, daughter of Jeremiah Murphy, of Hyde Park, co. Cork, was born at Carnelly House, co. Clare, 29 June 1842. Educated at Clongowes and Trinity College, Dublin, he was called to the Irish bar in 1865, and schooled soundly in law through ‘devilling’ for a great jurist, Christopher Palles (afterwards chief baron, q.v.), and acting as registrar for his uncle, Mr. Justice James O'Brien. Joining the Munster circuit, he soon achieved distinction by cross-examinations instinct with knowledge of the Irish character. He contested Clare unsuccessfully in the whig interest in 1879, and took silk in 1880.
Ireland was then in distraction, crime served politics, English and Irish members frequented trials for agrarian and insurrectionary offences, and distorted them on the platform and in parliament. Every judge was under police protection, prosecutors were pursued by calumny and intimidation, and required courage, firmness, and judgement. These qualities O'Brien possessed pre-eminently. Retained by the Crown in all important cases, he was rapidly promoted serjeant (1884), solicitor-general (1887), attorney-general (1888). His attorney-generalship was historic. Mr. Arthur Balfour had become chief secretary in March 1887, and in July a Crimes Act was passed to counter the conspiracies then paralysing Ireland. O'Brien's administration of it restored the reign of law. His sagacity, patience, and fearlessness revived confidence. He worked indefatigably himself and chose his lieutenants well. The discreet power of Edward Carson (afterwards Lord Carson) found a complement in the astute erudition of Stephen Ronan (afterwards lord justice). Failure was unknown, though, where possible, every prosecution was tested microscopically on appeal. Peace ensued, and the way was clear for Balfour's regenerative measures when, in 1889, O'Brien became lord chief justice.
The great attorney-general proved a great chief justice, enhancing during twenty-four years the high traditions of that office. An atmosphere of dignified power distinguished his court. Penetrating to essentials, dispelling irrelevancies, he chiselled argument with common sense to sound decision. Urbane and humorous, knowing intimately the Irish human being, he won the confidence of juries by his rectitude and leniency. The bar and public regarded him with admiring affection. Massive, genial, hospitable, a fine conversationalist and many-sided sportsman, happiest in the hunting field, he was a thorough Irishman. He retired in 1913, having been created a baronet in 1891 and raised to the peerage in 1900. He died without male issue at Stillorgan, co. Dublin, 7 September 1914. He had lived down the propagandist misrepresentations which aspersed his earlier career, the expletives were dropped by his critics, and the best criterion of his popularity and personality is that Irishmen knew him best, not as the lord chief justice, nor as Lord O'Brien, but as ‘Peter’.
O'Brien, who was a Roman Catholic, married in 1867 Annie, daughter of Robert Hare Clarke, J.P., of Bansha, co. Tipperary, by whom he had two daughters.
[Hon. Georgina O'Brien, Reminiscences of the Right Honourable Lord O'Brien, 1916; F. Elrington Ball, The Judges in Ireland, 1221–1921, vol. ii, 1926; professional and personal knowledge.]