Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan

For the Australian Judge, see Thomas O'Hagan (Australian judge).

The Right Honourable The Lord O'Hagan KP, PC, QC
Lord O'Hagan, c. 1868.
Lord Chancellor of Ireland
In office 1868–1874
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	Abraham Brewster
Succeeded by	In commission
In office 1880–1881
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	William Ewart Gladstone
Preceded by	John Thomas Ball
Succeeded by	Hugh Law
Personal details
Born	29 May 1812 Belfast
Died	1 February 1885 Hereford House, London
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal

Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan KP, PC, QC (29 May 1812 – 1 February 1885), was an Irish lawyer and judge. He served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland from 1868 to 1874 and again from 1880 to 1881.

Background and education

O'Hagan was born in Belfast, the son of a trader. He was educated at Royal Belfast Academical Institution, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1836.

Career

Between 1838 and 1841 O'Hagan was the editor of the Newry Examiner.^[1] In 1840 he moved to Dublin, where he appeared for the repeal party in many political trials, becoming an Irish Queen's Counsel in 1849. His advocacy of a continuance of the Union with Great Britain, and his appointment as Solicitor-General for Ireland in 1860 and Attorney-General for Ireland in the following year, lost him the support of the Nationalist party, but he was returned to Parliament as Liberal Member of Parliament for Tralee in 1863.^[2] In 1865 he was appointed a judge of common pleas, and in 1868 became Lord Chancellor of Ireland in William Ewart Gladstone's first administration.

O'Hagan was the first Roman Catholic to hold the chancellorship since the reign of James II, an Act of Parliament admitting Roman Catholics to the position having been passed in 1867. In 1870 he was created Baron O'Hagan, of Tullahogue in the County of Tyrone,^[3] and held office until the resignation of the ministry in 1874. In 1880 he again became Lord Chancellor on Gladstone's return to office, but resigned in 1881.

On his retirement from office Lord O'Hagan was in 1882 appointed a Knight of St Patrick, having become Vice Chancellor of the Royal University of Ireland the previous year.

Personal life

Lord O'Hagan died at Hereford House, London, in February 1885, aged 72, and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. He was succeeded in the barony by his eldest son, Thomas. The Liberal Unionist editor of the Belfast Norther Whig, Thomas Macknight, who had been a personal friend of O'Hagan, states in his memoir ULSTER AS IT IS (London, 1896) that he believed O'Hagan would have opposed Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule had he not died when he did. O'Hagan's sister Mary was Abbess of the Poor Clare convent at Newry and later at Kenmare. Her biography was written by her protege MF Cusack "the Nun of Kenmare".

References

1. ^  "Thomas O'Hagan". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
2. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "T" (part 2)
3. ^ London Gazette: no. 23624. p. 2957. 14 June 1870.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Lord O'Hagan

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Daniel O'Connell, Jnr	Member of Parliament for Tralee 1863–1865	Succeeded by Daniel O'Donoghue
Legal offices
Preceded by Rickard Deasy	Solicitor-General for Ireland 1860–1861	Succeeded by James Anthony Lawson
Preceded by Rickard Deasy	Attorney-General for Ireland 1861–1865	Succeeded by James Anthony Lawson
Political offices
Preceded by Abraham Brewster	Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1868–1874	Succeeded by (in commission)
Preceded by John Thomas Ball	Lord Chancellor of Ireland 1880–1881	Succeeded by Hugh Law
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation	Baron O'Hagan 1870–1885	Succeeded by Thomas Towneley O'Hagan