John O'Connor Power

thumb|The mules of politics: without pride of ancestry, or hope of posterity. John O'Connor Power (13 February 1846 – 21 February 1919) was an Irish Fenian and a Home Rule League and Irish Parliamentary Party politician and as MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland represented Mayo from June 1874 to 1885. From 1881, he practised as a barrister specialising in criminal law and campaigning for penal reform. Attributed He was, I believe, the real author of a phrase which was sometimes attributed to me, that the Liberal Unionists were "the mules of politics: without pride of ancestry, or hope of posterity." H. H. Asquith, Memories and Reflections, vol. 1 (London: Cassell & Co., 1928), ch. 16, p. 123. But see Joseph McCabe, Life and Letters of George Jacob Holyoake, vol. 2 (London: Watts & Co., 1908), p. 202: "She [Mme. Venturi] gladly repeats to Holyoake a mayor of Dublin's description of the Liberal Unionists as "the mules of politics: with neither pride of ancestry nor hope of posterity"—really, a quotation from Lloyd Garrison." External links Category:Politicians from Ireland Category:Lawyers from Ireland Category:1846 births Category:1919 deaths