CENSUS 1926: George O'Connor was youngest of family when census was taken

National Archives Centenarian Ambassador from Dunsany celebrates 103rd birthday

While his family is one of the oldest in Dunsany, George O’Connor has only recently returned to live in the old homestead in recent years, having been born, grown up and spent all of his working, and most of his retired life in Dublin.

Last week, George, who is one of Meath’s Centenarian Ambassadors for Census 1926, celebrated his 103rd birthday in his father’s family cottage in Killeen, with his family and carers.

His own entry on the 1926 Census is as a two-year-old living on Pearse Steet, Dublin, where his father was a member of the Fire Service. George was living with his three siblings, and his parents, John and Sarah. John’s entry is given as a ‘Fireman’ with the ‘Fire Brigade’, employed by Dublin Corporation. He is listed as a native of Smithstown, Co Meath, which is beside the Killeen Glebe farm.

However, there were strange - and inaccurate - changes made to the O’Connor’s census return by the enumerator, James O’Neill, which must have been done after John O’Connor signed the form. George just had one sister, Kathleen, who was also a regular visitor to Killeen over her lifetime, but the census form clearly shows his two brothers entries as schoolboys erased, and replaced as schoolgirls for some reason. They have been changed from sons to daughters, and called Jane and Josie instead of Jack and James. Jack died at the outbreak of World War II on a merchant navy ship after it was torpedoed.

George is named after his maternal grandfather, George Watt, from Peebles, outside Edinburgh in Scotland, an industrialist who came to Ireland. One of his company’s big contracts was to install machines to operate the Guinness brewery in Dublin.

George’s father, John, met his future wife, Sarah Watt, when working a driver for the Leenane Hotel in Galway, bringing passengers to and from the famous Maam Cross railway station. By 1913, he had been headhunted to join Dublin Fire Brigade at Tara Street Station, as people with driving experience would have been very rare then. John O’Connor was to spend the rest of his career at Tara Street Station, becoming station officer. When the fatal fire broke out at the Palace Cinema in Navan in 1949, the Meath Chronicle reported how swiftly the fire engine from Dublin reached the blaze. That engine was being driven by John O’Connor.

George himself went into Watt’s Engineering Works, which mainly specialised in steam engines, as an apprentice for five years, and was to spend nine years in the family firm before moving on to Fry Cadbury and Drimnagh Paper Mills. One job he recalls from Watts was having to travel to Elliott’s Mill in Navan to fix the boiler, as its pipes were affected by limestone in the water.

“We spent two weeks in digs in Navan, there was no travelling up and down those days. Watts had a car but this was a bigger job so we had to stay in the town.”

Working with Irish American Pipes concrete pipes and products, he was based in Africa for a number of years, and had even learned Swahili at Trinity College, Dublin, before travelling there.

His letters home to his mother of his work and time there are a treasure trove of family history and an insight into colonial Britain.

It’s not often somebody can say that doing the football pools led to marriage, but in George’s case, this was the case, as on his return from Africa, he sought out an old Dublin workmate to whom he owed money for his pools subscription. When he eventually located this man, he was married, and his wife’s sister happened to be there that evening. George offered to drive this sister home. That was in December, and by the following August, he and Nuala Geoghegan were married. George took part in track cycling competitions as a young man, enjoying some success.

They settled in Irishtown, Dublin, while George was self-employed for a period. Then, returning to Watts, he became a foreman in the workshop, before becoming managing director. A family of two daughters and two sons followed - Leslie, Derek, Ashley, and Niall.

In recent years, George’s daughter, Leslie, and her husband, Johnny, restored and extended the old family home in Killeen, where George moved to after the passing of Nuala in November 2020. The O’Connor family living in Killeen in 1926, according to the census, were George’s grandfather James, aged 73, a retired groom for horse owner Mr Alexander of Smithstown, and his sons, Patrick, (29) who was a motor driver for Dr John Murnane, and Joseph (27), a motor driver for Thomas Hobbs, building contractor.

The Story of Us: Census 1926 is a landmark exhibition marking this historic release of census records, hosted by Meath County Archive at Meath County Council for the National Archives.

It explores the world reflected in the census and reveals what life was like in 1926: in towns and cities, across rural communities and islands, from crowded urban tenements to the mansions of the aristocracy.

Using contemporary documents and photographs, audio‑visual displays, and — at its heart — the census returns themselves, the exhibition presents a vivid portrait of Ireland a century ago. Visitors will encounter stories of work and daily life, language and culture, sport and entertainment, religion, gender, and the social realities of a newly independent state.

Venue: St Mary’s Community Centre, Trimgate Street, Navan, C15 C8KX.

Saturday 13th June– Sunday 28th June, 9am-5pm.