03/11/2026
On this day in 1880, the Irish sailor, ship builder, architect and nationalist figure, Edward Conor Marshall O'Brien, was born in Cahermoyle House in the west of County Limerick. His father, Edmund William O'Brien was a son of the politician and Young Irelander William Smith O'Brien of Dromoland, County Clare, who had led an uprising in 1848. His mother Julia was a Marshall by birth.
Among his most famous boats were the Kelpie and the Saoirse. The Kelpie was utilised along with the Asgard during the Howth and Kilcoole gunrunnings in 1914 which saw the importation of German armaments into Ireland. His cousin, Mary Spring-Rice, recorded in her diary aboard the Asgard that: "Conor had taken 600 ri**es and 20,000 rounds of am******on." Leaving those on the Asgard with a further 900 ri**es and 29,000 rounds of am******on. Following the gun running, Conor served as a Lieutanant in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve during the First World War. Kelpie was later wrecked off the Scottish coast in 1921.
Having settled in Baltimore, west County Cork, Conor built his new 42 foot 20 tonne ketch, the Saoirse. He would achieve many records on this yacht as for the next two years and some 40,000 miles he circumnavigated the world by sea being the first to do so going east to west. He was the first Irishman to do this and would be the first to pass south of the Capes of Good Hope (South Africa), Leeuwin (Western Australia) and Horn (Chile) in a pleasure craft. While in the Falklands, local mariners rebuilt a trading ketch inspired by Saoirse which O'Brien then christened the Ilen after a river in Cork.
He returned to Ireland in 1925 sailing into Dun Laoghaire having gone across the world flying the Irish tricolour on the Saoirse. He married the painter Kathleen Clausen in 1928, she predeceased him in 1936. Conor lived as a recluse on Foynes Island, west Limerick from this time and died there in 1952 - he is buried in Mount Trenchard cemetary.
The maritime section of our museum holds a number of artifacts related to Conor and his boats.
Department of Culture, Communications and Sport
