30/12/2025
MARY (‘The Builder’) O’CONNOR
Mary was a sister of Captain Hugh McGuire, a ship chandler on Commercial Quay and three times Mayor of Wexford from 1892-4. She married Timothy O’Connor, a notable builder of the time. He was responsible for the construction of the Bullring market in 1871.
Having been engaged in the refurbishment of the Franciscan Friary in Wexford, Timothy was working on the roof of the Friary in Waterford when he caught pneumonia. He died in the city in 1881 aged 40, leaving his widow and five very young children, all aged under ten.
Mary had run her own small private school on the site now occupied by the Talbot Hotel and a chinaware shop on North Main Street. Following her husband’s passing, she very successfully carried on his construction business and became a formidable businesswoman.
One of the first buildings completed by Mary O’Connor, known as ‘The Builder’, was the convent chapel for the St John of God sisters on Newtown Road. Timothy had built the convent itself. Mary was also responsible for the construction of the impressive convent for the Adoration sisters adjacent to Bride Street Church, which was begun in 1885. In 1890, she had an extension added to the convent of the Presentation sisters on Francis Street. Mary oversaw the construction of the terrace of three-storey houses on Upper George’s Street, Glena Terrace on Spawell Road, nearby Ard Ruadh House as well as residential and commercial properties on Wexford’s Main Street. In 1909, she was contracted to build a pavilion at Rosslare Golf Club. However the entire building was washed away by the sea in the 1940s and 50s.
One of Mary O’Connor’s most accomplished structures is the redbrick office building on the corner of Lower George’s Street and Selskar Street. She had it built in 1894 for her grand-nephews, James and Michael J. O’Connor, for their legal practice. It was the site of the former townhouse of the barrister, Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey of Bargy Castle, who was executed for his part in the 1798 Rising. Mary died in 1927 aged 90 at Glena Terrace, in one of the eight striking terraced houses that she had built in 1890-5.
Photo courtesy James O’Connor, Green Acres
(From ‘Fascinating Wexford History - Volume Three’)
