was appointed Solicitor General for Ireland in H. H. Asquith's Liberal administration and advanced to Attorney General in 1912, becoming a member of the Irish Privy Council in the same year. In this capacity, he prosecuted suffragettes who tried to set fire to the Dublin Theatre Royal, although he himself was personally in favour of women's suffrage. In 1913 the office of Lord Chancellor of Ireland fell vacant and O'Brien, as Attorney General, was by a longstanding tradition entitled to claim the position. As a judge he was not highly regarded; his pompous manner in Court led to unkind comparison with a bullfrog; more seriously there were frequent complaints that his constant interruptions from the Bench made it almost impossible for counsel to present their cases properly. Lord Chancellor O'Brien's tenure as Lord Chancellor was only secure as long as the Liberal Party remained in government at Westminster. In 1915 the Asquith Government was forced to resign and enter into a wartime coalition with the Conservative Party. British Conservatives, supported behind the scenes by T.M. Healy sought to replace O'Brien with his Unionist rival James Campbell. Out of consideration for Irish Nationalist opinion, O'Brien remained in office and was created a Baronet, of Ardtona in the Parish of Dundrum in the County of Dublin, in 1916. During the 1916 Easter Rising O'Brien drew up the formal proclamation of martial law issued by the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Wimborne. By 1918 however, Conservative and Unionist opinion was ascendant and O'Brien was replaced as Lord Chancellor by Campbell. He received a peerage as a consolation and became Baron Shandon, of the City of Cork. Later life A constitutional nationalist who supported home rule without breaking the imperial link with Great Britain, O'Brien was opposed to the aims and methods of Sinn Féin. After an IRA raid on his home, he left Ireland for good, settling in the Isle of Wight. Although sceptical of the House of Lords , O'Brien found the peers agreeable and became reconciled with its largely hereditary nature. His participation in the House of Lords was usually limited to matters affecting Ireland or issues on which he had legal expertise. He took an active part in the debates and negotiations surrounding the Government of Ireland Act 1920. In 1926-27 he wrote a memoir, which was published by Four Courts Press, Dublin in 2021, Baron Shandon had no issue but wished