The O’ Morchoe

Arthur Donel MacMurrogh O’ Morchoe

Arthur Donel MacMurrogh O’ Morchoe was the first president of the Irish Grassland Association. He held the post from 1946 to 1949. Referred to by the clan head title of The O’ Morchoe, Arthur was born on the 3rd June 1892. He was the son of Reverend Thomas Arthur MacMurrough Murphy O’ Morchoe – The O’ Morchoe – and Anne Gibbon. He married, firstly, Isabel Carden in 1926. After her death he remarried to Eva Ellis in 1948, during his presidency of the IGA. The O’ Morchoe died on the 29th of August 1966, at the age of 74.
Educated at St. Andrews College, Dublin and Trinity College, Arthur then joined the British army, becoming an officer in 1914 in the Leinster Regiment. He fought in the First World War and was Aide-de-Camp to Major General Montagu-Stuart-Wortley between 1917 and 1919. After leaving the army he joined the British Civil Service in 1924, staying until 1943. Arthur served overseas in Zanzibar and the Gold Coast where he was Commissioner of Police from 1934.
After becoming titular head of the O’ Morchoe clan, The O’ Morchoe moved permanently to a farm at St. Austins, Inch, in Wexford and lived there until his death in 1966.