Caroline Agnes Gray

Gray was a noted hostess during her husband's political career, in particular while he was Lord Mayor of Dublin. Following his death in 1888, she held over 40% of the shares in her husband's newspaper, the Freeman's Journal. While she was not involved in the day-to-day running of the company, she did exert influence over the newspaper. When Charles Stewart Parnell's party split, the paper sided with Parnell at Gray's consent. She was one of a number of prominent Catholic women in Dublin who continued to support Parnell. In 1891, she appeared with Parnell in public, leading to the Archbishop of Dublin describing her as "a rock of scandal."^[1]

It was only when the Freeman's Journal's circulation and revenue suffered after the establishment of an anti-Parnell newspaper, the National Press, that Gray's loyalty to Parnell wavered. Influenced by her son, Gray decided that the Freeman would abandon its relationship with Parnell.^[3] This decision was formalised at a special general meeting to the Freeman company on 21 September 1891, seeing the pro-Parnell board replaced with one that included Gray's son and Captain Maurice O'Conor. The Freeman and the National Press merged in March 1892, after which Gray was bought out of the company with her son and O'Conor stepping down from the board, thus ending the Gray family's 50 year relationship with the Freeman.^[1]

Gray married Captain O'Conor in November 1891. A Captain, and later a Major, with the Connaught Rangers, he was a relative of Charles Owen O'Conor and George Moore. Gray was 12 years his senior, and the couple had no children. They lived on Inisfale Island on Lough Allen, County Leitrim. Gray lived the last 30 years of her life there, with failing eyesight and eventual blindness. She died there 15 April 1927. O'Conor died in a hotel in Dún Laoghaire on 3 January 1941, in poor circumstances.^[1]