(30) Stephen Copinger

This gentleman was born in 1794, was a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and was called to the Irish Bar in 1818.  He married in 1834 Juliana Mary Josephine Walsh of Cork who bore him two sons and six daughters.  Prior to the concession of the Catholic claims in 1829, he took a prominent part in the agitation for Catholic Emancipation, and played a foremost part in political affairs.  Having been secretary to the Catholics of Munster, he was a leading member of the Catholic Association, and on various occasions received its thanks.  In early life he was a great friend of O'Connell, but he carried an address to Washington against O'Connell's opinion at the Association, and from that time they ceased to be good friends, and O'Connell afterward prevented his taking a leading part at the Association.  He was a man of strong religious feelings.  He never practised much at the Bar, but embarked in many useful public works with the object of benefiting his fellow creatures.  He enjoyed the Leemount Estate under his father's Will, and lived on the whole a quiet and rather retired life.

He possessed very warm feelings, and the evidence of his kindness of heart will be apparent from the fact that almost all his time was devoted to works of benevolence. His memory was still fondly cherished in Dublin, Cork, and elsewhere many years later.