Born in County Clare, Ireland, in 1846, Sinon O'Connell was the son of Timothy O'Connell and Jane Gorman.  His unusual first name (in Gaelic pronounced shih-NON but always pronounced SIGH-non by family members) is a variation of "John" and frequently occurs in the town of Kilrush, County Clare. He emigrated to the United States about 1863 and was living in Chicago at the time of the Great Fire of 1871.  At the time of his marriage in 1879, he was living in a laborers' hotel at 41st Street and Halsted, across the street from the Union Stock Yards, where he worked as a butcher. In 1887, Sinon joined the Chicago Police Department as a patrolman at the Deering Street Station (located on what is now known as Loomis Avenue).  (Readers of Finley Peter Dunne's famous "Mr. Dooley" sketches, set in Martin Dooley's saloon on "Archey [Archer] Avenoo," will recall many anecdotes involving the policemen from the Deering Street Station.)  Sinon apparently was a formidable figure in the neighborhood and was known for his temper.  He retired from the police force in 1907 because of injuries suffered when he was caught and dragged by a streetcar near his Bridgeport home.

Mary Ann Kane (or Keane), the eldest of ten children, was the daughter of Michael Keane (ca. 1831-1884) and Hannah Hayes (ca. 1835-ca. 1900).  She was born in 1857 near Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, shortly after her parents emigrated from Ireland.  Mary Ann was raised in Franklin Township, near the town of Maple Grove, Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, where her parents purchased a farm around 1860.  Prior to her marriage to Sinon O'Connell, she worked as a maid for the John Fitzpatrick family in their home on Forquer Street (now Arthington Street) on Chicago's West Side.  At the time of her marriage to Sinon A. O'Connell, Mary Ann resided at Twenty-three 29th Street (later the site of Michael Reese Hospital), where she lived with her cousin, Honora Mahoney until that latter's marriage to Thomas Octigan in February 1879. Mary Ann Kane and Sinon A. O'Connell were married at St. James' Church at 29th Street and Wabash Avenue in Chicago on 13 April 1879.  In 1883, after living for several years at a second-floor apartment at 3040 South Keeley Avenue in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood, Sinon and Mary Ann purchased a lot and built a wooden cottage at 1004 West 32nd Street, where they raised their family.  (When Chicago house numbers were standardized in1909, the new numbering for the house became "1234.")  The cottage is still standing today although the surviving O'Connell family members sold it to new owners in 1919.

Mary Ann O'Connell's presence in Chicago stimulated several of her siblings to come from Wisconsin to the city as well: John E. Kane (1865-1921), Henry Kane (1866-1892), William Kane (1871- ? ), and Ellen Kane Swengber (1876-1952), all moved to Chicago before 1900. Moreover, John Kane also joined the police force. The number and identity of Sinon's siblings remains unknown although it is believed they remained in Ireland; two of his sisters joined convents in Ireland.

In surviving voter registration records for Chicago for the years 1888, 1890, and 1892, Sinon appears as a Democrat, and apparently all of the O'Connell children were Democrats, too. No doubt his job as a policeman included other semi-official duties, too, such as keeping track of the party affiliations of his neighbors and nearby business owners. He no doubt was deeply proud of becoming policeman; his insistence on wearing his policeman's uniform when the above photograph was taken is evidence.

Mary Ann Kane O'Connell died on 19 January 1910 and her husband Sinon on 13 July 1913.  Both are buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Chicago.

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