O'Loghlen, Sir Michael (1789–1842), 1st baronet, lawyer, politician was born in October 1789 at Ruan, Co. Clare, third son among five sons and one daughter of Colman O'Loghlen (1745–1810), landowner, and his second wife, Susannah (née Finucane). Educated at the Erasmus Smith school at Ennis, he entered TCD, where he graduated BA (1809). Deciding to pursue a legal career after advice from James Fitzgerald (qv), the former prime serjeant, he entered the Middle Temple and the King's Inns and was called to the bar (1811). Joining the Munster circuit, as a junior counsel he assisted Daniel O'Connell (qv) on many trials, and came to prominence in February 1815 when he successfully pleaded an important case on his own the day after the fatal D'Esterre duel. When catholic emancipation was granted in 1829 he rose rapidly at the bar and became KC and serjeant the following year. The formation of the Melbourne (qv) government in 1834 led to his appointment as solicitor general, but he was replaced in the subsequent change of ministry, although he returned to the same post the next year.
He became liberal MP for Dungarvan, Co. Waterford (January 1835 to November 1836) and on 31 August 1835 was appointed attorney general by a new whig government anxious to conciliate O'Connell. O'Loghlen was the first catholic to hold that position since the reign of James II (qv). Appointed baron of the exchequer (November 1836–January 1837), he was created baronet and appointed to the bench as master of the rolls (28 January 1837). Highly regarded for his legal expertise and fairness, he made the most of his comparatively limited abilities, and was well served by his personal rule: when he had nothing to say, he said nothing. O'Connell esteemed him greatly and once commented that ‘I love him as my son’ (MacDonagh, 74). He consistently recommended O'Loghlen for advancement and praised him for being ‘an excellent lawyer, [and] a most amiable, intelligent man’ (2 Sept. 1834, O'Connell corr., v, 171–2).
He died 28 September 1842 at Brighton and was buried at Ruan, Co. Clare. He married (3 September 1817) Bidelia Kelly, of Dublin; they had four sons and four daughters. His eldest son, Colman Michael O'Loghlen (qv), a prominent lawyer, succeeded as 2nd baronet and the third, Bryan O'Loghlen (qv), also a lawyer, was briefly premier of Victoria, Australia.