O'Connell, Daniel, known as the Liberator 1775-1847
Irish political leader

He was born near Cahirciveen, County Kerry. Called to the Irish Bar in 1798, he was a successful barrister. Leader of the agitation for the rights of Catholics, in 1823 he formed the Catholic Association which successfully fought elections against the landlords. Elected MP for County Clare in 1828, he was prevented as a Catholic from taking his seat, but was re-elected in 1830, the Catholic Emancipation Bill having been passed in the meantime. He denounced the ministry of Wellington and Robert Peel, but in the face of a threatened prosecution (1831) he temporized, saved himself, and was made KC. In 1830 the potato crop had been very poor, and under O'Connell's advice the people declined to pay tithes. At the general election of 1832 he became MP for Dublin. At this time he nominated about half of the candidates returned, while three of his sons and two of his sons-in-law composed his 'household brigade'. Of the 105 Irish members, 45 - his famous 'tail' - were declared Repealers. He fought fiercely against the Coercion Act of 1833. By Feargus O'Connor, the Freeman's Journal, and his more ardent followers he was forced to bring the Repeal movement prematurely into parliament; a motion for inquiry was defeated by 523 to 38. For the next five years (1835-40) he gave steady support to the Whigs. The Earl of Mulgrave and Thomas Drummond governed Ireland so mildly that O'Connell was prepared to abandon the Repeal agitation. In 1836 he was unseated on petition for Dublin, and he was returned for Kilkenny. In 1837 the mastership of the rolls was offered to him but he declined. In August he founded his 'Precursor Society', and in April 1840 his famous Repeal Association, for repeal of the 1801 Union with Great Britain. Yet the agitation languished until the appearance of the Nation in 1842 brought him the aid of the nationalist John Blake (1816-66), Dillon, Charles Duffy, T O Davis, James Mangan and Daunt. In 1841 he lost his seat at Dublin, found another at Cork, and in November was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. In 1843 he brought up Repeal in the Dublin corporation, and carried it by 41 to 15. The agitation now leaped into prominence, but the Young Ireland party began to grow impatient of his tactics, and O'Connell allowed himself to outrun his better judgement. Wellington ordered 35,000 men into Ireland and a meeting fixed at Clontarf for 8 October 1843 was abandoned. Early in 1844, with his son and five of his chief supporters, O'Connell was imprisoned and fined for a conspiracy to raise sedition. The House of Lords set aside the verdict on 4 September, but for 14 weeks O'Connell lay in prison. He opposed Peel's provincial 'godless colleges', and it soon came to an open split between him and Young Ireland (1846). Next followed the potato famine. A broken man, he left Ireland for the last time in January 1847, and died in Genoa on his way to Rome.

Bibliography: Dennis Rolleston Gwynn, Daniel O'Connell, The Irish Liberator (1930)