1775-1847; ‘The Liberator’ [‘The Counsellor’ in Irish]; b. 6 Aug., Carhen, nr. Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry; fostered to herdsman at Termoile, aetat. 3; ed. hedge-school, then at Redington, Co. Cork; taken under patronage by Maurice O’Connell (‘Hunting Cap’, d.1825); proceeded with his br. Morgan to St Omer and Douai, each during a year, 1791-93; Lincoln’s Inn, 1794; member of Lawyer’s Corp of Artillery, 1797; Irish bar, 1798; attracted by liberal policies of United Irishmen, but disapproved of rebellion; ill and living in Kerry during the Rising; joined Munster circuit; protested against Act of Union in speech at Royal Exchange to Catholic citizens, Dublin, 13 Jan. 1800; signed Emancipation petition, 1805; Robert Peel appt. Chief Secretary in Dublin (‘Orange Peel ... a raw youth squeezed out of I know not what factory in England’); suppression of Catholic Board, 1807; O’Connell elected chairman of Catholic Committee, 1811; opposed Grattan’s Emancipation Bill of 1813; opposed Veto agreed between British Government and the representatives of Pius VII, then a prisoner of Napoleon, 1813-16; rescript denounced by Irish Catholic hierarchy, 1814; on release, Pius emphasises scriptural basis of Veto vis-à-vis ‘powers under whom the dioceses to be administered were situated; O’Connell makes celebrated speech while acting for William Magee, vindicating Catholic Ireland in a hostile court, and citing Charles O’Conor judicial murder of Brian Mac Felim O’Neill, 1813; fatally wounded Dublin merchant D’Esterre in duel; arrested in London on failure of plan to duel with Peel; published Address to the Catholics of Ireland, 1 Jan. 1821, calling for interdenominational action for Repeal of Union; founded with Richard Lalor Sheil and others Catholic Association (after the earlier association of that name, later the Catholic Board), 12 May 1823, instituting Catholic Rent (1d. a month); launches ‘Agitation’, a policy of mass meetings and inflammatory speeches; Catholic Association suppressed under Goulburn Act in 1825; renamed New Catholic Association, 1825; his pro-Emancipation liberal Protestant candidate William Villiers Stuart defeated Lord George Beresford in Waterford election, 1826, initiating freeholders’ polling revolt; founded Order of Liberators, Aug. 1826; defeated William Vesey-Fitzgerald, then seeking re-election, and elected MP for Clare contrary to the exculsionary statutes, 1828; defeat conceded of Peel and Wellington; Catholic Association dissolved, 12 Feb. 1829; Emancipation passed, Apr. 1829; refused oath of supremacy; re-elected at King’s insistence, taking seat unopposed; entered house 4 Feb. 1830; successfully took the defence of the accused against the Crown Prosecutor, in the Doneraile capital (conspiracy) trial of 1829, providing the subject of Canon Sheehan’s Glenanaar (1905); devoted himself to politics thereafter; benficiary of national annual tribute known as ‘The O’Connell Tribute’, organised by Patrick Vincent Fitzpatrick; series of letters on political questions, 1830; arrested for evading proclamations arising from Reform of Union activism, 1831; returned for Dublin, 1832; supported Reform Bill, 1832; introduced motion to reduced tithes by two-thirds, 1834; impugned the calculation of the Irish levy to support Imperial expenditure at 2/17ths, calling it a ‘fraction purposely introduced in order that Ireland might be robbed with greater facility’, 22 April 1834; imposed sought to establish enquiry into state of the Union, 1834; rejected offer of Master of Rolls and Att.-General for Ireland, extended by Lord Melbourne, 1834; Lichfield House Compact with Peel during the latter’s brief tenure of PM office, 1835; supported Whigs in municipal reform; supported non-denominational National School system both in Ireland and in England, where it was not admitted, pronouncing it a disgrace that ‘of all the countries of Europe, England alone should have no system of national education’); founded General Association targeting menu of reforms, 1836; disbanded General Association on securing 46 Repeal MPs, 1837; founded Pre-Cursor Society, 1837; secured abolition of arrears, 1838; opposed introduction of Poor Law; successful brought about reforms under Municipal Corporations Act, 1840; founded National Association of Ireland for full and prompt Justice and Repeal, 15 Apr. 1840 [later Loyal National Repeal Association, Jan. 1841]; lord mayor of Dublin, 1840 [var. 1841-42]; cause strengthened by establishment of The Nation by Young Ireland; further support from The Pilot; addressed monster meetings at Mullingar, Mallow (11 June), Lismore, and Tara; countermanded Clontarf Monster Meeting, 8 Oct. 1843; established Council of Three Hundred to oversee Arbitration Courts usurping govt. justice courts; arrested; subject to ‘state trial’ for seditious conspiracy [‘for creating discontent’ DNB] with his son John and others, before packed jury, the prosecution being led by Francis Blackburne; fined and sentence to one year, 1844; cheered in Westminster, May 1844; served sentence in Richmond Bridewell Prison; judgement reversed by House of Lords, 1844; released, with triumphal procession through Dublin, 1 Sept. 1844; declared in favour of Federalism as against Repeal, but withdrew under denunciation by Young Ireland in The Nation; opposed Charitable Bequests and Donations Act, already denounced by MacHale; supported endowment of Maynooth; denounced Peel’s University Bill and proposal for establishment of Queen’s Colleges, at meeting of the Repeal Assoc., 26 May 1845 (speaking ‘as a Catholic, and for the Catholics of Ireland’, and leading to split with Young Ireland; called for obedience to the non-violence resolution of June 1845, ‘both in theory and in practice’, and thereby forced Young Ireland’s withdrawal July 1846, proclaiming, ‘It is, no doubt, a very fine think to die for one’s country, but believe me, one living patriot is worth a whole churchyard full of dead ones’; opposed by the single dissentient voice of Thomas Francis Meagher; called attention to Irish famine distress, 1846; formal secession of Young Ireland, 5 Feb. 1848; last speech in the House of Commons, 8 Feb. 1847; d. 15 May, in Genoa en route to Rome, where his heart is buried; his remains lie in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, under an Irish round tower; in his life O’Connell was caricatured by John Doyle; Hogan’s statue of O’Connell was installed in the City Hall, Dublin, in 1846; the first outdoor monument to O’Connell erected in Limerick, 1857; the monument on O’Connell St. by Foley (the plinth being finished by others), proposed in 1862; Sackville St. in central Dublin officially became O’Connell St. in 1924; an exhibition of O’Connell memorabilia was mounted by the National Museum, Dublin in 1997. CAB DNB JMC DIB DIH RAF FDA OCIL
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A Memoir on Ireland, Native and Saxon (Duffy: 1843, 1844, 1845) [infra]; Collection of Speeches by Daniel O’Connell and Richard Lalor Sheil on Subjects Connected with the Catholic Question (Dublin 1828); John O’Connell, ed., The Select Speeches of Daniel O’Connell, MP, 2 Vols. (Duffy 1846) [infra]; Francis Griffith, ‘Found: A Great Speech by Daniel O'Connell', Éire-Ireland, 3, 2 (Summer 1968), pp. 27-36 [speech on Catholic Emancipation, Freemason's Hall. London, 25 Feb. 1825]; Maurice R. O’Connell, ed., The Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, 7 vols. (Dublin: Irish Manuscript Commission et al. 1972-1980) [vol. 4: 1829-32; 1st edn. 1977]; Erin I. Bishop, ed., My Darling Danny: Letters from Mary O’Connell to Her Son Daniel, 1830-32 (Cork UP 1999), 114pp.; See also Erin I. Bishop, The World of Mary O’Connell, 1778-1836 (Dublin: Lilliput Press 1999), 224pp.
A Memoir on Ireland Native and Saxon by Daniel O’Connell MP, [2nd edn.], Vol. I (Dublin: James Duffy, 24 Anglesea St 1844), 347pp. The volume bears the epigraph ‘On our side is VIRTUE and ERIN, / On theirs is SAXON and GUILT’ (from Moore). Dedicatory notice, ‘This book / is / humbly inscribed / to / Her Most Gracious Majesty / the Queen / of Great Britain / and / of IRELAND. The text - which is materially derived from Matthew Carey’s Vindiciae Hiberniae (1819) - cites copious passages from English histories and records of the subjugation of Ireland, effectively condemning England for barbarism and perfidy in Ireland. The historians cited include chiefly Davies, Leland, Hollinshed [sic], Spenser, Stanihurst apud Holinshed, Taylor, Milner, Harris [Dublin and Fiction Unmask’d], Sir Edw. Walker, Strafford State Letters, Grainger, Warner, Carte, Clarendon, Rushworth, Col. Laurence, Parl. Papers, Borlase, Lingard, Temple, Morrice [Life of Orrery], Burnet [Life of Bedell]; Macpherson [Hist. G. Britain]. On the Irish side, chiefly Lynch, Curry, and Castlehaven, with frank material from Carte. The first volume ends with a sanguinary English pamphlet of 1647 cursing he that ‘maketh not his sword starke drunk with Irish blood to compense them double for their hellish treachery to the English’ [see Quotations, infra.]
Selected Speeches of Daniel O’Connell, M.P., edited, with historical notives, &c., by his son, John O’Connell Esq. [2nd series] (Dublin: James Duffy & Sons [n.d.]), 472pp. CONTENTS: The Corn Laws; Catholic Aggregate Meeting, Aug. 15 1815; Remonstrance to Pope Pius VII; Rhemish Bible; Public Dinner [...] Tralee; A Union Member; Catholic meeting; Lett to the Catholics of Ireland; The Dublin Election; Catholic Affairs; Catholic Meeting, June 22, 1820; Meeting at Kilmainham; Letters of Mr O’Connell; Answer ... by Mr Sheil; Statue of King William; The Marquis of Wellesley; Statue to Mr Grattan; Address to the Catholics of Ireland; Aggregate Meeting, Feb. 18, 1822; National Testimonial to George IV; National Board of Education; Distress of the Poor in South and West [...]; further subjects incl. Tithe Communation; Catholic Association; Catholic burying ground; Catholic grievances; Daily Evening Mail; Catholic Association; Barristers; Disarming the Orangemen; Lord Redesdale; Education in Ireland; Caumnies against O’Connell; Catholic Rent; Church Rates; Prospects of Emancipation; Dr. Plunkett; Penal Code - Army; Newspapers; Prosecution [for] seditious words; Arrest of O’Connell; False Alarms; Resolution relative to Proceedings against Mr O’Connell.
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Thomas Wyse, Historical Sketch of the Late Catholic Association of Ireland, 2 vols. (London 1829).
C. M. O’Keefe, Life and Times of Daniel O’Connell, 2 vols. (Dublin 1864).
O’Connell Centenary Record, 1875 (Dublin 1878), cxviii, 606pp., 24 ills. [contains the speeches at the centenary celebrations to which various continental figures were invited].
J. A. Hamilton, Life of Daniel O’Connell [1st edn] (1888).
W. E. Gladstone, ‘Daniel O’Connell’ in The Nineteenth Century, XXV (1889).
T. C. Luby, Life and Times of O’Connell (Glasgow n.d.), ix+538pp.
Michael MacDonagh, The Life of Daniel O’Connell (1903).
W. E. H. Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland (1903 Edn.), Vol. 2.
A. Houston, ed., Daniel O’Connell: Early Life and Journal (London: Isaac Pitman & Sons 1906).
John J. Horgan, ‘Daniel O’Connell, The Man’, in Great Catholic Laymen (Dublin: CTS 1908), pp.335-88 [also issued as 40pp. pamphlet].
Bernard Ward, The Eve of Catholic Emancipation, 2 vols. (London 1911).
Denis Gwynn, The Struggle for Catholic Emancipation (London 1928) [cf. Gwynn, Daniel O’Connell: the Irish Liberator, Hutchinson c.1920].
Patrick MacDonagh, Daniel O’Connell and Catholic Emancipation (1929).
Seán O’Faolain, King of the Beggars: Daniel O’Connell, A Life of Daniel O’Connell, the Irish Liberator, in a Study of the Rise of the Modern Irish Democracy 1770-1847 (London: Thomas Nelson.
NY: Viking 1938), x+11-368pp.
Michael Tierney, ‘Politics and Culture: Daniel O’Connell and the Gaelic Past’, Studies vol. 27 (1938), pp.358-59.
Michael Tierney, ed., Daniel O’Connell: Nine Centenary Essays (Dublin 1949).
Angus MacIntyre, The Liberator: Daniel O’Connell and the Irish Party, 1830-1847 (London 1965).
L A. McCaffrey, Daniel O’Connell and the Repeal Year (Kentucky 1966).
Francis Griffith, ‘Found: A Great Speech by Daniel O’Connell', Éire-Ireland, 3, 2 (Summer 1968), pp. 27-36 [speech on Catholic Emancipation, Freemason's Hall. London, 25 Feb. 1825].
Maurice O’Connell, ed., The Correspondence of Daniel O’Connell, [7 vols.] (Shannon: IUP 1972-1980).
Malcolm Brown, Politics of Irish Literature (London: George Allen & Unwin 1972), Chap., ‘O’Connell and Davis in Partnership’, et passim.
Oliver MacDonagh, ‘The Politicisation of the Irish Catholic Bishops, 1800-1850’, in The Historical Journal, xvii, 1 (1975), pp.37-53.
R Dudley Edwards, Daniel O’Connell and His World (London: Thames & Hudson 1975), 112pp., 79 ills..
R. F[ergus] B. O’Ferrall, ‘The Growth of Political Consciousness in Ireland 1823-1847, A Study of O’Connellite Politics and Political Education’ (PhD thesis, TCD 1978), Part One, ‘The Emergence of a Political Ideology, Irish Liberal Catholicism 1800-30’.
Owen Chadwick, The Popes and the European Revolution (OUP 1981).
Charles Chenevix Trench, The Great Dan: a Biography of Daniel O’Connell (London: Jonathan Cape 1984).
K. B. Nowlan & M. R. O’Connell, eds., Daniel O’Connell: Portrait of a Radical (Belfast: Appletree Press 1984; Fordham UP 1986).
Maurice O’Connell, Daniel O’Connell, the Man and his Politics, with a foreword by Conor Cruise O’Brien (Dublin: IAP 1989), 160pp.
Oliver MacDonagh, The Hereditary Bondsman: Daniel O'Connell 1775-1829 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1989).
MacDonagh, The Emancipist: Daniel O’Connell, 1830-47 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 1989; 1991), 384pp., 8 plates.
Geraldine F. Grogan, The Noblest Agitator: Daniel O’Connell and the German Catholic Movement 1830-1850 (Dublin: Veritas 1991).
Fergus O’Ferrall, Catholic Emancipation: Daniel O’Connell and the Birth of Irish Democracy (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1985; reiss. 1998) [standard biog.].
Donal McCartney, ed., The World of Daniel O’Connell (Dublin & Cork: Mercier Press 1985) [incl. V. Conzemius, ‘The Place of Daniel O’Connell in the Liberal Catholic Movement of the Nineteenth Century’, pp.143-49].
H. Rollet, ‘The Influence of O’Connell’s Example on French Liberal Catholicism’, pp.150-62].
Maurice R. O’Connell, Daniel O’Connell, The Man and His Politics (Dublin 1990).
Geraldine F. Grogan, The Noblest Agitator, Daniel O’Connell and the German Catholic Movement (Veritas 1991), 224pp.
Maurice O’Connell, ed., O’Connell, Education, Church and State [papers delivered at the 2nd Annual Daniel O’Connell Workshop, Derrynane, Oct. 1991] (Dublin: IPA 1992) [essays by John Coolahan, Geraldine Grogan, Dermot Keogh, Maurice O’Connell, Adrian Fitzgerald, and 21 poems by Paddy Bushe].
Maurice O’Connell, ed., Daniel O’Connell, Political Pioneer (Dublin: IPA 1991) [infra].
Maurice O’Connell, ed., Decentralisation and Government, Proceedings of the 4th Annual Workshop (IPA 1994), 147pp.
Ríonach U í Ógáin, Immortal Dan, Daniel O’Connell in Irish Folk Tradition (Geography Publ. 1995), 268pp. See also Tom Garvin, The Evolution of Irish Nationalist Politics (Dublin 1981).
Desmond M. Clarke, Church and State, Essays in Political Philosophy (Cork UP 1984).
Seamus Deane, ‘Edmund Burke and the Ideology of Irish Liberalism’ in The Irish Mind, ed. Richard Kearney (Dublin 1985), [q.p.].
Nicholas Canny, ‘The Formation of the Irish Mind, Religion, Politics, and Gaelic Literature 1580-1750’ in Past and Present, 95 (May 1985), pp.91-116.
Jeffrey Praeger, Building Democracy in Ireland: Political Order and Cultural Integration in a Newly Independent Ireland, foreword by Conor Cruise O’Brien ([Cambridge] UP 1986).
Evelyn Bolster, A History of the Diocese of Cork: From the Penal Era to the Famine (Cork [UP] 1989).
Sean McMahon, Daniel O'Connell (Cork: Mercier 2000), 96pp.
R. V. Comerford & Enda Delaney, ed., National Questions: Reflections on Daniel O’Connell and Contemporary Ireland (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 2000), 112pp.
Leslie A. Williams, Daniel O’Connell, The British Press and The Irish Famine: Killing Remarks, ed., William H. A. Williams [Nineteenth Century Series] (UK: Ashgate Press 2002), 398pp.
William Carleton, quoted in Benedict Kiely, Poor Scholar, 1947; 1972 Edn., p.90.
George M. Trevelyan, History of England (1st ed. 1926; Illustrated ed., 1956), p.591.
W. B. Yeats, Senate Speeches, pp.97-98; Autobiographies, p.353, & 195; all cited in Jeffares, New Commentary, 1984, p.339.
Desmond Ryan, The Sword of Light (1939), p.83.
D. B. Wyndham Lewis, Four Favourites, London: Evan Bros. Ltd. 1948, pp.62-63.)
Maurice R O’Connell, ed,. Daniel O’Connell, Political Pioneer (Dublin: IPA 1991), 147pp., index. [Contributors & pagination: J. J. Lee, pp.1-6; Tom Garvin, pp.7-12; Brian Girvin, pp.13-34; Fergus O’Ferrall, pp.35-56; James N. McCord, pp.57-71; Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, pp.72-85; Paddy Bushe, pp.86-97; Pierre Joannon, pp.86-109; Peter Alt, pp.110-118; Geraldine Grogan, pp.119ff.
Seán de Fréine, The Great Silence: the study of a relationship between language and nationality (Cork: Mercier 1978), p.84.
Chris Morash, The Hungry Voice (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1989).
Mary Robinson, ‘Daniel O’Connell: A Tribute’, address to the Reform Club, London, 15 May 1997; printed in History Ireland (Winter 1997), pp.26-31.
Mary Daly, reviewing Maurice O’Connell, ed., Daniel O’Connell, Political Pioneer [1991], in Fortnight (July-Aug. 1992).
Bibliographical details
Maurice R. O’Connell, ed., Daniel O’Connell: Political Pioneer (Dublin: Inst. Publ. Relations 1991), 147pp., index. Contents, J. J. Lee, ‘Daniel O’Connell’ pp.1-6; Tom Garvin, ‘O’Connell and Irish Political Culture’, pp.7-12; Brian Girvin, ‘Making Nations, O’Connell, Religion and The Creation of Political Identity’, pp.13-34; Fergus O’Ferrall, ‘Liberty and Catholic Politics 1790-1990’, pp.35-56; James N. McCord, ‘The Image in England, the Cartoons of HB [John Doyle]’, pp.57-71; Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, ‘O’Connell in Irish Folk Tradition’ pp.72-85 [being a revised version of the article of the same title in K. B. Nowlan and M. R. O’Connell, eds., Daniel O’Connell, Portrait of a Radical, Appletree 1984; Fordham UP 1986]; Paddy Bushe, ‘A Resonant Tradition, some Gaelic poetry of Uíbh Ráthach’, pp.86-97; Pierre Joannon, ‘O’Connell, Montalembert and the Birth of Christian Democracy in France’, pp.86-109; Peter Alt, ‘O’Connell and German Politics’, pp.110-118; Geraldine Grogan, ‘O’Connell’s Impact on the Organisation and Development of German Political Catholicism’, pp.119ff. [end].
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Dictionary of National Biography contains a notice by on R.D. [see under John Magee, Rx.]. Bibl. incl. studies by W. Fagan (1847); M. F. Cusack (1872); J. O’Rourke and O’Keeffe (1875); John Hamilton [Life of Daniel O’Connell, 1888], and other works including issue of the Irish Monthly Magazine and Asylum; also Fitzpatrick’s Life of Cloncurry and his Life of Dr Doyle, et al. Note Concise DNB: ‘He recreated national feeling in Ireland’.
Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), gives extracts from speeches, ‘On Catholic Rights’, Justice for Ireland’, Colonial Slavery’, etc.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, quotes Speech in Defence of William [?recte John] Magee, 941-48; and Seven Letters, 1129-35. FDA contains approx. 45 incidental references to O’Connell.
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, Vol. 2 (Gerrards Cross 1980), quotes O’Connell on the Irish language: ‘I am sufficiently utilitarian not to regret its [the Irish language’s] abandonment. [.. &c]; see under Quotations, infra.] Further, Daniel O’Connell chastises the anti-national clergy, ‘How dismal the prospect of liberty would be if in every Catholic diocese there were an active partisan of the Government and in every Catholic parish a priest as an active informer.’ (Quoted by Edmund Curtis, A History of Ireland, p.357. [77] Also, John Mitchel gives his account of O’Connell at the ‘height of his popularity and power’ when ‘the people believed he could do anything; and he almost believed it himself.’ (The Last Conquest of Ireland, Perhaps, Letter I, p.5. Also the mass meeting at Tara, ‘From the reports of the eye witnesses, as well as from the statements made by public journals, it is manifest, that never before was there such an assembly of people together in Ireland; and if the numbers mentioned be any thing near the truth, it must be allowed, that never was there in Europe beheld such a multitude collected on the one state. It is stated that there were 500,000 men assembled [...] (p.8) [82]. Rafroidi quotes O’Connell: ‘I am for Old Ireland [...] Young Ireland may play what pranks they please. I do not envy them the name they rejoice in. I shall stand by Old Ireland; and I have some slight notion that Old Ireland will stand by me.’ (See C. G. Duffy, Young Ireland, p.705; Rafroidi, op. cit., p.85, and p.297, n.10]. Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English (1980), Vol. 2, lists W. J. O’Neill Personal Recollections [1848]; Angus MacIntyre, The Liberator (London 1865); Sean O’Faolain, King of the Beggars (1938); also, O’Connell’s A Memoir of Ireland, Native and Saxon [1844]. Pamphlets by O’Connell listed in in catalogues of National Library of Ireland and the British Library.
Arthur Ponsonby, Scottish and Irish Diaries &c ([Methuen] 1927), contains journals of Daniel O’Connell and numerous others. (Ponsonby also issued English Diaries from the 16th to the 20th centuries, Methuen 1923.)
R. R. Madden Papers (Pearse St. Public Library, Dublin) hold Daniel O’Connell & J. N. d’Esterre Duel, 2pp.; also printed extracts from the Galway Chronicle (8 Feb. 1815), viz., (1) J. N. d’Esterre’s letter to Daniel O’Connell, 26 Jan. 1815; (2) Daniel O’Connell’s reply, 27 Jan. 1815; (3) James O’Connell’s letter to J. N. d’Esterre [undated], stating that d’Esterre’s letter had not been opened by him or Daniel; (4) printed death notice of d’Esterre following the duel with Daniel O’Connell (undated). [Supplied by Sean Mythen, Feb. 1997].
Hyland Books (Cat. 224) lists Henry Shaw, Shaw’s Authenticated Report of the Irish State Trials, 1844 (1844), (14), 678pp.
Emerald Isle Books (1995) lists Memoir of Ireland, Native and Saxon (1845) [sic]; Letter to Members of the House of Commons [Intent to Take his Seat] (1829), 29pp.; A Collection of Speeches Spoken by Daniel O’connell and Richard Sheil on Subjects Connected [with the] Catholic Question (Dublin: Cuming 1828) [Carlow Coll, Prize vol.]; J. A. Hamilton, Life of Daniel O’Connell (1st edn. 1888); James Sheridan, A Full report of the Speech of Daniel O’Connell on the Subject of Church Rates [on] 10th Jan. 1827 (Dublin: Coyne 1827), viii+65pp.; T. C. Luby, Life and Times of O’Connell (Glasgow n.d.), ix+538pp.; Oliver MacDonagh, The Emancipist: Daniel O’Connell, 1830-1847 (1st edn. 1989); Select Speeches of Daniel O’Connell, MP, ed. by his Son, John O’Connell (1st edn. Dublin 1846); Sean O’Faolain, King of the Beggars: A Life of Daniel O’Connell (1938); John O’Hanlon, Report of the O’Connell Monument Committee (1888), lxxx+183pp. [Hyland Oct. 1995]. Denis Gwynn, Daniel O’Connell, the Irish Liberator (Hutchinson c1920).
Belfast Linenhall Library holds A Memoir on Ireland, Native and Saxon (Duffy 1844); BELF holds Memoir (1843); Select Speeches (1854, 1860); Excursions in Ireland during 1844 (1852).
University of Ulster (Morris Collection) holds A Memoir [...] (1843).
Geanealogy: Daniel O’Connell [or Daniel Charles] (?1745-1833), Count; French General and uncle of the Liberator; entered French army 1790; cross of St. Louis; adjutant of Clare Regt.; wounded at Gibraltar; colonel of Salm-Salm Regt.; accepted revolution but joined Bourbons; suggested formation of Irish Brigade to Pitt, 1796; lieut.-gen. under Bourbons; d. Mâdon, Blois. John O’Connell (1810-1858), his son [see Rx, infra]. Sir Maurice Charles O’Connell (1812-1879), son of Maurice Charles Philip O’Connell (d.1848). Morgan O’Connell (1804-1885), son of Daniel O’Connell; served in Irish S. American legion and Austrian army; MP Meath, 1832p asst.-reg. of deeds for Ireland, 1840-68; fought duel with William, Baron Alvaly, on his father’s account, 1835; declined challenge from Disraeli; d. 20 Jan., 12 St. Stephen’s Green. Moritz O’Connell (Baron); ?1740-1830), Austrian officer; went abroad with Count Daniel O’Connell; Imperial Chamberlain for 59 years; died Vienna.
Portraits: There is a portrait by G. J. Mulvany, NGI [see BREF 63; also cited in Anne Crookshank, ed., Great Irishmen and Women Portrait Exhibition [Catalogue] (Ulster Museum 1965)]. NOTE that O’Connell is a character in novels by John Banim (The Anglo-Irish in the Nineteenth Century, 1828), Walter Macken (The Silent People, 1926), &c. See also Mary Cusack, the Nun of Kenmare; also mezzotint engraving by William J Ward after a painting in the Reform Club by J P Haverty, held in NGI. SEE also Fergus O’Ferrall, ‘Daniel O’Connell, the Liberator, 1775-1847, Changing Images’, in Brian Kennedy and R. Gillespie, eds., Ireland: Art into History (1994), pp.91-102 [ills. incl. ‘Counsellor O’Connell; Dublin Magazine, Mar. 1813; ‘Fatal Shooting of D’Esterre’, engrav.; port. by John Gubbins; port. issued by J Robins, Lon.; engrav. after drawing by John Comerford; port. by Stephen Catterson Smith, 1825; another by Smith, 1830, in Carpenter’s Political Letter; another by Gubbins, 1829; O’Connell with Richard Lalor Sheil, by Daniel Maclise, in Fraser’s Magazine, 1834; full length port. in oil by Joseph Patrick Haverty, engrav. by W. Ward [‘apotheosis of O’Connell’s self-image as Kerry chieftain’], c.1836; port. by George Mulv[a]y; O’Connell as Lord Mayor of Dublin, by William henry Holbrooke, 1841; daguerreotype by Dousin-Dubreuil, rendered as lithograph by D’Aubert, Paris; port. by Thomas Heathfield Carrick after water-colour miniature [NGI holdings].
O’Connell appears in Lady Morgan’s Autobiography, Diaries and Correspondence (London 1862), Vol. II, p.226:’ March 1826: ‘Here is a picture of O’Connell [...] It came today in a letter from William Curran [...] O’Connell [...] walks the streets here in the full dress of a verdant liberator - green in all that may and may not be expressed, even to a green cravat, green watch-ribbon, and a slashing shining green hat-band’ [ref. to uniform of Order of Liberators, started at time of Waterford election]; see also entry for 20 Jan. 1830 which records dining on the previous day at Lord Dungarvon’s when O’Connell was present, being the second occasion when she met him; ‘Dan is not brilliant in private society - not even agreeable. He is mild, silent, unassuming, apparently absorbed, and an utter stranger to the give-and-take charm of good society; I said so to Lord Clanricarde, who replied, "If you knew how I found him this morning; his hall and the very steps of his door crowded with his clientele - he had a word or a written order for each and all, and then hurried off to the law courts, and from that to the Improvement Society, at the Royal Exchange, and was the first guest here today, when I arrived. Two hours before he was making that clever but violent speech to Mr. la Touche, and now no wonder he looks like an extinct volcano.’ (Ibid., p.291; supplied by Gary Owens.)
W. E. H. Gladstone called O’Connell ‘the greatest popular leader the world has ever known’. Honoré de Balzac called him ‘the embodiment of a people’. [Q. sources - Jeffares, 1984; or Tuohy, 1976.]
Monumental Moore: The drum of Foley’s O’Connell monument incls. a figure holding a page of musical score showing Moore’s lines, ‘Oh, where’s the slave so lowly/Condemned to chains unholy’ (see Paula Murphy, John Henry Foley’s O’Connell Monument’, in Irish Art Review (1995), pp.155-6.
Patrick Kennedy tells stories of O’Connell , Modern Irish Anecdotes (n.d.), pp.140-48. This text is cited as source of O’Flanagan’s Bar Life of O’Connell (n.d.), a political hagiography, with much evidence of his family devotion and religious piety.
Liam O’Flaherty writes in Famine (1937): ‘The purpose of the Nationalist movement under O’Connell (a movement which was really economic, although it was religious on the surface), was to support the rising Catholic petty middle-class traders against their Protestant competitors.’ (p.69; cited in Noël Debeer, ‘The Irish Novel Looks Backward’, in Patrick Rafroidi & Maurice Harmon, eds., The Irish Novel in Our Time, Université de Lille 1975-76, pp.106-23, p.109).
Douglas Hyde: ‘And yet O’Connell used to call us "the finest peasantry in Europe". Unfortunately, he took little care that we should remains so.’ (‘The Necessity of De-Anglicising Ireland’, 189; quoted in Mark Storey, ed., A Source Book of Irish Poetry, 1988, p.83.)
Clongowes Wood: O’Connell wrote in a letter of application to the school where he sent his sons: ‘that they should be strongly imbued with the principles of Catholic faith and national feeling. These advantages I should entertain sanguine hopes of, if they were placed under your care.’ (Quoted in Peter Costello, Clongowes Wood, A. A. Farmar 1991, p. 80.)
Cailín Bán: For O’Connell’s connection with the trial arising from the murder of ‘the Colleen Bawn’, see Gerald Griffin, Rx.
Samuel Ferguson styled O’Connell a ‘fraudulent demagogue’ in Dublin University Magazine (April 1834; cited by Terence Brown, Northern Voices, 1975; see Ferguson, RX.)
Doneraile trial: the corrupt witness Clowmper Dawly told of finding a cap at the scene of the attack on the murdered landlord which was subsequently identified as that of the accused - a falsehood. On inspecting the cap, O’Connell spelled out the name letter by letter as if reading, and asked, ‘Was the name on it when you found it?’, to which to reply was ‘yes’; ‘Well, it is not on it now!’, rejoined O’Connell. (Supplied by Gerald K. McAuliffe from family tradition.)
Irish language: Brian Friel quotes O’Connell's remarks on the Irish language in Translations under the word of the words ‘the old language is a barrier to modern progress’ [see Quotations, supra]. Further, O’Connell dismissed the author of an Irish dictionary as ‘an old fool to have spent so much of his life on so useless a work’ (quoted in Oliver MacDonagh, Daniel O’Connell, 1775-1847, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991, p.11; cited in Rosalind M. O. Pritchard, ‘The Irish Language in Ulster: Preserve of Nationalists?’ [symposium paper 1999], UUC.)
John Bowen, reviewing Jim Cooke, Charles Dickens’s Ireland: An Anthology including an Account of His Visits to Ireland (Inchicore: Woodfield Press), faults the compiler for omitting the "Watertoast Association" in Martin Chuzzlewit and Dickens’ article on "The Agricultural Interest" in the Morning Chronicle, both responses to Daniel O’Connell.
Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)