Daniel O'Connell
1775-1847
Irish Lawyer and Politian
Daniel O'Connell was born into an old Gaelic family at Carhen,
in a house called Derrynane, near Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, Ireland,
on 6 August, 1775.
He died while on his way to Rome,
at Genoa, Italy, in 1847.
Derrynane, O'Connell's birthplace.
He was educated in France at Douai, because as a Roman Catholic he was unable
to go to University in Britain. He spoke Irish and was interested in the
traditional culture of song and story still strong in Kerry at the time.
He also understood how the rural mind worked which served him well in
later years. Due to the fact that the O'Connells, once great
in Kerry, had suffered severely by the penal laws, and were therefore not
rich, an uncle, Maurice O'Connell
of Derrynane, who lived in France, bore the expense of educating Daniel and
his brother Maurice.
In 1791 they were sent to the Irish College at Liège, but because Daniel was
beyond the prescribed age for admission, they proceeded to St. Omer's in France.
After a year they went to Douai. Daniel gave evidence of industry and ability
at St. Omer's, but he and his brother's stay at Douai was cut short due to the French
Revolution. The two O'Connels returned home in 1793.
In 1794 Daniel became a law student at Lincoln's Inn (1794 -96) and continued
his studies in Dublin where in 1798 he was called
to the Bar. And so at the age of 23 he became one of the first practicing
Catholic lawyers in Ireland. He built up a highly successful practise as a
lawyer and dealt with many cases of Irish tenants against English landlords.
Unlike many Irish patriots, he detested violence as a weapon of reform,
respected religion and the rights of property.
What he saw in Douai of the French Revolution left him with a
life-long hatred of violence. and therefore he hated the
French Revolution as he did the violence of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
The 1798 rising and the terrible butchery that followed it confirmed his
horror of violence. While he approved of the principles of the United Irishmen,
their call for reform and for Catholic Emancipation, he disagreed with their
methods.
One incident in his life confirmed this decision to him. In 1815 O’Connell
harshly criticised the Dublin corporation. He was subsequently challenged to
a duel by one member by the name of D’Esterre. In the exchange
of shots D’Esterre was killed and O’Connell vowed never to fight again.
O’Connell married his cousin, Mary O’Connell, in 1802. Their marriage was happy
and eleven children were born to them, though only seven survived (four sons and
three daughters).
Throughout almost the first half of the nineteenth century Ireland's history is
reflected in the life of Daniel O’Connell. In Dublin he associated with the
United Irishmen and shared their national sentiments. When the Emmet alarm
burst on the country in 1803, he flew to arms to preserve the Constitution.
O’Connell was soon drawn into political action.
When in 1813 those Protestant champions
of Catholic Emancipation, Grattan and Plunkett, had introduced in Parliament
a Catholic Relief Bill which had every chance of passing, and which had the
approval of the Irish Catholic aristocratic party and the English Catholics,
O’Connell aroused Ireland against it because it was saddled with the
objectionable veto.
Hopes of Catholic emancipation
had been raised by promises given while the act of union was being passed.
In 1823, O’Connell founded the Catholic Association. The aim of the organisation
was to use all the legal means available to secure emancipation. It turned into
a mass crusade with the support of the Catholic clergy. All members of the
association paid a membership of a penny a month (the Catholic rent).
This helped to raise a large fund.
  
Statue of Daniel O'Connell
After winning this victory, O’Connell now had complete control of the national
mind. And his voice was the
voice of Ireland. The unquestioning faith of his multitudinous following put
in his hands a power which he unsparingly wielded to work out the peoples
emancipation.
The Clare election in 1828 was a turning point. O’Connell, with the support
of the forty-shilling freeholders, managed a huge victory against the government
candidate. He was well supported by the clergy whose influence on the poor
uneducated peasant class was enormous. The polling took place in Ennis at
the old courthouse where the O’Connell monument now stands. At the final
count, O’Connell was elected by a majority of about eleven hundred votes.
The ascendancy party had suffered its first big knock since 1798.
Lecky says that this election of 1826 won Emancipation. But with far more force,
it can be said that Emancipation was won by the epoch making Clare election.
That was the first truly golden milestone met by the Irish people upon their
weary march from the Century's beginning. The Clare election was to Ireland
a joyful surprise and a fearful one to England. County Clare had conquered
England.
The Emancipation Bill was brought in - and passed - but not without
fierce opposition. The Emancipation Bill was passed, the commonest citizen
rights from which Irish people had hitherto been debarred, because they were
heretics and idolaters, were now permitted by law. And civil offices from
which they had been, for their crime, shut out, were supposedly thrown open
to them.
Painting of Daniel O'Connell
O’Connell’s Power and Popularity
Though it was in his character as political leader that he was greatest to his
people, it was undeniably in his capacity as lawyer that Daniel O’Connell - "Dan"
as they affectionately called him - got nearest to their hearts. They who had
always been condemned before they were heard, were accorded human rights in
the courts of law after O’Connell had successfully stormed those citadels of
injustice. To both irregular and regular Crown prosecutors he made his name a
name to be feared. He was one of the most powerful
pleaders that the Bar ever knew.
In the years when he was in his climax his word was to the Irish people electric,
and his power was invincible.
In him the nation that was dumb had found a voice. The despised had found a
champion and the cruelly wronged an avenger.
After Emancipation was won Daniel O’Connell
abandoned his law practice to devote himself entirely to the people's cause.
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