O'Connell, Daniel (1775–1847)

Irish lawyer and politician, known as ‘the Liberator’. In 1823 he formed the Catholic Association, to campaign for Catholic emancipation and the repeal of the 1801 Act of Union between Britain and Ireland. He achieved the first objective in 1829, but failed in the second.

O'Connell's influence began to wane when his reserved and vacillating leadership and conservative outlook on social questions alienated his most active supporters. They broke away to form the more radical nationalist Young Ireland movement.

O'Connell was born at Carhan, near Cahirciveen, County Kerry. He trained as a lawyer and in 1798 was called to the Irish Bar. As a Catholic, the higher legal posts were closed to him, but he made a good living by pleading large numbers of small cases, his work taking him all over Ireland. Similarly, when he was elected member of Parliament for County Clare in 1828, he was debarred from taking his seat by the ban on Catholics holding public office that had been in force since 1678, when the ‘Popish Plot’ was allegedly discovered by Titus Oates. O'Connell was gifted with great organizational ability and powerful skills of oratory, which helped him promote his case for Catholic emancipation. In his attempt to oppose the Union, he organised mass meetings all over Ireland, and formed an alliance with the Whigs in Britain, but was jailed for sedition. On his release from prison after a few months, the Irish famine of 1845–46 had pushed repeal of the Union into the background. Broken in health, O'Connell died at Genoa while undertaking a journey to Rome.