Daniel O'Connell Dónall Ó Conaill | |
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Member of Parliament for Clare | |
In office 5 July 1828 – 29 July 1830 | |
Preceded by | William Vesey-FitzGerald |
Succeeded by | William Macnamara |
Member of Parliament for Dublin City | |
In office 5 August 1837 – 10 July 1841 | |
Preceded by | George Hamilton |
In office 22 December 1832 – 16 May 1836 | |
Preceded by | Sir Frederick Shaw |
Succeeded by | George Hamilton |
Lord Mayor of Dublin | |
In office 1841–1842 | |
Preceded by | Sir John James, 1st Bt |
Succeeded by | George Roe |
Member of Parliament for County Cork | |
In office 15 July 1841 – 2 July 1847 | |
Preceded by | Garrett Standish Barry |
Succeeded by | Edmund Burke Roche |
Personal details | |
Born | Carhan, County Kerry, Ireland | 6 August 1775
Died | 15 May 1847 Genoa, Kingdom of Sardinia | (aged 71)
Resting place | Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin |
Political party | |
Spouse | Mary O'Connell (m. 1802) |
Children | |
Alma mater | Lincoln's Inn King's Inns |
Occupation | Barrister, political activist, politician |
Signature | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | Kingdom of Ireland |
Branch/service | Yeomanry |
Years of service | 1797 |
Unit | Lawyer's Artillery Corps |
Daniel(I) O’Connell (Irish: Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator,[1] was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Ireland, down to the poorest class of tenant farmers, secured the final instalment of Catholic emancipation in 1829 and allowed him to take a seat in the United Kingdom Parliament to which he had been twice elected.
At Westminster, O'Connell championed liberal and reform causes (he was internationally renowned as an abolitionist) but he failed in his declared objective for Ireland – the repeal of the 1800 Act of Union and the restoration of an Irish Parliament. Against the backdrop of a growing agrarian crisis and, in his final years, of the Great Famine, O'Connell contended with dissension at home. Criticism of his political compromises and of his system of patronage split the national political movement that he had singularly led.