O'CONNELL, DANIEL, eldest son of Mr. Morgan O'Connell of Darrynane, near Cahir civeen, in the co. of Kerry, Ireland, was born Aug. 9, 1775. His family was ancient, but straightened in circumstances. O'Connell received his first education from a hedge schoolmaster, and, after a further training under a Catholic priest in the co. of Cork. was sent in 1700 to the English college at St. Omer. His school reputation was very high; but he was driven home prematurely by the outbreak of the revolution, and in 1794 entered as a law-student at Lincoln's inn. In 1798 he was called to the bar; and it was the boast of his later career as an advocate of the repeal of the Union with England, that his first public Speech was delivered at a meeting in Dublin, convened for the purpose of protesting against that projected measure. He devoted himself assiduously, however, to the practice of his profession, in which he rose steadily. By degrees, the Roman Catholic party having begun to rally from the prostration into which they had been thrown through the rebellion of 1798 and its consequences, O'Connell was drawn into public political life. In all the meetings of his co-religionists for the prosecution of their claims, he took a part, and his unquestioned ability soon made him a leader. He was an active member of all the successive associations which, under the various Dames of " Catholic board," " Catholic committee," "Catholic association," etc., were organized for the purpose of procuring the repeal of the civil disabilities of the Catholic body. Of the Catholic association he was himself the originator; and although his supremacy in its councils was occasionally challenged by some aspiring associates, he continued all but supreme down to its final dissolution. By means of this association, and the " Cath olic rent" which it was enabled to raise, he created so formidable an organization throughout Ireland that it gradually became apparent that the desired measure of relief could not longer be safely withheld; and the crisis was precipitated by the bold expedi ent adopted by O'Connell, of procuring himself to be elected member of parliament for Clare in 1828, notwithstanding his well-known legal incapacity to serve in parliament, in consequence of his being obliged to refuse the prescribed oaths of abjuration and supremacy, which: then formedlhoground of the ..excl usion, of Roman Catholics from the legislature. This”decisive step towards the Settlement of the questien, although it failed to procure for O'Connell admission to parliament, led to discussions within the House, and to agitations outside, so formidable, that in the beginning of the year 1820, the duke of Wellington and sir Robert Peel found it expedient to give way: and, deserting their former party, they introduced and carried through, in the spring of that year, the \veil known measure of Catholic emancipation. O'Connell was at once re-elected, and took his seat for Clare, and from that date his death continued to sit in parliament. Ile
was elected for his native county in 1830, for the city of Dublin in 1836, for the town of Kilkenny in 1836 (having been unseated for Dublin on petition), for Dublin again in 1837, and for the co. of Cork in 1841. During all these years, having entirely relinquished his practice for the purpose of devoting himself to public affairs, he received, by means of sin organized annual subsidy, a large yearly income from the voluntary contributions of the people, by whom he was idolized as their " liberator;" and who joined with him in all the successive agitations against the act of Union, against the Protestant church establishment, and in favor of reform, in which lie engaged. In the progress of more than one of these political agitations, his associations were oppressed by the government; and the agitation for a repeal of the Union, recommenced in 1841 and carried on by " monster meetings " throughout Ireland, at .which O'Connell himself was the chief speaker, assumed proportions so formidable, that lie, in common with several others, was indicted for a seditious conspiracy, and after a long and memorable trial, was convicted, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment, with a fine of £Z,000. This judgment was reversed by the House of lords; and O'Connell, on his discharge, resumed his career; but his health had suffered from confinement, and still more from dissensions and opposi tion in the councils of his party; and as, on the return of the Whigs to power in 1846, he consented to support their government, the malcontents of the repeal association openly separated from him, and it bitter feud between " young " and old " Ireland ensued. In this quarrel, O'Connell steadfastly maintained his favorite precept of "moral force." and was supported by the great body of the Catholic bishops and clergy; but his health gave way in the struggle. He was ordered to try a milder climate: and on his journey i to Rome in the spring of 1847, he was suddenly seized with paralysis, and died at Genoa on May 15 of that year. His eminence as a public speaker, and especially as a master of popular eloquence, is universally admitted. Into the controversies as to his public and political character, it is not our place to enter here. His speeches unfortu nately were for the most part extempore, and exist but in the reports (uncorrected by himself) taken at the time. He published but a single volume, A Memoir of Ireland, Native and Saxon, and a few pamphlets, the most importgit of which, as illustrating his personal history and character, is A Letter to tire Earl of Sltrewsbary.—Sec Life and limes of Daniel O'Connell, by his son, John O'Connell; also Recollections of Daniel 0' Connell, by John O'Neill Daniel; Fagan's Life of Daniel 0'Oonnell; and The Liberator, by L. F. Cusack (1872).