O'BRIEN, WILLIAM SMITH, b. in 1803, was the second son of the late sir Edward O'Brien, hart. of Dromoland, in the county of Clare, Ireland, and uncle of the present lord Inchiquin; that .anelent barony having recently passed to the Dromoland O'Briens on the failure of 'the elder branch. William S. O'Brien was educated at.Harrow school, whence he passed to Trinity college, Cambridge. He entered parliament for the borough of Ennis in 1820, and was a warm supporter of Catholic emancipation. In 1:535 he was returned on advanced liberal principles for the canny of Limerick, and for several years strongly advocated the claims of Ireland to a strictly equal justice with England, in legislative as well as executive measures. Professing his inability to effect this in the united legislature, and having embroiled himself with the speaker by refusing to serve o.i committees (for which refusal he was committed to prison in the house by the speaker's order), he withdrew from attendance in parliament iu 1841, and joined actively with Daniel O'Connell (q v.) in the agitation for a repeal of the legislative union between England and Ireland. lu the progress of that agitation, a division baying arisen on the
question of moral as against physical force between O'Connell and the party known as " young Irelit—d;” O'Brien sided with the latter; and when the political crisis of 1848 eventuated in a recourse to arms, he took part in an attempt at rebellion in the s. of Ireland, which in a few days came to an almost ludicrous conclusion. He was in conse quence arrested, and, having been convicted, was sentenced to death. The sentence, however, was commuted to transportation for life; and after the restoration of tran quillity in the public mind in Ireland, he, in common with the other political exiles, was permitted to return to his native country. From that date (1856) lie spent much of his time m foreign travel; and although he wrote more than once in terms of strong disapproval of the existing state of things, he invariably abstained from all active share in Lie political proceedings of any party. He died June, 1834.