Daniel O’Connell 1775-1847

Daniel O'Connell was born in Cahirciveen, County Kerry, on 6th August 1775.  The O'Connell family were members of the Irish Catholic aristocracy  - however, although Daniel's family were fairly wealthy, discriminatory legislation denied the O'Connell family status, opportunity and influence.

During the years of his studies, at Lincoln's Inn, London and the King's Inn, Dublin, he became interested in politics and his wide-ranging reading habits led him to be influenced by the ideas of radicals such as Tom Paine, Jeremy Bentham and William Godwin.  By the time he qualified as a lawyer in 1798 O'Connell was fully committed to religious tolerance, freedom of conscience, democracy and the separation of Church and State.

O'Connell developed a reputation for his radical political views and became involved with the United Irishmen, a group that had been inspired by the French Revolution.  After a ten year lull in his political activities, during which he concentrated in developing a very successful law practice, he eventually returned to politics and, by 1815, was acknowledged as the leader of the Catholic Emancipation movement.

In the 1830s Daniel O'Connell became a major figure in the House of Commons and was active in the campaigns for prison and law reform, free trade, the abolition of slavery and Jewish emancipation.

Daniel O'Connell died while in Genoa on 15th May, 1847.

Source: www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRoconnell.htm