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O'Connell (DANIEL called THE LIBERATOR)

DANIEL, called THE LIBERATOR OF IRELAND and THE GREAT AGITATOR, an Irish patriot; born in County Kerry, Ireland, Aug. 6, 1775.

Educated at the Roman Catholic College O'CONNELL of St. Omer, and the Irish seminary at Douay, a student of Lincoln's Inn, London, in 1794; was admitted to the bar in 1798; and speedily rose to a large and lucrative practice. In 1809, he became popularly known by his fervent advocacy of Catholic emancipation. In 1815, having in one of his diatribes stigmatized the corporation of Dublin as "beggarly," he was challenged by Alderman D'Esterre , and a hostile meeting took place in which the latter fell. He sat in the British DANIEL O'CONNELL House of Commons in 1828-1841, and became Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1841. The return of the Conservatives to power was the signal for renewed political agitation. Repeal of the Union was the object sought, and O'Connell headed the movement. A monster meeting to be held at Clontarf, Oct. 8, 1843, was estopped by the government, and O'Connell sentenced to pay a fine of $10,000, and to be imprisoned one year. This judgment was shortly after reversed by the House of Lords. The return of the Whigs to power in 1846, and O'Connell's avowed adherence to that party, brought him into unpopularity and he retired from public life. He wrote "Memoirs of Ireland." He died in Genoa, Italy, May 15, 1847.