Daniel O'Connell

“ His peculiar knowledge was largely derived as a member of the Irish Privy Council, and from his relations with Cork, of which he was a native.
It was not 'the Shan Van Voght' who first announced, as the old ballad has it, that 'the French were on the sea.' The news came from Darrynane Abbey, where the waves roll in unbroken from Labrador. Daniel O'Connell's people have been accused of treasonable leanings—but unfairly. Old Maurice Connell, or O'Connell, chieftain of Darrynane, made money through 'smuggling,' but he was no rebel. ”

“ The central figure of the tale is Daniel O’Connell who in British parliament as well as in Glenanaar fought for the freedom of his native country. A sprightly modern romance claims a good share of interest in which an Irish-American, an Irish widow, her two daughters and a parish priest figure prominently. ”

“ Daniel O’Connell, of Kerry, was the head man of that movement. He was a great man at moving the Irish people, and carrying them with him. Many of the people thought he meant to fight, too, in the long run, for at some of his monster meetings, speaking to tens of thousands of people, he’d cry out “Hereditary bondsmen! Know ye not! Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.” But he never seriously meant fight. If he did he would, in a quiet way, or in some way, have made some preparation for it. Those same remarks hold good as regards the later Irish movement of Charles S. Parnell. ”

“ For the former the sacrifice of a great career is needed. This sacrifice Daniel O'Connell was prepared to make. His place in history will never be estimated, for few have been so loved or hated, or for stronger reasons. Never did a tribune rising to power lift his people to such sudden hope and success. ”

“ Daniel O'Connell, tamed by age and experience, was by no means the raging propagandist of the twenties and thirties; he was ever counselling his fiery followers to concentrate their attention on the reform of the English Parliament, but his adherents demanded {246} Repeal, and when he disagreed, they passed on, despising the leader who refused to lead. William Smith O'Brien was now the temporary hero, and he was fascinating the rank and file of agitators by his aristocratic manner and superficial unselfishness. ”

“ He died on 9 July 1833, at the age of eighty-eight, at the château of Mâdon, in Blois, where he had long resided. His nephew, Daniel O'Connell ‘the Liberator,’ said of him that ‘in the days of his prosperity he never forgot his country or his God. Never was there a more sincere friend or a more generous man. ”

“ In this city, the delicate Philadelphia Gazette comes magnanimously to the aid of Henry Clay,—
"A tom-tit twittering on an eagle's back."
The learned editor gives it as his opinion that Daniel O'Connell is a "political beggar," a "disorganizing apostate;" talks in its pretty way of the man's "impudence" and "falsehoods" and "cowardice," etc.; and finally, with a modesty and gravity which we cannot but admire, assures us that "his weakness of mind is almost beyond calculation!" ”

“ Her energies were always at the service of the sufferers and the wretched of every class.
DANIEL O’CONNELL. Born 1775.—Died 1845.—George III.—George IV. William IV.—Victoria.
This famous Irish political agitator was born in Kerry, and educated at St. Omer’s, in France. He was called to the bar in 1798, and elected member for Clare in 1828. In spite of the continued opposition of George IV., Irish agitation through O’Connell urged the Government to pass the Catholic Relief Bill, which was done in 1829, and one of the king’s last reluctant acts was to sign it. ”

“ Mountain Stage and Kells are passed, and the train glides down an incline to Cahirciveen and Valentia Harbour. Cahirciveen, the birthplace of Daniel O'Connell, is the most westerly town in the three kingdoms. It lies with its back up against the Iveragh Mountains, and facing the blue waters of Dingle Bay. Only since the road was cut across the hills to Valentia in later years has it come to be of importance. In 1803 there were only fifteen houses here, and the beginning of its uprise in the world was when O'Connell got it made a market town. ”

“ Lord Morpeth, as he was known during the twenty odd years he sat in Parliament, was the most workmanlike minister of his generation. With the assistance of Thomas Drummond, his under-secretary, he framed the Irish Tithe Bill, the Irish Municipal Reform Bill, and the Irish Poor Law Bill; and, although hampered by the House of Lords and by the fact that he was regarded as Lord Melbourne's {259} hostage for good behaviour to Daniel O'Connell, he was a most successful Chief Secretary in a time when success was very dearly bought. ”

“ The country gasped, and followed him, leaving Daniel O'Connell to realize that every generation produces its heroes and geniuses, and will not tolerate the rivalry of the aged, however eminent.
An Irish Lord-Lieutenant
Lord John Russell began his first ministry on July 6th, 1846. His Cabinet was a strong one, and his prospects were bright save on the omni-present Irish question. O'Connell was certainly a spent force, but a new race of agitators had arisen, and the principles of '98 were as strong as ever nearly fifty years later. The premier, however, had some knowledge of Ireland. ”

“ No single election has ever had the effect produced by the election of Daniel O'Connell to represent Clare at Westminster. A month before the result Sir Robert Peel declared that he would die politically rather than give way: the returns from Clare were still being discussed when the same man started to draft the Bill he introduced into the House of Commons in February, 1829, a measure which completely emancipated the Roman Catholics. The posts of Regent, of Lord Chancellor, and of Irish Viceroy were the only ones Catholics could not hold. The Catholic Association had justified its existence. ”

“ That other one is bigger? Well!—and your father knew Daniel O'Connell
you say?—ah, I tell you that's a fine fellow!"
Whether he meant the patriot or the pippin it might be difficult to determine. This, however, is but a specimen of their conversation. Then in the end she would produce the ripest and rosiest of her stock—which she had been keeping for him all the while,—and, leaving a penny in her palm, he would hurry away in order to reach St. Francis' School before the bell rang. ”

“ There have been some who have had the God-given gift of leadership, but still sought to misinterpret the sound of the voice; who in shutting their ears to the call for battle have helped to fasten the shackles of slavery more securely on their country.
There was Daniel O'Connell who possessed the divine gift of leadership and oratory, and in whose tones the people recognized the voice of Ireland and flocked around him. During the agitation for the Repeal of the union between Ireland and England the people followed O'Connell and waited for him to give the word. ”

“ Ochterlony, Sir David, British general, born at Boston, U.S., of Scottish descent; entered the Indian army; distinguished himself in the war against the Goorkhas; was made a baronet, and received a pension of £1000 for his services; a monument to his memory stands in the Maidan Park, Calcutta (1758-1825) .
Ockley, Simon, Orientalist, became professor of Arabic; wrote a "History of the Saracens," part of it in a debtors' prison; died in indigence (1678-1720) .
O'Connell, Daniel, Irish patriot, known as the "Liberator," born near Cahirciveen, co. Kerry; educated at St. ”

“ It is this thorough identification with the national spirit, with the religion which the persecution of centuries had made inseparable from it, that makes O’Connell without equal or second among the great men who nobly contended for their country’s freedom at the end of the last and beginning of the present century. He stands alone, gifted with a power to which neither the highest intellect nor the most brilliant oratory could otherwise obtain. ”

“ There is a full-length picture of him in the Reform Club, London, which enables one to understand how stately and imposing his presence must have been.
The career of O'Connell would appear to have been easily marked out for him. He was the foremost advocate in Ireland; he was making a large income; he had inherited a considerable property—what was there for him but to go on and prosper; make money, hunt, shoot, fish, and be happy. He could not indeed obtain any of the honors or dignities of his profession. He could not even be a king's counsel, and wear a silk gown. ”

“ O'Connell was all for the poor. See what he did at Saint Patrick's Island—he cast out every bad thing and every whole thing, to England and to America and to every part. He fought it well for every whole body. ”

“ O'Connell was a grand man; the best within the walls of the world. He never led anyone astray. Did you hear that one time he turned the shoes on his horses? There were bad members following him. I cannot say who they were, for I will not tell what I don't know. He got a smith to turn the shoes, and when they came upon his track, he went east and they went west. Parnell was no bad man, but Dan O'Connell's name went up higher in praises. ”

“ O'Connell saw that he could not catch the runaway client, who was now on the flight leading into the hall. He leant over the bannister, and made a grasp at the farmer's collar, but, instead of the collar, he caught the rustic's wig, which came away in his hand. O'Connell gave a shout of laughter, and, quick as thought, jumped in high spirits back to his room. "Hurrah! see, K——, I've got the rascal's wig." Up went the window—
"Three cheers for the counsellor!—Long life to your honor. Arrah! isn't he the man of the people." ”

“ O’Connell was far too sharp-sighted—far too intelligent and clever a man to make so grave a mistake as this. By the sheer force of his genius he exercised for many years of his life a most powerful influence on English politics. He figures in one of John Doyle’s sketches in the character ascribed to him probably by most of his contemporaries. In the sketch referred to, the Governor of Barataria is represented by the typical Irish peasant ”

“ The remainder of O'Connell's life was devoted mainly to the cause of Repeal of the Union—in other words, the cause of Home Rule. He organized the great system of monster meetings—vast out-of-door gatherings, which he swayed as he pleased by the magic of his eloquence, his humor, his passion, and the charm of his wonderful voice. No doubt he sometimes used very strong language; no doubt some of the younger men fully believed that he meant rebellion—that he had rebellion up his sleeve if his demands were not conceded. The meetings were always held on the Sunday ”

“ The apathy of the mass of the people, as shown by the results of the general election, greatly depressed him; but he was more alarmed by the prospect of the passing of a bill on the lines laid down by Canning, which Grattan, with the best intention in the world, but with altogether insufficient knowledge of the state of catholic opinion in Ireland, had introduced on 30 April 1813. It was a critical moment in O'Connell's life. ”

“ O'Connell's agitation even for Repeal was essentially religious. Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church were indissolubly associated in his mind. His habits as a nisi prius barrister made him an advocate more than a statesman; and having pleaded the cause of his Church for forty years, having been rewarded and retained for so doing by an annual "tribute" collected in the chapels of the kingdom, and having won his unparalleled popularity and almost kingly power by his services in this cause, he could not help regarding himself as the special champion of the Irish priests and their people. ”

“ O’Connell attempted to take his seat last night, but the business was put off till Monday. His case is exceedingly well got up, but too long. There are many opinions as to his right; many people think he has established [208] it (though he had failed to do so) , that a Bill ought to be brought in to enable him to take the new oaths. It was supposed Government would take no part, but Peel’s speech and the language of some of the Ministers are rather unfavourable to him. ”

“ He spoke frequently, in a voice feeble but clear and distinct.’
‘A man of fair talent but nothing more,’ is Q’s summing-up of one who, alike in his early prime and in his old age, filled a prominent place in the House of Commons.
O’Connell was closer to Q’s heart. He devotes an exceptional number of pages to a study of the Great Beggarman. Tall and athletic in person, O’Connell’s complexion had about it a freshness and ruddiness indicative of good health and excellent spirits. In a voice clear and strong he spoke with broad Irish accent. ”

“ Those who publicly express that opinion, incur a very grave responsibility. We are ourselves zealous, but independent supporters of the present government; we applaud their institution of these proceedings; no one can lament more bitterly than we do, that O'Connell should, like many a criminal before him, have escaped from justice through a flaw in the indictment; yet with all this, we feel perfectly satisfied that the three peers who reversed the judgment against him, believed that they were right in point of law. ”

“ Three weeks after Disraeli had taken his seat there was a debate upon some election manœuvres in Ireland. Hard blows had been exchanged. Sir F. Burdett had called O’Connell a paid patriot. O’Connell had replied that he had sacrificed a splendid professional income to defend his country’s rights. ‘Was he for this to be vilified and traduced by an old renegade?’ Immediately after O’Connell Disraeli rose. His appearance was theatrical, as usual. He was dressed in a bottle-green frock coat, with a white waistcoat, collarless, and with needless display of gold chain. ”