Daniel O'Connell

Daniel O'Connell Dainéil Ó Conaill
O'Connell, in an 1836 watercolour by Bernard Mulrenin
Member of Parliament for Clare
In office 5 July 1828 – 29 July 1830
Preceded by	William Vesey-FitzGerald
Succeeded by	William Macnamara
Member of Parliament for Dublin City
In office 5 August 1837 – 10 July 1841
Preceded by	George Hamilton
In office 22 December 1832 – 16 May 1836
Preceded by	Sir Frederick Shaw
Succeeded by	George Hamilton
Lord Mayor of Dublin
In office 1841–1842
Preceded by	Sir John James, 1st Bt
Succeeded by	George Roe
Member of Parliament for County Cork
In office 15 July 1841 – 2 July 1847
Preceded by	Garrett Standish Barry
Succeeded by	Edmund Burke Roche
Personal details
Born	(1775-08-06)6 August 1775 Carhan, County Kerry, Ireland
Died	15 May 1847(1847-05-15) (aged 71) Genoa, Kingdom of Sardinia
Resting place	Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin
Political party	Radicals Repeal Association
Spouse	Mary O'Connell (m. 1802)
Children	Maurice Ellen Catherine Timothy Elizabeth John Morgan Daniel
Alma mater	Lincoln's Inn King's Inns
Occupation	Barrister, political activist, politician
Signature
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Ireland
Branch/service	Yeomanry
Years of service	1797
Unit	Lawyer's Artillery Corps

Daniel(I) O’Connell (Irish: Dainéil Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator,^[1] was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilisation of Catholic Ireland, down to the poorest class of tenant farmers, secured the final instalment of Catholic emancipation in 1829 and allowed him to take a seat in the United Kingdom Parliament to which he had been twice elected.

At Westminster, O'Connell championed liberal and reform causes (he was internationally renowned as an abolitionist) but he failed in his declared objective for Ireland – the repeal of the 1800 Act of Union and the restoration of an Irish Parliament.

In 1843, a threat of military force induced O'Connell to call a halt to an unprecedented campaign of open-air mass meetings. The loss of prestige, combined with the perceived indifference of the Whigs he had supported in government to the Great Famine, dispirited and divided his following. In his final year, criticism of his political compromises and of his system of patronage split the national movement that he had singularly led.

Irish nationalists continued to dispute O'Connell's legacy--honoured in 1922 in the renaming of Dublin's principal thoroughfare. Biographers have suggested that his combination of confessional politics and liberal principle was a forerunner of European Christian democracy.