#OTD in 1844 – Daniel O’Connell was convicted of ‘conspiracy’, fined £2,000 and sentenced to 12 months in prison.

10/02/2023.Reading time 2 minutes.

Once Catholic emancipation was achieved, Daniel O’Connell campaigned for repeal of the Act of Union, which in 1801 had merged the Parliaments of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. To campaign for repeal, O’Connell set up the Repeal Association. He argued […]

#OTD in 1882 – Unveiling of O’Connell monument in Dublin.

15/08/2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

One of Dublin’s finest sculptors, John Henry Foley designed this imposing and remarkably beautiful memorial to Daniel O’Connell which was unveiled at the south end of what was called Sackville street – the name was changed to O’Connell street in 1924 – to admiring crowds gathered in the pouring rain on 15 August 1882. In […]

#OTD in 1775 – Birth of Daniel O’Connell in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry.

06/08/2022.Reading time 2 minutes.

Daniel O’Connell was born in Cahirsiveen, Co Kerry. He would go on to be one of the most important figures in Irish political and Catholic civil rights history. He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation – the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years – and Repeal of the Union […]

#OTD in 1847 – Daniel O’Connell, “The Liberator,” dies in Genoa.

15/05/2022.Reading time 3 minutes.

“No person knows better than you do that the domination of England is the sole and blighting curse of this country. It is the incubus that sits on our energies, stops the pulsation of the nation’s heart and leaves to Ireland not gay vitality but horrid the convulsions of a troubled dream.” –Daniel O’Connell Eighteen […]