Daniel O’Connell – a fighter for justice ahead of his time
Daniel O’Connell, whose ‘monster meetings’ drew unprecedented crowds in Ireland
Alamy/Pictorial Press
Sometimes underestimated at home, the Kerry-born lawyer and statesman who created one of the first mass movements for peaceful political change is widely recognised internationally as a pioneer of religious freedom and founder of modern democracy
Gladstone described him as “the greatest popular leader whom the world has ever seen”. His followers acclaimed him as “The Liberator”, his opponents mocked him as the “King of the Beggars”.
Daniel O’Connell was born on 6 August 1775 into a prominent Gaelic family in Kerry. The precarious nature of their prosperity as Catholics subject to the Penal Laws and their closeness to their peasant tenants gave O’Connell a burning sense of justice and an intuitive grasp of the mentality and condition of the Irish people. Direct experience of the excesses of the French Revolution – which cut short his schooling in Saint-Omer and Douai – added a visceral opposition to violence to his political outlook.
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