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 O'CONNELL

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O'CONOR

Westmeath, and Louth. In 1828 came the Clare election when O'Connell himself was nominated. It was known that he could not as a Catholic take the Parliaiiiculary oath; but if he, the representative of 6,l)0,(H)0, were driven from the doors of Parliament solely because of his creed, the effect on public opinion woukl be great. O'Connell was elected, and when he presented himself in Parliament he refused to take the oath olTered him. The crisis had come. The Catholic millions, organized and defiant, would have Emancipation; the Orangemen would have no con- cession; and Ireland, in the end of 1828, was on the brink of civil war. To avoid this calamity Peel and Wellington struck their colours, and in 1829 the Cath- olic Relief Act was passed.

Henceforth O'Connell was the Uncrowned King of Ireland. To recompense him for his services and to secure these services for the future in Parliament, he was induced to abandon the practice of his profession and to accept instead the O'Connell Tribute, which from the voluntary subscriptions of the people brought him an income of £1600 a year. His first care was for Repeal, but his appeals for Protestant co-operation were not responded to, and the associations he formed to agitate the question were all proclaimed. In this respect the Whigs, whom he supported in 1832, were no better than the Tories. He denounced them as "base, brutal and bloody"; yet in 18.35 ho entered into an alliance with them by accepting the Lichfield House Compact, and he kept them in oflSce till 1841. During these years Drummond effected reforms in the Irish executive, and measures affecting tithes, poor law, and municipal reform were passed. But Repeal was left in abeyance till Peel returned to power, and then O'Connell established the Repeal Association. Its progress was slow until in 1842 it got the support of the Nation newspaper. In one year it advanced with giant strides, and in 1843 O'Connell held a series of meetings, some of them attended by hundreds of thousands.

The last of these meetings was to be held at Clon- tarf in October. Peel proclaimed the meeting and prosecuted O'Connell, and in 1844 he was convicted and imprisoned. On appeal to the House of Lords the judgment of the Irish court was reversed and O'Connell was set free. His health had suffered, and henceforth there was a lack of energy and vigour in his movements, a shifting from Repeal to Federalism and back again to Repeal. He also quarrelled with the Young Irelanders. Then came the avdnl calamity of the famine. O'ConneU's last appearance in Parlia- ment was in 1847 when he pathetically asked that his people be saved from perishing. He was then se- riously ill. The doctors ordered him to a warmer cU- mate. He felt that he was dying and wished to die at Rome, but got no further than Genoa. In accordance with his wish his heart was brought to Rome and his body to Ireland. His funeral was of enormous di- mensions, and since his death a splendid statue has been erected to his memory in Dublin and a round tower placed over his remains in Glasnevin.

O'Connell was married to his cousin Mary O'Con- nell and had three daughters and four sons, all the latter being at one time or other in Pariiament.

John O'Conneli., third son of the above; b. at Dubhn, 24 December, 1810; d. at Kingstown, Co. Dubhn, 24 May, 1858. He was returned M.P. for Youghal (18.32), Athlone (1837), and Kilkenny (1841-47). As a politician he was not tactful, and, came in conflict with the Young Ireland party. As a writer his "Repeal Dictionary" (1845) showed much literary and polemical power. In 1846 he published a selection of his father's speeches, prefaced by a me- moir. His "Recollections and Experiences during a Parliamentary Career from 1833 to 1848" was issued in two volumes (1849). As a Whig, and also a cap- tain in the militia, he fell into disfavour with his Lim-

erick constituents. He retired from politics 1857, and accepted a lucrative Government appointment.

FiTZPATBicK, O'ConneU's Correspondence (London, 1888)- Houston, O'ConneU's Journal (London, 1906); Dunloi', O'Con- neU (New York. 1900); McDonaoh, Life of O'ConneU (London, 1903); O'Neill Daunt, Personal Recollections of O'Connell (Lon- don, 1848) ; CuBACK. Life and Times of O'ConneU (London. 1872); Cloncurrt, Personal Recollections (Dublin. 1849); Duppt! Young Ireland (London, 1896); Mitchel, History of Ireland (London, 1869); Fitzpatrick, Dr. Doyle (Dublin, 1880); Leckt, Leaders of Public Opinion (London, 1871); Nemours Godre O'ConneU. sa tie, son ceuvre (Paris. 1900); Shaw Lefevre, ftei and O'ConneU (London. 1887); John O'Connell. RecoUectiona (London. 1849); Madden, Ireland and its Rulers (London. 1844); Colchester. Diary (London, 18B1) ; Wtse, History of the Catholic Association (London, 1829); D'Alton, History of Ireland (Lon-

do°. 1910- E. A. D'Alton.

O'Connell, Dennis Joseph. See San Francisco, Archdioce,se of.

O'Connell, William H. See Boston, Archdio- cese OF.

O'Connor, John Joseph. See Newark, Diocese

OF.

O'Connor, Patrick Joseph. See Armidale, Dio- cese OF.

O'Connor, Richard A. Sec Peterborough, Dio- cese OF.

O'Conor, Charles, b. in the city of New York, 22

January, 1804; d. at Nantucket, Mass., 12 May, 1884. His father, Thomas O'Conor, who came to New York from Ireland in 1801, was "one of the active rebels of 1798", a devoted Cathohc and patriot, less proud of the kingly rule of his family than of the adher- ence of the O'Conors to their ancient faith and patri- otic principles. He married (1803) a daughter of Hugh O'Connor, a fellow countryman, but not a kinsman, who had come to the United States with his family in or about 1790. Of this marriage Charles O'Conor was bom.

In 1824, in his native city, he was admitted to the practice of the law. In 1827 he was successful as counsel in the case of a contested election for trustees of St. Peter's Church in New York. From the year 1828 his rise in his profession was continuous. As early as 1840 an interested observer of men and events, Philip Hone, refers in his diary to "an able speech" by this "distinguished member of the New York bar" (Tuckerman, "The Diary of Philip Hone ", New York, 1889, II, 37). In 1843 by the case of Stewart against Lispenard, his professional standing became most se- curely established. At the June term in this year of the highest court of the State twenty cases were argued. Of these he argued four. In 1846 he had reached "the front ranks of the profession, not only in the City and State of New York, but in the United States" (Clinton, "Extraordinary Cases", New York, I, 1 ). Doubtless, to his repute as a jurist should be attrib- uted his nomination by all political parties for the New York State Constitutional Convention of that year. Subsequent to his very early manhood, office-holding could not have attracted him. He once wrote that if elected to office he would accept only, if impelled by "a sense of duty such as might impel the conscripted militia-man" (see "U. S. Catholic Historical Maga- zine", New York, 1891-92, IV, 402, and his response to tender in 1872 of the presidential nomination, ibidem, 399). Concerning voting for public oflicers he expressed himself in a similar manner, such vot- ing being, he contended, "the performance of a duty " and no more a personal right than payment of taxes or submitting to military service, although termed " somewhat inaptly "afranchise (see "Address before the New York Historical Society ", New York, 1877). During the convention "it was the wonder of his colleagues, how in addition to the faithful work performed in committee he could get time for the re- search that was needed to equip him for the great speeches with which he adorned the debates" (Alex-