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Liberator: The Life and Death of Daniel O'Connell, 1830-1847
Liberator The Life and Death of Daniel O'Connell 18301847 Author:Patrick M. Geoghegan In this sequel to his critically acclaimed King Dan, Patrick Geoghegan examines the latter part of O'Connell's life and career. Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847) was one of the most remarkable people in nineteenth-century Europe. Almost uniquely he combined liberalism and Catholicism. His name was mentioned admiringly by figures as diverse as Chatea... more »ubriand, Goethe and Montalembert. Famous in his day as the most feared lawyer in Ireland, he was the prime organiser of Irish nationalist politics in its modern form. His success in securing the passage of the Catholic Emancipation Act at Westminster in 1829 was a seminal achievement in Anglo-Irish history. Known after emancipation as The Liberator, O'Connell became a world figure and one of the most significant power-brokers at Westminster in the late Georgian and early Victorian era. His series of alliances with the Whig governments of Lord Melbourne in the 1830s set Irish nationalism on a parliamentary path that it pursued through the rest of the nineteenth century and which, after the hiatus of the Irish revolution 1916-22, it resumed on securing independence. O'Connell was regarded as a giant of international politics, probably the most famous Irish political figure ever on the international stage.« less