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Why President Obama will honor often-forgotten Irish patriot Daniel O’Connell

O’Connell’s anti-slavery embrace of Fredrick Douglass is remembered

NIALL O'DOWD,

IrishCentral.com Founder

Published Monday, April 25, 2011, 7:15 AM

Updated Monday, April 25, 2011, 7:50 AM

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President Barack Obama and Daniel O'Connell

Photo by Google Images

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The news that President Obama will honor Daniel O’Connell, the Irish patriot and creator of Catholic emancipation in 1829, completes an extraordinary circle in Irish and American life.

The Irish Times has reported that Obama is likely to visit the tomb of O’Connell in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetry to pay tribute to him during his visit to Ireland on May 23rd.

Obama has singled out O’Connell because, almost alone among Irish and British leaders of his era, he condemned slavery.

By so doing Obama will elevate O’Connell from his current place in Irish history where he has been forgotten to some extent for his remarkable and non violent approach to Irish freedom.

He was also hugely influential in helping Fredrick Douglass, one of Obama’s heroes, when the escaped slave fled to Ireland in 1845 to escape from slave catchers.

O’Connell felt so strongly about slavery that he refused the support of over 20 pro-slavery members of parliament when they approached him and offered to help win Catholic emancipation and repeal of the Act of Union in return for supporting their efforts to keep slavery in the West Indies.

Here are extracts from speeches of O’Connell.

“I am an Abolitionist. I am for speedy, immediate abolition. I care not what caste, creed, or color, slavery may assume. Whether it be personal or political, mental or corporeal, intellectual or spiritual, I am for its total, its instant abolition. I enter into no compromise with slavery. I am for justice, in the name of humanity, and according to the law of the living God…..My soul object is to rouse the attention of England and Europe to all that is cruel, criminal, and in every sense of the word, infamous, in the system of negro slavery in North America. … no American slaveholder ought to be received on a footing of equality by any of the civilized inhabitants of Europe.”

Douglass for his part was captivated by O’Connell and his principled stand against slavery. “Daniel O’Connell, welcomed me to Ireland and to “Conciliation Hall,” and where I first had a specimen of his truly wondrous eloquence. Until I heard this man, I had thought that the story of his oratory and power was greatly exaggerated. I did not see how a man would speak to twenty or thirty-thousand people at one time, and be heard by any considerable number of them, but the mystery was solved when I saw his vast person and heard his musical voice.

His eloquence came down upon the vast assembly like a summer thunder-shower upon a dusty road. He could stir the multitude, at will, to a tempest of wrath, or reduce it to the silence with which a mother leaves the cradle side of her sleeping babe. Such tenderness – such pathos – such world-embracing love! And, on the other hand, such indignation – such fiery and thunderous denunciation, and such wit and humor, I never heard surpassed, if equaled, at home or abroad. He held Ireland within the grasp of his strong hand, and could lead it whithersoever he would, for Ireland believed in him and loved him, as she has loved and believed in no leader since.

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42 Comments

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TheYank | Apr 28, 2011, 07:51 PM EDT

Irishphotograph,

Your ancestor is all but forgotten here. Would be great if President Obama brought some notice to Devoy, but I don't see it happening.

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GeorgeDillon | Apr 28, 2011, 02:14 PM EDT

Sirpeter looks up something on the internet and then recycles it to the rest of us. We can all use wikipedia, don't bother us.

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Irishphotograph | Apr 27, 2011, 07:03 AM EDT

Lets not forget John Devoy (IRB) my ancestor...google him my website wwww.imagesbydavid.net

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sirpeter | Apr 26, 2011, 05:00 PM EDT

Georgy Boy..Just want to clarify the killing of D'Esterre.In 1815 a serious event in his life occurred. The Dublin Corporation had always been reactionary and bigoted against Catholics, and served the established Protestant Ascendancy. O'Connell in an 1815 speech referred to "The Corpo", as it was commonly referred to, as a "beggarly corporation". Its members and leaders were outraged and because O'Connell would not apologize, one of their number, the NOTED duellist John D'Esterre, CHELLENGED him. The duel had filled Dublin Castle (from where the British Government administered Ireland) with tense excitement at the prospect that O'Connell would be killed. They regarded O'Connell as "worse than a public nuisance," and would have welcomed any prospect of seeing him removed at this time.[9] O'Connell met D'Esterre and mortally wounded him (he was shot in the hip, the bullet then lodging in his stomach), in a duel at Oughterard, County Kildare. His conscience was bitterly sore by the fact that, not only had he killed a man, but he had left his family almost destitute. O'Connell offered to "share his income" with D'Esterre's widow, but she declined; however, she consented to accept an allowance for her daughter, which O'Connell regularly paid for more than thirty years until his death. The memory of the duel haunted him for the remainder of his life.Sounds like a man who didn't like violence to me. After all a person can be against violence but you can't run away from violence all the time. That's a coward Georgy.

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GeorgeDillon | Apr 26, 2011, 04:37 PM EDT

More nonsense from TomSwinford. He tells us that O'Connell was "an apostle of non-violence". Baloney. O'Connell was a big supporter of violence, in the shape of the independence movements in Latin America. He was an admirer of violent revolutionary leaders like Bolivar and San Martin. He even sent his son, Morgan, to fight against the Spaniards in Colombia. No squeamishness about violence in that case! It's typical of a lot of Irish--they're blowhards in favor of "freedom" or "human rights" on the other side of the globe, but whining lapdogs when it comes to asserting Ireland's rights. Bono would be an example today. O'Connell a big fan of non-violence, TomSwinford? SO how come he killed a man, D'Esterre, over a triviality. TomSwinford, get yourself to a library, and start studying the history of Ireland. When you're done (should take you a few years) come back and post here.

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GeorgeDillon | Apr 26, 2011, 04:08 PM EDT

Liamkeyes: "They should also change the name of Westmoreland Street". Liam, it is little short of amazing that all those Anglo street names were left unchallenged after "independence" (sic). The centers of Dublin, Cork and other cities are full of names that commemorate various British nonentities. That's the nature of the Irish--they're toadies. You even have names that honor militarist fools like Raglan, of the Charge of the Light Brigade. Clare Street in downtown Dublin seems pretty innocuous--named for County Clare, surely? NO, it turns out that this street was named for Lord Clare, he who was guilty of mass murder and ethnic cleansing when he headed the British administration during the 1798 Rebellion. And so on... I noticed in a newspaper someone sent me from Ireland that they are selling houses in a place called "Kensington Mews" in Dun Laoire. Looks like a lot of Irish really regret they were not born English.

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Liamkeyes | Apr 26, 2011, 12:41 PM EDT

I don't believe that Daniel O'Connell is forgotten. His momument down at the Liffey Bridge is very imposing and it is the largest monument on O'Connell Street, since Nelson's Pillar was blown up by the IRA back in 1966. Of course the Street was named after him also. It sounds much better than it's previous name (Sackville Street). They should also change the name of Westmoreland Street while they're at it. Up at the far end of O'Connell Street is another fine Monument, the Parnell Monument, the square behind it ie named after him.

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sirpeter | Apr 26, 2011, 12:34 PM EDT

Woodkern..You misquoted thomasbyrne.So now he can say you can't read.It just leads to spamming the board about nothing. If everyone started with all this grammar and punctuation crap.I would not be able to find all the people who deserve abuse. It is important that the loyalist scumbags and British lickasses don't get off lightly. Now take your grammar check agus Póg mo thóin.

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thomasbyrne | Apr 26, 2011, 12:26 PM EDT

Woodkern, why do you discriminate against suburban inhabitants?

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thomasbyrne | Apr 26, 2011, 11:54 AM EDT

Are you a teacher? I am!

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thomasbyrne | Apr 26, 2011, 11:52 AM EDT

then*

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thomasbyrne | Apr 26, 2011, 11:52 AM EDT

well the correct it if you so strongly desire!