Commemorating Daniel O’Connell in London
On the 17th of October, I had the pleasure of attending an important Irish commemorative event in central London. The venue was number 14, Albemarle Street in Mayfair and the occasion was the unveiling of an English Heritage Blue Plaque commemorating the great 19th century Irish Parliamentarian, Daniel O’Connell, who is known in Ireland as ‘the Liberator’. The unveiling was done by our Minister for the Diaspora, Jimmy Deenihan, who has been a long-time admirer of O'Connell.
Daniel O’Connell was born in County Kerry in 1775 and spent some of his school years in France before coming to London in 1793 to study for the Bar at the Lincoln’s Inn. He returned to Ireland in 1796 where he became a successful barrister.
His career in public life began in earnest after the Act of Union of 1800, to which he was firmly opposed. The Act abolished the existing Irish Parliament and meant that Irish constituencies would henceforth be represented at Westminster.
O’Connell came to national and international prominence on account of the struggle for Catholic Emancipation, a cause in which he was the leading campaigner. The manner in which O’Connell mobilised the Irish population as part of a peaceful mass movement aimed at ending political discrimination against Catholics won him great fame. The granting of Catholic Emancipation in 1829 was the first in a series of 19th century reforms of the British parliamentary system. It enabled Catholics to take a seat in Parliament for the first time since the Reformation. In 1830, O’Connell entered the Westminster Parliament and served there with distinction until his death in 1847.
It seems to me to be entirely appropriate that Daniel O’Connell should be commemorated at one of the London addresses where he stayed during his years as an MP. Following his election, O’Connell was in London for every parliamentary session until his death. We know that he lived at 14 Albemarle Street from January to July 1833. This was an important time in O’Connell’s career as he was a relatively new Member of Parliament and the Great Reform Act had been passed the previous year, opening up the possibility of political reform being achieved through parliamentary agitation.
The inscription on the Blue Plaque reads as follows: 'Daniel O’Connell, ‘The Liberator’, 1775-1847, Irish leader and champion of civil rights lived here in 1833.'
There are a number of reasons why Daniel O’Connell deserves to be commemorated in London. First, O’Connell was one of the leading Irishmen of the 19th century. He was the first in a succession of Irish MPs who faithfully represented Irish interests in the British Parliament between 1829 and 1918, when Irish nationalist MPs decided to withdraw from Westminster.
Second, O’Connell was a man who made his mark in Britain as well as in Ireland. He did not confine himself to attempting to redress the grievances of his Irish constituents, but he was also a principled opponent of slavery and an advocate of the lifting of discrimination against Jews.
Third, his opposition to slavery won him the admiration of the anti-slavery campaigner. Frederick Douglass, who when he returned to the US became known as 'the black O'Connell.' It was wonderful to see Douglass's great-granddaughter, Nettie Douglass, at the unveiling of the Blue Plaque.
During his lifetime, O'Connell became an international figure whose success in the peaceful pursuit of political reform attracted considerable attention in continental Europe. His European reputation was the subject of this year's O'Connell Commemorative lecture which I delivered in May in Dublin's Glasnevin Cemetery, where O'Connell is buried.
After the unveiling of the Blue Plaque, TCD historian and O'Connell biographer, Patrick Geoghegan, gave the inaugural Daniel O'Connell lecture to a full house at the Embassy. It was a fine lecture and a great occasion, at which many descendants of O'Connell were in attendance. I intend this to be an annual event commemorating a man described decades after his death by the great Victorian politician and Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone, as the greatest popular leader the world has ever known.
Daniel Mulhall is Ireland's Ambassador in London.