A look at the life of Daniel O'Connell, The Liberator.
People on O'Connell Street, Dublin where a statue of Daniel O'Connell stands, describe what they know and do not know about the man known as the Liberator.
He led the fight for Catholic emancipation and he was also involved in the repeal or trying to get the repeal of the Act of Union.
A direct descendant of Daniel O'Connell, Maurice O'Connell, a professor of history at Fordham University, provides new insight into the importance and complexity of the man's contribution to the modern world. He examines the early life of Daniel O'Connell, his education in France, Dublin and London, and his work as a barrister defending the underprivileged.
The ancestral home at Derrynane was officially opened to the public as a museum in 1967.
Daniel O'Connell was born in 1775 at Derrynane near Cahirciveen in County Kerry. Unusually among Catholics at the time, the O'Connell family were landlords. His uncle Maurice O'Connell was a smuggler who inherited the family estate.
The family were well connected in the 18th century and Daniel O'Connell himself had many links with France in particular. Before the French Revolution (1789-1799), he had 17 relatives who held commissions in the French army. Count O'Connell, Daniel's uncle, was made a Count by Louis XVI. He was also a General in the French army and was a man of considerable influence among Irish people in France. Count O'Connell arranged for Daniel to be sent to a school in France, firstly at the English Jesuit college of Saint-Omer. and later at the English College at Douai. In January 1793, the college in Douai was closed by the French revolutionary government and a few days following the execution of Louis XVI, Daniel O'Connell left France. Experiencing the beginnings of the French Revolution,
O'Connell got his first taste of revolutionary violence.
Back in Dublin, Daniel O'Connell practiced as a barrister at the Four Courts. The Relief Act (1792) allowed Catholics to enter the legal profession. They could not progress beyond the position of a junior barrister. Following his studies in Dublin and London, he qualified as a barrister in 1798.
O'Connell first achieved fame as a barrister in the courts defending humble people against various charges, many of which they saw as unfair and he defended them with such success that he became quite famous all over the country and this fame lay the basis of his later political career.
'Radharc: King Dan The Liberator' was broadcast on 9 January 1984. The narrator is Don Cockburn.
Radharc was first aired in January 1962 and over the next 34 years broadcast more than 400 programmes from Ireland and around the world.
