Daniel O'Connell

1 portrait by J. Lewis

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Daniel O'Connell

by J. Lewis
line engraving, 19th century
11 3/8 in. x 8 3/8 in. (289 mm x 212 mm) paper size
Purchased with help from the Friends of the National Libraries and the Pilgrim Trust, 1966
Reference Collection
NPG D13733

Sitterback to top

  • Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), Irish politician; MP for Dublin City and Cork County. Sitter associated with 230 portraits.

Artistback to top

  • J. Lewis. Artist or producer of 1 portrait.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Foister, Susan, Cardinal Newman 1801-90, 1990 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 2 March - 20 May 1990), p. 24 Read entry

    Newman in 1835 confessed he had an 'unspeakable aversion' to O'Connell, the champion of Catholic Ireland, who, he maintained, 'advanced Catholicism by violence and intrigue', (Ian Ker, John Henry Newman: A Biography, Oxford, 1988, pp 118-9) and was prepared to ally himself with anyone against the Anglican church.

    A barrister by training, O'Connell campaigned vigorously for the repeal of the Union between England and Ireland and for the removal of all inequalities affecting Irish Catholics. He was elected as MP for County Clare in 1828, before the passing of the Catholic Emancpation Act in 1829, although he did not take his seat until 1830.

    In this engraving, one of many popular prints produced featuring O'Connell, the beleaguered and oppressed condition of Ireland on the left is contrasted with the peaceful abundance of the country on the right, when justice has been done, and Ireland, as the caption proclaims, has been restored to the Irish.

Events of 1800back to top

Current affairs

Widespread food riots after poor harvests of 1798-9. Theorist, Thomas Malthus, controversially argues that poverty and food shortages are an inevitable consequence of population growth, challenging assumptions that populousness was a sign of national prosperity and power. His thesis contributed forcefully to the debate over the existing Poor Law.

Art and science

William Wordsworth publishes his Preface to the Lyrical Ballads; a retrospective explanation of his experimental poems written with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. It becomes one of the best-known manifestos of Romantic literature.

International

Lord Castlereagh, Chief Secretary for Ireland, is the main architect of the Act of Union under which Ireland is merged with Great Britain and the Irish parliament is abolished.
British troops support successful uprising by Maltese against the French.
Napoleon is victorious against Austrians at Marengo and reconquers Italy.

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