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O'CONNELL surprising force and energy to the question of the claims of the Roman Catholics of Ireland to political equality with Protestants. In 1815 O'Connell, having in? one of his speeches ap- plied the term " beggarly " to the corporation of Dublin, was challenged by Mr. D'Esterre, a member of the city government. A duel en- sued, and D'Esterre received a wound of which he died. For this event O'Connell always ex- pressed the deepest sorrow, and he never again accepted or offered a challenge. In 1828 the agitation of the Catholic emancipation bill reached its greatest height under the direc- tion of the Catholic association. In June of that year O'Connell was elected to parliament from the county Clare by a large majority. On proceeding to take his seat, he refused as a Roman Catholic to take the test oaths which had been framed for the express purpose of excluding those who held his faith. His firm attitude on this point commanded general at- tention, and led to protracted and animated discussions both in parliament and before the people. The agitation in Ireland, under his guidance, rose to such a height that at length the great leaders of the conservative party, Sir Bobert Peel and the duke of Wellington, re- solved to concede emancipation to the Catholics. Parliament met Feb. 6, 1829 ; the speech from the throne recommended a final, equitable, and satisfactory adjustment of the Catholic claims; in the course of the session the last of the civil disabilities to which the Catholics had been so long subject were repealed ; and in May O'Con- nell took his seat. In 1830 he declined the representation for Clare, and was elected for Kerry. He represented Dublin from 1832 to June, 1835, and again in 1837. In the latter part of 1835 he was elected for Kilkenny, and in 1841 for the county Cork, and in the same year lord mayor of Dublin. He proclaimed that a repeal of the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland was the only means of obtaining justice for the latter kingdom. To compensate him for the loss of his income as a lawyer, and to reward his public services, an annual subscription was organized among the Irish people, under the denomination of "rent," and paid to O'Connell. In 1842 and 1843 immense gatherings, or monster meetings as they were called, were held by the repealers on the royal hill of Tara, the Curragh of Kil- dare, the Rath of Mullaghmast, and other his- torical places. Some of these assemblages were estimated at 500,000 persons. The liberator, as O'Connell was now familiarly called, appeared at them, making the most exciting speeches, but taking extreme care in action to keep his followers within the bounds of law. At length he called a monster meeting at Clontarf near Dublin on Sunday, Oct. 8, 1843 ; and the prep- arations for it, including a body of "repeal cavalry," had such a military air that the gov- ernment thought it time to interfere. On Oct. 7 a proclamation was issued declaring the pub- lic peace endangered by these meetings, and 614 VOL. xii. 37 O'CONNOR 575 warning all persons to keep away from Clon- tarf. O'Connell countermanded the meeting, and the people generally stayed away. On Oct. 14 he was arrested by order of the gov- ernment, together with his son and eight of his coadjutors, on charges of conspiracy, se- dition, and unlawful assembling. They were tried and found guilty. O'Connell was sen- tenced to imprisonment for twelve months and to pay a fine of 2,000, and was bound over to keep the peace for seven years. An appeal was made to the house of lords, and the de- cision of the Irish judges was reversed. This trial gave a death-blow to the repeal move- ment. For a while the monster meetings con- tinued, but very soon dissensions broke out between O'Connell and some of his associates belonging to the party of "Young Ireland," who scoffed at his renunciation of physical force in seeking political reforms. He grew anxious and feeble and at length ill, and had to abandon political agitation altogther, to which indeed the famine now creeping over Ireland put a sudden stop. At length his physicians directed that newspapers should be kept from him, and no one admitted to his presence who would speak of Ireland. Early in 1847 he set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, hoping to die there with the blessing of the pope ; but he sank too rapidly, and died on the way at Genoa. His heart was embalmed and carried to Rome, and his body taken back to Ire- land. See the "Life and Speeches of Dan- iel O'Connell," by his son John O'Connell, M. P. (2 vols., London, 1846), and " The Lib- erator, his Life and Times," by L. F. Cusack (London, 1872). O'COMOR, Arthur, a leader in the Irish re- bellion of 1798, born in 1763, died near Ne- mours, France, April 25, 1852. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1788, became a member of the Irish parliament, and made a speech in favor of Catholic emancipation, which so of- fended his uncle, Lord Longueville, that he dis- inherited him. Joining the United Irishmen, he became one of their directory of five. He was twice arrested, and once tried for high treason, but was acquitted. He took up his residence in France, and in 1 804 was created by Napoleon lieutenant general, and subse- quently general of division. In 1807 he mar- ried the daughter of the philosopher Condor- cet, whose works he is said to have edited. He published "Letters to the Earl of Carlisle, in reply to Earl Fitz William's two Letters on the State of Ireland " (1795) ; " Letters to Earl Camden " (1798) ; " The Present State of Great Britain" (1804); and a volume against the Bourbons and monarchy in general (1830). 0'COMOR, Feargus Edward, a British agitator, born at Dangan Castle, county Meath, Ireland, in 1796, died at Netting Hill, near London, Aug. 30, 1855. He was returned to parliament for the county of Cork in 1832, but on his re- election in 1835 he was unseated as disqualified. He then joined in the agitation for the rights