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William Smith O'Brien

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: William Smith O'Brien
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William Smith O'Brien, lithograph by H. O'Neill after a daguerreotype by Glukman, 1848
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William Smith O'Brien, lithograph by H. O'Neill after a daguerreotype by Glukman, 1848 (credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co. Ltd.)
(born Oct. 17, 1803, Dromoland, County Clare, Ire. — died June 18, 1864, Bangor, Caernarvonshire, Wales) Irish political insurgent. He served in the British House of Commons (1828 – 48) and initially supported the Anglo-Irish legislative union (see Act of Union). In 1843 he joined the anti-union Repeal Association, and in 1846 he broke with Daniel O'Connell to lead the radical Young Ireland movement. In 1848 he supported violent revolution and led an abortive insurrection in County Tipperary. Convicted of high treason, he received a death sentence that was commuted to exile in Tasmania. He was released in 1854 and pardoned in 1856.

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British History: William Smith O'Brien
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O'Brien, William Smith (1803-64). Smith O'Brien was an unlikely, unwilling, and unsuccessful Irish rebel. the younger son of a protestant baronet from Co. Clare, with family links to the earls of Thomond, he was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. He served in Parliament 1828-31 and from 1835 when he was returned for Co. Limerick. He moved steadily into a nationalist stance, much influenced by Young Ireland, and in 1843 declared for repeal of the Union. A rising planned for August 1848 dwindled into a farcical riot at Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary, where O'Brien explained that he did not intend any violence to property. An attack upon 46 policemen, holed up in Widow McCormack's cottage, was unsuccessful. O'Brien was sentenced to death, but pardoned against his will and transported.

Irish Literature Companion: William Smith O'Brien
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O'Brien, William Smith (1803-1864), Young Irelander. Born at Dromoland, Co. Clare, he was educated at Harrow and Cambridge before becoming Conservative MP for Ennis, 1825, and later for Co. Limerick, 1835. He joined Young Ireland but did not share the anti-landlord politics of John Mitchel and James Fintan Lalor. In October 1848, he lead the only significant action of the young Ireland rising, and fought off a contingent of policemen at the Widow McCormack's house in Ballingarry. The death sentence passed on him was commuted and he spent five years in Tasmania before going to America. His political testament is Principles of Government or Meditations in Exile (1856). There is a monument in O'Connell St., Dublin.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: William Smith O'Brien
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O'Brien, William Smith, 1803-64, Irish revolutionary. He entered Parliament from Ireland in 1828 and worked for Catholic Emancipation, Irish poor relief, and state support of the Irish Catholic clergy. O'Brien's political opinions moved steadily to the left. At first he opposed the agitation of Daniel O'Connell to repeal the parliamentary union of Great Britain and Ireland, believing that the British Parliament would grant some relief to Ireland, but in 1843 he joined the Repeal Association and rapidly became O'Connell's second in the Irish nationalist struggle. O'Brien's group, called Young Ireland, became convinced that only direct action would free Ireland, and in 1846, with John Mitchel, Thomas Francis Meagher, and Charles Gavan Duffy, O'Brien seceded from O'Connell's association to form the Irish Confederation. The aggravation of the famine and Mitchel's arrest and conviction in 1848 determined them to rise against the government. The revolt was abortive, and the only engagement was an attempt to attack a police detachment in Co. Tipperary. O'Brien was arrested and sentenced to death for treason, but the sentence was commuted to transportation to Tasmania. He received a full pardon in 1856. Afterward he returned to Ireland and traveled on the Continent and in America, but he was no longer politically active.

Bibliography

See D. Gwynn, Young Ireland and 1848 (1949); biography by B. Touhill (1981).

Wikipedia: William Smith O'Brien
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For other persons named William O'Brien, see William O'Brien (disambiguation).
William Smith O'Brien

William Smith O'Brien (17 October 1803 – 18 June 1864) was an Irish Nationalist and Member of Parliament (MP) and leader of the Young Ireland movement.

Contents

Early life

Born in Dromoland, Newmarket on Fergus, Co. Clare, he was the second son of Sir Edward O'Brien, 4th Baronet, of Dromoland Castle.[1] William took the additional surname Smith, his mother's maiden name, upon inheriting property through her. He was a descendant of the eleventh century Ard Rí (High King of Ireland), Brian Boru.[2] He was educated at Harrow School and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Politics

From April 1828 to 1831 he was Conservative MP for Ennis. He became MP for Limerick County in 1835, holding his seat in the House of Commons until 1848.

Although a Protestant, he supported Catholic Emancipation while remaining a supporter of British-Irish union. However, in 1843, in protest against the imprisonment of Daniel O'Connell, he joined O'Connell's anti-union Repeal Association. Three years later, disillusioned by O'Connell O'Brien withdrew the Young Irelanders from the association, and in January 1847 founded the Irish Confederation. In March 1848, he spoke out in favour of a National Guard and tried to incite a national rebellion. He was unsuccessfully tried for sedition on May 15, 1848.[3]

Rebellion and transportation

Removal of Smith O'Brien under sentence of death
Main article: Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848

On 29 July 1848, he led peasants in a futile, almost bloodless battle against police at Ballingarry, County Tipperary.[1] The jury in his subsequent trial found him guilty of high treason and he was sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. Petitions for clemency were signed by 70,000 people in Ireland and 10,000 people in England.[4]

In Dublin on 5 June 1849, the sentences of O'Brien and other members of the Irish Confederation were commuted to transportation for life to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).

O'Brien attempted to escape from Maria Island off Tasmania, but was betrayed by a certain Ellis, captain of the schooner hired for the escape, and sent to Port Arthur where he met up with John Mitchel. The cottages O'Brien lived in on Maria Island and Port Arthur remain as they were then to this day. Ellis was tried for this betrayal by Terence MacManus at a lynch court in San Francisco, but freed for lack of evidence.[5]

John Mitchel

In 1854, after five years in Tasmania, he was released on the condition he never return to Ireland, and settled in Brussels.[6] In May 1856, he was granted an unconditional pardon and returned to Ireland in July, but played no further part in politics.[6]

Legacy

There is a statue of him on O'Connell Street, Dublin.

His older brother Lucius O'Brien (1800-1872) was also a Member of Parliament for County Clare.

Quotes

“ The new Irish flag would be Orange and Green, and would be known as the Irish tricolour ”
“ To find a gaol in one of the lovliest spots formed by Nature in one of her lonliest solitudes creates a revulsion of feeling I cannot describe ”

—November 1849, when first sighting Maria Island.

References

  1. ^ a b Davis, Marianne, ed (1998). The Rebel in His Family: Selected Papers of William Smith O'Brien. Irish Narratives. Cork University Press. ISBN 1859181813. http://books.google.com/books?id=1qHor7SbaH4C. 
  2. ^ O'Donoghue, John (1860). Historical Memoir of the O'Briens. Dublin: Hodges, Smith & Co (reprinted 2002, Martin Breen). pp. 544–545. ISBN 0-9519551-2-8. http://books.google.ie/books?id=_lIBAAAAQAAJ. 
  3. ^ Gwynn, Denis (1949). Young Ireland and 1848. Cork: Cork University Press. pp. 165–187. 
  4. ^ Lawler, Ruth; from originals held by National Archives of Ireland (2001). CD ROM - The 1848 Petitions – The William Smith O'Brien Petition, Irish Records Index Vol. 2. Dublin: Eneclann Ltd. ISBN 0-9537557-2-X. 
  5. ^ Touhill, Blanche (1981). William Smith O'Brien and His Irish Revolutionary Companions in Penal Exile. Columbia & London: University of Missouri Press. pp. 124. ISBN 0-8262-0339-6. 
  6. ^ a b Article by John Cussen

Further reading

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Thomas Frankland Lewis		 Member of Parliament for Ennis
1828-1831		 Succeeded by
William Vesey-FitzGerald
Preceded by
Standish Darby O'Grady		 Member of Parliament for Limerick County
1835-1849		 Succeeded by
Samuel Dickson

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
 

 

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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
British History. A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Irish Literature Companion. The Concise Oxford Companion to Irish Literature. Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "William Smith O'Brien".  Read more