William Smith O'Brien (politician, 1803)

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William Smith O'Brien ( Irish Liam Mac Gabhann Ó Briain ; born October 17, 1803 in Newmarket-on-Fergus , County Clare , Ireland , † June 18, 1864 in Bangor ) was an Irish nationalist politician.

William Smith O'Brien

Life

The descendant of the Irish King Brian Boru , who died in 1014 , William O'Brien was a son of Sir Edward O'Brien and his wife Charlotte. He received his solid education at Harrow School and Trinity College (Cambridge) . He inherited the estates of his maternal grandfather located in Cahermoyle (also written Cahirmoyle , Irish: Caher Maothail ) near Ardagh in County Limerick . He then also took his mother's maiden name, Smith.

From 1828 to 1831 O'Brien sat for Ennis in the House of Commons , into which he was then re-elected in 1835, this time for the Irish county of Limerick, which post he held until 1848. Although he advocated Catholic emancipation in 1828 , he deviated from Daniel O'Connell's general policy on other points for many years . Nevertheless, after initially being Tory and later Whig regarding his political views, he joined O'Connell's Repeal Association in 1843 . As the main representative of the Party of the Young Ireland , which also strove to achieve Irish independence by means of violence, which goal O'Connell only sought to achieve by law, O'Brien later opposed O'Connell out of disappointment. In April 1846 he refused entry to a railway commission because it only represented English interests and he, as an Irish representative, was not obliged to take part. He was therefore detained for 25 days while the commission was doing its job. In July 1846 he left the Repeal Association with his Party of Young Ireland and in January 1847 founded the Irish Confederation with Thomas Francis Meagher .

After O'Connell's death (May 15, 1847), the influence of O'Brien and his like-minded people became predominant. For the time being he advised against hasty steps and in his publication Reproductive employment (Dublin 1847) published views on the measures that should be taken to eliminate Ireland's material suffering. After the French February Revolution of 1848 , however, he felt that the time was ripe to take decisive steps towards the liberation of Ireland. Although he did not receive the help he had asked for from the provisional government in Paris, he convened a national convention of 300 members in Dublin , which, however, was banned by the government. A trial brought against O'Brien in May 1848 had to be abandoned due to disagreement among the jury.

However, when armed groups formed, Parliament issued arrest warrants against O'Brien and other leaders of Boy Ireland. The crowd gathered by O'Brien was chased to flight on July 29, 1848 after a failed attack on a police contingent near Ballingarry , O'Brien himself was seized on August 5 and on October 9 by the jury in Clonmel to death as a traitor Sentenced, but pardoned by the government to be deported for life. Since O'Brien denied the government the right to such a pardon and there was no law in this case, a bill was tabled in the House of Lords by Lord Campell and in the House of Commons by G. Gray to give the government power, sentenced to death Pardoned treason to lifelong deportation, and after the Bill was passed in both houses in June 1849, O'Brien was transported to Van Diemens Land (present-day Tasmania ) in July 1849 .

An escape attempt made by O'Brien in the autumn of 1851 failed, as did the attempt of his friends in Ireland in 1852 to bring about petitions to Queen Victoria for his pardon . But in February 1854 he was initially given his freedom on the condition that he would not return to Ireland. He now lived in Brussels . In May 1856 he finally obtained his full pardon, after which he returned to Ireland in July 1856. In the same year he completed the work Principles of Government, or Meditations in Exile . But he no longer played a political role.

O'Brien, who had five sons and two daughters, died on June 18, 1864 at the age of 60 in Bangor, North Wales. His older brother Lucius O'Brien, 13th Baron Inchiquin, was a member of Parliament for County Clare.

literature

Footnotes

  1. ^ Cahermoyle House , accessed July 22, 2016.

Web links

Commons : William Smith O'Brien  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
personal data
SURNAME O'Brien, William Smith
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ó Briain, Liam Mac Gabhann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish nationalist politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1803
PLACE OF BIRTH Newmarket-on-Fergus , County Clare , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH June 18, 1864
Place of death Bangor , Wales