24 April 1997 Edition
Remembering the Past: Arthur O'Connor
Arthur O'Connor, one of the most influential leaders of the Untied Irishmen, was born in Cork in 1760.
Elected MP for the county in 1787, he visited France soon after the revolution. He returned to Ireland an ardent republican and, along with Lord Edward Fitzgerald, joined the United Irishmen.
In June 1796, O'Connor and Fitzgerald joined Wolfe Tone in Paris to begin detailed negotiations with the French Directory (revolutionary government) to send an expedition to Ireland. Impressed with O'Connor's detailed report on the situation in Ireland, the French agreed and, in the following December, Hoche's ill-fated expedition sailed for Ireland.
By January 1798, with little hope of a French expedition in the coming months, O'Connor and Ftizgerald, two of the most dominant members of the Leinster Directory of the United Irishmen, pressed for an immediate rising. Thomas Addis Emmet and the more moderate members, however, carried the day after a message reached them from France promising an immediate invasion.
In February 1798, while trying to embark for France to co-ordinate final arrangements, O'Connor was arrested at Margate in England. Charged with sedition, he was tried at Maidstone in May, on the eve of the Rising in Ireland, and after a skilled defence was found not guilty. He was, however, immediately rearrested, and was transported to Kilmainham Jail in Dublin to face trial on exactly the same charge.
O'Connor and the other prisoners were held without trial until January 1799, when they were interned in Fort George in Scotland. Here they remained until the `peace of Amiens' in 1802, when they were allowed to go to France.
In France, where O'Connor settled, he achieved one of the highest honours in the French army when, in 1804, he was appointed general-of-division by Napoleon.
Arthur O'Connor died on 25 April 1852, 145 years ago this week.
Elected MP for the county in 1787, he visited France soon after the revolution. He returned to Ireland an ardent republican and, along with Lord Edward Fitzgerald, joined the United Irishmen.
In June 1796, O'Connor and Fitzgerald joined Wolfe Tone in Paris to begin detailed negotiations with the French Directory (revolutionary government) to send an expedition to Ireland. Impressed with O'Connor's detailed report on the situation in Ireland, the French agreed and, in the following December, Hoche's ill-fated expedition sailed for Ireland.
By January 1798, with little hope of a French expedition in the coming months, O'Connor and Ftizgerald, two of the most dominant members of the Leinster Directory of the United Irishmen, pressed for an immediate rising. Thomas Addis Emmet and the more moderate members, however, carried the day after a message reached them from France promising an immediate invasion.
In February 1798, while trying to embark for France to co-ordinate final arrangements, O'Connor was arrested at Margate in England. Charged with sedition, he was tried at Maidstone in May, on the eve of the Rising in Ireland, and after a skilled defence was found not guilty. He was, however, immediately rearrested, and was transported to Kilmainham Jail in Dublin to face trial on exactly the same charge.
O'Connor and the other prisoners were held without trial until January 1799, when they were interned in Fort George in Scotland. Here they remained until the `peace of Amiens' in 1802, when they were allowed to go to France.
In France, where O'Connor settled, he achieved one of the highest honours in the French army when, in 1804, he was appointed general-of-division by Napoleon.
Arthur O'Connor died on 25 April 1852, 145 years ago this week.