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Arthur O’Connor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Frank MacDermot
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Extract

Arthur O’Connor, or more correctly Conner, is now little remembered, but from 1795 to 1798 no leader of the United Irishmen had more prestige and influence than he. In England he was the darling of the Foxite whigs. In France he played a part in procuring the expedition to Bantry Bay. In Ireland he inspired and organised rebellion. He suffered nearly five years imprisonment, narrowly escaped the gallows and spent the last fifty years of his life in exile. There he was made a général de division by Napoleon, was intimate with Lafayette, Volney, and the idéologues, and married the daughter of Condorcet and niece of Grouchy. He lived through the last days of the consulate, and all of the first empire, the restoration, the hundred days, the second restoration, the July monarchy and the second republic to die tranquilly at the dawn of the second empire. An obituary notice in The Nation sang his praises.

Type
Articles
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 57 , March 1966 , pp. 48 - 69
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1966

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References

1 For the fullest published account of O’Connor see Madden, R.R., The United Irishmen, their lives and times (2nd ed., Dublin, 1857–60), 2 (1858), pp. 228–358,Google Scholar but it is often inaccurate. O’Connor’s own fragmentary correspondence, memoirs, and other papers are preserved at his former château at ‘Le Bignon, in the Department of Loiret; see below, pp. 64–5. They are referred to here as ‘Le Bignon Papers’

2 Gaulmier, Jean, Volney (Paris, 1959), pp. 309, 311, 319–20.Google Scholar

3 Le Bignon Papers.

4 Madden, ii. 231.

5 Parliamentary register, Ireland, 1791, pp. 350–2; 1792, pp. 99–101.

6 In O‘Connor’s second election address in Northern Star, preserved in S.P.O.I., Rebellion Papers 620/15/3.

7 Madden, ii. 233, and Le Bignon Memoirs.

8 For Burdett’s devotion to O’Connor see his letters in S.P.O.I., Rebellion Papers 620/15/3 and his speech in British house of commons on 23 Mar. 1797 (Cobbett’s parliamentary history of England, xxxiii. 155–7).

9 Lady Lucy Fitzgerald’s Diary, unpublished entries for 19, 21 Mar. 1797. The diary is now owned by the Hon. Charles Sturt, who kindly lent it to me.

10 Campbell, Gerald, Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald (London, 1904), p. 15.Google Scholar O’Connor’s Le Bignon Memoirs end with the visit to Ryde.

l1 Burdett to O’Connor, 15 Jan. 1797, S.P.O.I., Rebellion Papers 620/15/3.

12 Parliamentary register, Ireland, 1795, pp. 286–302.

13 Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, ed. Tone, W. T. W. (Washington, 1826), 2. 165.Google Scholar

14 Fox to O’Connor, 28 Mar. 1796 in S.P.O.I., Rebellion Papers 620/15/3 gives O’Connor’s London address. Burdett letters above mentioned show O’Connor acquainted with duchess of Devonshire. Also Stuart, D.M., Dearest Bess (London, 1955), p. 81.Google Scholar In Howell’s, State trials vol. 27, most whig witnesses date their acquaintance with O’Connor from 1795–6.Google Scholar

15 Lecky, , History of Ireland in the eighteenth century (London, 1898), 3. 501–4,Google Scholar 521–2, Moore, Thomas, Memoirs of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, ed. M. MacDermott (London, 1897), PP. 213—17Google Scholar; Gerald, Gerald Campbell, Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald, pp. 42, 95Google Scholar; Turquan, and Ellis, , La belle Pamela (Paris, 1924), pp. 368–79.Google Scholar

16 Barthélémy, F., Mémoires, ed. de Dampierre, J. (Paris, 1914), p. 155.Google Scholar

16a O’Connor Dossier at Vincennes, Archives du ministère de la guerre, GD/393, 2e serie.

17 Life of Tone, ii. 228, 11. 6–11 and p. 229, 11. 14–18.

18 Madden, ii. 236.

19 Paris, Archives Nationales, AF III 186b, dr. 859.

20 Life of Tone, ii, p. 231, last line, to p. 232, 1. 10.

21 General Knox to O’Connor, 26 Oct. 1796 in S.P.O.I., Rebellion Papers 620/15/3.

22 P.R.O.N.I., Drennan Letters, nos 640, 646, 647, 649 for O’Connor in Belfast; Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald, pp. 105–18.

23 Cornelius Bourke to O’Connor, i6 Jan. 1797 in S.P.O.I., Rebeilion Papers 620/15/3.

24 Lady Lucy Fitzgerald’s Diary for Feb. and Mar. 1797 in Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald.

25 Fox to O’Connor, 28 Mar. 1796 and O’Connor to Fox, 24 Dec. 1796, in S.P.O.I., Rebellion Papers 620/15/3.

26 Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald, p. 117.

27 Cobbett’s parliamentary history of England, xxxiii. 155–7 (23 Mar.1797).

28 Lecky, , Ire., 4. ff.Google Scholar

29 Life of Tone, ii. 421–41; Lecky, Ire., iv. 145.

30 Lecky, , Ire., 4. 169–72.Google Scholar

31 P.R.O.N.I., Drennan Letters, nos 670, 671, 674.

32 Lecky, , Ire., 4 197 Google Scholar; Madden, ii. 241 ff.

33 Lecky, , Ire., 4. 125–7.Google Scholar

34 Lecky, , Ire., 4. 103–16.Google Scholar

35 O’Connor’s announcement was printed in The Press, 2 Jan. 1798 and is reprinted by Madden, ii. 246–50.

36 Madden, ii. 236.

37 Life of Tone, ii. 429; S.P.O.I., Drennan Letters, nos. 380, 381.

38 Lecky, , Ire., 4. 195.Google Scholar

39 Howell’s, State trials, vol. 27 Google Scholar

40 Howell’s, State trials, vol. 26 prints letter from O’Connor to Fitzgerald.Google Scholar

41 On Quigley, see Life of Tone, 2. p. 460 Google Scholar, Howell’s, State trials, vol. 27 Google Scholar and Lecky, , Ire., 4. 320.Google Scholar There are also letters concerning him in correspondence at Le Bignon.

42 Howell’s, State trials, vol. 26, cols 1324, 1325.Google Scholar

43 Madden, ii. 590–612; Sichel, , Life of Sheridan, 2. 283 ff.Google Scholar

44 Lecky, Ire., V. 26–37.Google Scholar

45 From P.R.O.N.I., Drennan Letters, nos 351, 490, 519 and others we know that Emmet joined the United Irishmen in 1792–3 and not because of repressive legislation in 1795-6. From O’Connor, in Madden ii. 233, we know that the French alliance made in 1796 would not have been abandoned if reform and emancipation had been granted.

46 Holland, Henry Lord, Memoirs of the whig party (London, 1852), 1. 121.Google Scholar

47 Madden, ii. p. 329.

48 Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald, p. 132.

49 Mrs (Melesina) Trench’s remains, edited by her son (London, 1862), P.5.

50 Trotter, J.B., Memoirs of later years of Charles James Fox, pp. 40–43.Google Scholar

51 Mabel, , countess of Airlie, In whig society (London, 1921), pp. 44–6.Google Scholar

52 P.R.O.N.I., Drennan Letters, nos 1015, 1072.

53 Only occasional items in the paper look as if supplied by O’Connor. The editor was Lewis Goldsmith.

54 Byrne, Miles, Memoirs(Dublin, 1907), 1. p. 307–8.Google Scholar

55 Paris diary of Thomas Addis Emmet, reproduced in Emmet, T.A., Ireland under English rule, New York, 1903), 2. 259–328.Google Scholar

56 O’Connor Dossier at Vincennes, Archives du ministère de la guerre, GD/393, 2e serie.

57 Life of Tone, ii. 461.

58 Le Bignon Papers.

59 Constant, Benjamin, Journaux intimes, ed. Roulin, and Roth, (Paris, 1952), p. 189.Google Scholar

60 Valentino, Henri, Madame de Condor cet (Paris, 1950), pp. 205–79.Google Scholar

61 Madden, ii. 330; Correspondence at Le Bignon.

62 Byrne, Miles, Memoirs (Dublin, 1907), 2. 14.Google Scholar

63 Madden, ii. 330.

64 Le Bignon Papers.

65 O’Connor Dossier at Vincennes, Archives du ministère de la guerre, GD/393, 2e serie.

66 Sir Barrington, Jonah, Personal Sketches (London, 1827), 2. 322.Google Scholar

67 Le Bignon Papers.

68 O’Connor Dossier at Vincennes, as above.

69 Madden, ii. 330, Le Bignon Papers.

70 Le Bignon Papers.

71 Ibid.

72 Ibid.

73 George Borrow, The Romany rye, ch. xi, appendix.

74 Saunders News Letter, 12, 13 May, 26, 27 Aug., 2 Oct., 1834.

75 Notes and Queries, Ist series, v, 579 (19 June 1852).

76 Le Bignon Papers.

77 Ibid.

78 Ibid.

79 Edward and Pamela Fitzgerald, pp. 132, 250.

80 Stuart, D.M., Dearest Bess, p. 81.Google Scholar

81 Life of Tone, ii. 345.

82 Longueville to Cooke, 7 Nov. 1798 in S.P.O.I., Rebellion Papers 620/15/3.