with notes by Dr. MacDermott, was published by B. Geraghty in Dublin in 1846. It occupies a quarto of 720 pp. The first complete printed edition of the work—the Irish original, with an English translation and ample notes—was given to the world by John O'Donovan in 1 85 1, being the most important single contribution ever made to the study of Irish history. Including index, the work fills seven quarto volumes. [See O'Donovan, John.] The notices of events in the Annals are in the main bald, and entirely wanting in colour or picturesqueness. 134 260
O'Connell, Daniel, Count, was born at Darrynane, in the County of Kerry, in August 1743: of twenty-two children by one marriage he was the youngest. Having studied mathematics and modern languages, he entered the French army at the age of fourteen, as lieutenant in Lord Clare's regiment of the Irish Brigade. He served with honour in the Seven Years' War in Germany; and at its conclusion, having gained much experience and studied military engineering, he was attached to the Corps du Génie, and became one of the best engineers in France. He distinguished himself at the siege and capture of Port Mahon from the British in 1779, and at the unsuccessful siege of Gibraltar, in September 1782. From the plans of assault on the latter place submitted to him, he felt satisfied that the attack could not succeed; yet he claimed the honour of leading a body of troops, and was wounded in nine places. Soon after this he was appointed Inspector-General of the French Infantry, with the rank of a general officer. At the [Revolution it is said he declined a military command pressed upon him by Carnot, feeling it his duty to remain near Louis XVI., and share the fortunes of the royal family. Eventually he joined the French Princes at Coblentz, and took part in the disastrous campaign of 1792. He then returned to Ireland, and was appointed to the command of an Irish regiment in the British service. During the peace of 1802 he visited France to look after a large property to which his wife was entitled. He was one of the British subjects seized by Napoleon, and remained a prisoner until 1814. The advent of the Bourbons restored him to his military rank in France; and he enjoyed in the decline of life full pay as general in the French army, and as a colonel in the British service. Refusing to take the oath of fidelity to Louis Philippe in 1830, he was deprived of his French emoluments. He died at the country seat of his son-in-law, Madon, near Blois, 9th July 1833, aged 89. He was uncle of the great Daniel O'Connell. 186 256
O'Connell, Daniel, "The Liberator," was born 6th August 1775, at Carhen, near Cahersiveen, County of Kerry. His father was Morgan O'Connell; his mother, Kate O'Mullane, of Whitechurch, near Cork. They were poor, and he was adopted by his uncle Maurice, from whom he eventually inherited Darrynane. At thirteen he was sent, with his brother Maurice, to a Catholic school near Cove (Queenstown), the first seminary kept openly by a Catholic priest in Ireland since the operation of the Penal Laws. A year later the lads were sent to Liege; but were debarred admission to the Irish College, because Daniel was beyond the prescribed age. After some delay they were entered at St. Omer's. There they remained another year (from 1 791 to 1792), Daniel rising to the first place in all the classes. They were then removed to Douay, but before many months the confusion caused by the French Revolution rendered it desirable for them to return home. They left on 21st January 1793. At Calais they heard of the execution of the King. We are told that when the vessel was outside the harbour the lads tore the tricolor cockades from their hats and threw them into the sea, while two other Irish brothers on board, Henry and John Sheares, gloried in the successes of the Revolution, and boasted of having been present at the King's execution. In 1794, O'Connell was entered as a student of Lincoln's Inn. He writes to a friend at this period: "Though nature may have given me subordinate talents, I never will be satisfied with a subordinate situation in my profession. No man is able, I am aware, to supply the total deficiency of ability; but everybody is capable of improving and enlarging a stock, however small, and, in its beginning, contemptible. It is this reflection that affords me consolation." We are told that for a time after his return from France he believed himself a Tory; but events soon convinced him that he was at heart a Liberal. In after life, when the excesses of the Irish people under misery and famine were spoken of, he often referred to a scene he witnessed in London, in October 1795, when the King narrowly escaped being torn to pieces at the hands of an infuriated mob. He was a member of the society of United Irishmen, but avoided implication in any of the overt acts of the brotherhood. He was induced to spend the summer of 1798 (after his call to the Bar on 19th May) at home in Kerry, enjoying his 374
