Daniel O'Connell - Political Beliefs and Programme

Political Beliefs and Programme

A critic of violent insurrection in Ireland, O'Connell once said that "the altar of liberty totters when it is cemented only with blood," and yet as late as 1841, O'Connell had whipped his MPs into line to keep the "Opium War" going in China. The Tories at this time, had proposed a motion of censure over the war, and O'Connell had to call upon his MPs to support the Whig Government, as a result of this intervention, the Government was saved.

Politically, he focused on parliamentary and populist methods to force change and made regular declarations of his loyalty to the British Crown. He often warned the British establishment that if they did not reform the governance of Ireland, Irishmen would start to listen to the "counsels of violent men". Successive British governments continued to ignore this advice, long after his death, although he succeeded in extracting by the sheer force of will and the power of the Catholic peasants and clergy much of what he wanted, i.e., eliminating disabilities on Roman Catholics; ensuring that lawfully elected Roman Catholics could serve their constituencies in the British Parliament (until the Irish Parliament was restored); and amending the Oath of Allegiance so as to remove clauses offensive to Roman Catholics who could then take the Oath in good conscience.

Although a native speaker of the Irish language, O'Connell encouraged Irish people to learn English in order to better themselves. Although he is best known for the campaign for Catholic Emancipation; he also supported similar efforts for Irish Jews. At his insistence, in 1846, the British law "De Judaismo", which prescribed a special dress for Jews, was repealed. O'Connell said: "Ireland has claims on your ancient race, it is the only country that I know of unsullied by any one act of persecution of the Jews".