DANIEL O’CONNELL

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 645, 23 April 1929, Page 11

DANIEL O’CONNELL

LECTURE BY MR. J. J. SULLIVAN A lecture on “Tlie Life and Times of Daniel O’Connell” was given in the O’Neill Street Hall, Ponsonby, by Mr. J. J. Sullivan last evening before a large audience. Mr. P. J. Barry presided. The lecture was particularly interesting, as 1929 is the centenary year of the Catholic Emancipation Act, O’Connell’s greatest work. Mr. Sullivan outlined the customs and laws in force at the time of O’Connell’s birth, paying particular attention to tlie peculiar repression of the people, both mentally and physically. He sketched the effect that the French Revolution and the American War of Independence had had on British thought on the Irish question and mentioned an address that the infant Congress of the United States had sent to the people of Ireland. O’Connell’s admittance as a barrister and his rise to fame at the bar were described, as well as his associations with Grattan, Curran, Byron, Wellington and Sir Robert Peel. The agitation for the repeal of the Irish Act of Union and O’Connell’s monster meetings, at which as many as three-quarters of a million people used to attend, were described in detail, and also the rise of the Young Ireland Party under such leaders as Mitchell, Smith, O’Brien, McGee, Thomas Davis and Sir Charles Gavin Duffey. Finally, after dealing with the great Irish famine and the death of “The Liberator,” Mr. Sullivan summed up the achievements of the man and the work he had done for those who followed the ancient creed. After the lecture musical items were given by Miss J. Smith. Miss O’Grady, Miss Hogan, Miss Philpotts and Miss Blaney. Miss Quinn played the accompaniments. A conjuring and ventriloquial demonstration was given by Mr. Forley.