DANIEL O'Connell was born on August 16th, 1775, at Carhen near Cahirciveen in Co Kerry into a distinguished local family. An uncle, Count Daniel O'Connell, was a commander of the Order of St Louis and Lieutenant General in the French army and an aunt, Eibhlin Dhubh Ni Chonaill composed Caoineadh Airt Ui Laoghaire, the greatest lament ever written in Irish.

Fostered out, in the Gaelic tradition, to a Kerry herdsman's family, he lived in a mud cabin until he was four, speaking Irish as his first language. This part of his upbringing served him well in later life as an attorney and a political leader who sprang from the "hidden Ireland" of the mass of the people.

O'Connell's father, Morgan, was one of the 22 children of Donal Mor O'Connell and Maire Ni Duibh O'Donoghue and whatever wealth the family had, was dissipated by the large size of the family. Another uncle was to provide young Daniel a first-class education.

He qualified as a lawyer at Lincoln's Inns in London and a distinguished legal career in Ireland followed, with its inevitable path towards political action. He was elected MP for Clare in 1828. Rather than face the disorder which the law barring Catholics from parliament would have engendered, Catholic Emancipation was granted by Westminster the following year.

In the 1830s O'Connell launched his campaign for the repeal of the Act of Union. This raised great enthusiasm in Ireland but did not move his opponents in London. His opposition to physical force cost him some popularity in Ireland and finally his belief that Ireland's large population, similar in size to that of England at the time, could be mobilised as a political force, was shattered by the Great Famine.

In 1802 he secretly married a distant cousin, Mary O'Connell the daughter of a Tralee physician. She predeceased him by 11 years, having borne him four sons who survived to adulthood and three daughters.