William Smith O'Brien
Irish nationalist politician (1803-1864) · Ireland · On the map · Politicians · Died at 60
William Smith O'Brien was an Irish republican who, in the course of Ireland's Great Famine, had been converted to the cause of national independence while sitting as a unionist member of the United Kingdom Parliament.
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"Young Ireland in Business for Himself", John Leech's satirical 1846 cartoon for Punch magazine showing Smith O'Brien offering "pretty little pistols for pretty little children" after the withdrawal of the Young Irelanders from the Repeal Association
Removal of Smith O'Brien under sentence of death
Daguerreotype of Thomas Francis Meagher, William Smith O'Brien with soldier and jailer in Kilmainhaim Gaol, 1848.
O'Brien's Cottage in Port Arthur, Tasmania.
Burial site in County Limerick
Originally erected on the south quays, this 1870s statue was moved to Dublin's O'Connell Street in 1929About this person
Returning from revolutionary Paris with the first Irish tricolour, in 1848 he attempted an armed rebellion. With fellow "Young Irelanders" he was convicted of sedition and transported to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). Pardoned, in 1856 he returned to Ireland, where he published an unrepentant memoir and, through Ossianic Society, promoted the study and revival of the Irish language.
