Charles O'Conor (historian)

This article discusses the Irish antiquary, for other uses see Charles O'Conor (disambiguation).

Charles O'Conor Don
Born	January 1, 1710 Killintrany, County Sligo, Ireland
Died	July 1, 1791(1791-07-01) (aged 81) Belanagare, County Roscommon, Ireland
Occupation	Writer, Antiquarian
Nationality	Irish
Notable work(s)	Dissertations on the ancient history of Ireland
Spouse(s)	Catherine O'Fagan
Children	4 (Denis, Charles, Bridget, Anne)
Influenced John O'Donovan

Charles O'Conor Don, The O'Conor Don, Prince of Connacht (1710 – 1791) of Belanagare was an Irish writer and antiquarian who was enormously influential as a protagonist for the preservation of Irish culture and history in the eighteenth century. He combined an encyclopedic knowledge of Irish manuscripts and Gaelic culture in demolishing many specious theories and suppositions concerning Irish history.^{[citation needed]}

O'Conor was a protagonist for Catholic civil rights in eighteenth century Ireland. He worked relentlessly for the mitigation and repeal of the Penal Laws, and was a co-founder of the first Catholic Committee in 1757, along with his friend Dr. John Curry and Mr. Wyse of Waterford. In 1788 he became a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

His collection of manuscripts and manuscript copies, annotated with his copious notes and comments, made up the first part of the Annals of the Four Masters (originally the property of Fearghal Ó Gadhra) that were collected at the Stowe Library, and at that time many of them were the only copies known to exist.^{[citation needed]}

Early life

Charles O'Conor was born in 1710 to the land-owning family of O'Conor Sligo and was sent for his education to Father Walter Skelton's school in Dublin. He grew up in an environment that celebrated Gaelic culture and heritage. He began collecting and studying ancient manuscripts at an early age.

His marriage brought him financial stability so that he could devote himself to his writing, but he was widowed in 1750, within a year of his father's death, when he himself assumed the role of the O'Conor Don. When his eldest son Denis married in 1760, he gave up the residence at Belanagare to him and moved into a small cottage that he had built on the estate. He would devote the remainder of his life to the collection and study of Irish manuscripts, to the publication of dissertations, and especially to the cause of Irish and Catholic emancipation.

Professional life

O'Conor was well-known in Ireland from his youth, as a civil-tongued, but adamant advocate of Gaelic culture and history, who had suffered for his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith and was the recognised Ó Conchubhair Donn (English: O'Conor Don), profoundly knowledgeable about Irish culture and history.

Samuel Johnson in 1775.

He garnered fame outside of Ireland through his Dissertations on the ancient history of Ireland (1753). Like all of his works, his account was everywhere consistent with the historical record. The book was generally well-received and when Samuel Johnson was made aware of it, he was moved to write a letter to O'Conor in 1755, complimenting the book, complimenting the Irish people, and urging O'Conor to write on the topic of Celtic languages.^{[citation needed]}

Malvine, dying in the arms of Fingal, by Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson.

The book was less well received in some Scottish circles, where there existed a movement to write Celtic history based upon Scottish origins. When James MacPherson published a spurious story in 1761 that he had found an ancient Gaelic (and Scottish) cycle of poems by a certain "Ossian", among the critics who rejected it as false was O'Conor, as an inclusion (Remarks on Mr. Mac Pherson's translation of Fingal and Temora) in the 1766 rewrite of his 1753 work. While the issue was laid to public rest by others (notably Samuel Johnson), the issue was laid to intellectual rest by O'Conor in 1775, with the publication of his Dissertation on the origin and antiquities of the antient Scots. That the issue occurred provided O'Conor the opportunity to establish Ireland as the source of Gaelic culture in the minds of the non-Irish general public.

An Irish manuscript from the Cathach of St. Columba.

O'Conor's later life was that of the respected dean of Irish historians. He continued to write as he had always done, in favor of ideas that he himself favored and were consistent with the historical record, and against any and all ideas that were inconsistent with the historical record, including those of other Irish historians. Such was his esteemed reputation that even those whom he challenged would include his challenges in the next edition of their own books. He would continue to collect, study, and annotate Irish manuscripts, and when he died, his collection became the first part of the Annals of the Four Masters at the Stowe Library.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy

His legacy in modern history is succinct. Though the effort was promoted by many, it was largely through his effectiveness that Ireland received the recognition that it deserved as the font of Gaelic culture and the premier disseminator of literacy in ancient times. O'Conor also strove for the presentation of Celtic Christianity as something separate from early Roman Catholicism as a means of allaying Protestant British distrust of the Catholic Irish, a perspective that has survived into modern times.^{[citation needed]}

Partial bibliography

Among O'Conor's principle works are:

• Dissertations on the ancient history of Ireland (1753)
• Principles of the Roman Catholics (1756)
• Introduction to Dr. Curry's Civil Wars (1756)
• The Protestant Interest of Ireland considered (1757)
• Dissertations on the ancient history of Ireland. To which is subjoined, a dissertation on the Irish colonies established in Britain. With some remarks on Mr. Mac Pherson's translation of Fingal and Temora. (1766)
• A dissertation on the origin and antiquities of the antient Scots, and notes, critical and explanatory, on Mr. O'Flaherty's text - included in The Ogygia vindicated: against the objections of Sir George Mackenzie, king's advocate for Scotland in the reign of king James II, by Roderic O'Flaherty (1775)
• On the Heathen State and Topography of Ancient Ireland (1783)

See also

• Tadhg Og Ó Cianáin
• Peregrine Ó Duibhgeannain
• Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh
• Mícheál Ó Cléirigh
• Sylvester O'Halloran
• James Ussher
• Sir James Ware
• Mary Bonaventure Browne
• Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh
• Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh
• Uilliam Ó Duinnín
• Eugene O'Curry
• John O'Donovan (scholar)

Footnotes

Sources

• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1909), "O'Conor, Charles (1710 – 1791)", Dictionary of National Biography, XIV, New York: The McMillan Company, pp. 855–857, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• Moran, Patrick Francis (1899), The Catholics of Ireland Under the Penal Laws in the Eighteenth Century, London: Catholic Truth Society, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• Napier, Alexander (1889), "Appendix IV. Johnson's Relations with Charles O'Conor.", The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (by James Boswell), III, London: George Bell and Sons, pp. 477–480, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• O'Conor, Charles (c. 1750), "The Ancient Regal Family of O'Conor of Connaught", in Hardiman, James, A Chorographical Description of West or H-Iar Connaught (by Roderic O'Flaherty in 1684), Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society, 1846, pp. 134–142, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• O'Conor, Charles (1775), "The Editor's Preface", The Ogygia [by Roderic O'Flaherty] Vindicated, Dublin: G. Faulkner, pp. i–xxii, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• O'Conor, Charles (1775), "A Dissertation on the Origin and Antiquities of the antient Scots of Ireland and Britain.", The Ogygia [by Roderic O'Flaherty] Vindicated, Dublin: G. Faulkner, pp. xxv–xlviii, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• O'Conor, Charles (1783), "Second Letter to Colonel Vallancey, on the Heathen State, and Antient Topography of Ireland", Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis (by Charles Vallancey), III, Dublin: Luke White (published 1786), pp. 647–677, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• O'Conor, Charles (the grandson) (1818), Bibliotheca Ms. Stowensis, I, Buckingham: J. Seeley, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• O'Conor, Charles (the grandson) (1819), Bibliotheca Ms. Stowensis, II, Buckingham: J. Seeley, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 
• O'Donovan, John (1891), O'Conor, Charles Owen, ed., The O'Conors of Connaught: An Historical Memoir, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co., pp. 292–297, http://books.google.com, retrieved 2008-05-10 

External links

• http://www.archive.org/stream/irishecclesiast02recogoog#page/n740/mode/2up

Persondata
Name	Oconor, Charles
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	January 1, 1710
Place of birth	Killintrany, County Sligo, Ireland
Date of death	July 1, 1791
Place of death	Belanagare, County Roscommon, Ireland