Charles O'Conor, ( ga, Séarlas Ó Conchubhair Donn; 1 January 1710 – 1 July 1791), also known as Charles O'Conor of Belanagare, was a member of the

Gaelic nobility of Ireland This article concerns the Gaelic nobility of Ireland from ancient to modern times. It only partly overlaps with Chiefs of the Name because it excludes Scotland and other discussion. It is one of three groups of Irish nobility, the others bei ...

and antiquarian who was enormously influential as a protagonist for the preservation of

Irish culture The culture of Ireland includes language, literature, music, art, folklore, cuisine, and sport associated with Ireland and the Irish people. For most of its recorded history, Irish culture has been primarily Gaelic (see Gaelic Ireland). ...

and

Irish mythology Irish mythology is the body of myths native to the island of Ireland. It was originally passed down orally in the prehistoric era, being part of ancient Celtic religion. Many myths were later written down in the early medieval era by ...

during the

18th-century The 18th century lasted from January 1, 1701 ( MDCCI) to December 31, 1800 ( MDCCC). During the 18th century, elements of Enlightenment thinking culminated in the American, French, and Haitian Revolutions. During the century, slave trading ...

. He combined an encyclopaedic knowledge of Irish

manuscript A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced ...

s and Gaelic culture in demolishing many specious theories and suppositions concerning

Irish history The first evidence of human presence in Ireland dates to around 33,000 years ago, with further findings dating the presence of homo sapiens to around 10,500 to 7,000 BC. The receding of the ice after the Younger Dryas cold phase of the Quatern ...

. O'Conor was an activist for

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restrict ...

during the eighteenth century. He worked relentlessly, first for the relaxation and then the complete 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 The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier learned society and one its leading cultural i ...

. 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 The ''Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland'' ( ga, Annála Ríoghachta Éireann) or the ''Annals of the Four Masters'' (''Annála na gCeithre Máistrí'') are chronicles of medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or mediev ...

'' (originally the property of Fearghal Ó Gadhra) that were collected at the

Stowe Library Stowe House is a grade I listed country house in Stowe, Buckinghamshire, England. It is the home of Stowe School, an independent school and is owned by the Stowe House Preservation Trust who have to date (March 2013) spent more than £25m on th ...

, and at that time many of them were the only copies known to exist.

Early life

Charles O'Conor was born in 1710, in County Sligo, to a cadet branch of the land-owning family of O'Conor Don and was sent for his education to Father Walter Skelton's school in Dublin. He grew up in an environment that celebrated

Gaelic culture The Gaels ( ; ga, Na Gaeil ; gd, Na Gàidheil ; gv, Ny Gaeil ) are an ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man in the British Isles. They are associated with the Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic langu ...

and heritage. He began collecting and studying ancient

s 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 his eldest son Denis married in 1760, he gave up the residence at Bellanagare 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. In the 1749 census of the Diocese of Elphin, O'Conor was listed as having 4 servants in Bellanagare and 5 couples living on his land who also worked as servants.

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. He was profoundly knowledgeable about Irish culture and history. Dr-Johnson

He garnered fame outside 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 Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford D ...

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. Ary Scheffer - Death of Malvina

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 James Macpherson ( Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...

published a spurious story in 1761 that he had found an ancient Gaelic (and Scottish) cycle of poems by a certain "

Ossian Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under ...

", 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. CathachOfStColumba

O'Conor's later life was that of the respected dean of Irish historians. He continued to write as he had always done, in favour of ideas that he himself favoured 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

at the Stowe Library. In 1883 these were returned to the

library. In 1766 he was introduced by

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January New Style">NS/nowiki> 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish people">Anglo-Irish Politician">statesman, economist, and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of Parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 ...

to the Revd. Thomas Leland at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

, and was using its

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

and meeting its Provost from 1767. His unfinished History of Ireland, that Johnson had encouraged in 1777, was destroyed on his instructions at his death.RICORSO Charles O’Conor (1710–91)
/ref> In his ''Tour in Ireland'' (1780) Arthur Young mentioned his visit to O'Conor: :''At Clonells, near Castlerea, lives O’Connor, the direct descendant of Roderick O’Connor, who was king of Connaught six or seven hundred years ago; there is a monument of him in Roscommon Church, with his sceptre, etc. I was told as a certainty that this family were here long before the coming of the Milesians. Their possessions, formerly so great, are reduced to three or four hundred pounds a year, the family having fared in the revolutions of so many ages much worse than the O’Niels and O’Briens. The common people pay him the greatest respect, and send him presents of cattle, etc., upon various occasions. They consider him as the prince of a people involved in one common ruin.''

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 Celtic Christianity ( kw, Kristoneth; cy, Cristnogaeth; gd, Crìosdaidheachd; gv, Credjue Creestee/Creestiaght; ga, Críostaíocht/Críostúlacht; br, Kristeniezh; gl, Cristianismo celta) is a form of Christianity that was common, or held ...

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. O'Conor's support for the first Catholic Committees from 1758 was copied nationwide, resulting in the successful, but slow, repeal of most of the Irish penal laws in 1774-1793. An account of his life, "Memoirs of the life and writings of the late Charles O'Conor of Belanagare", was written by his grandson, Charles O'Conor. Another grandson Matthew O'Conor, also became a historian and used papers collected by his grandfather to write "The History of Irish Catholics from the Settlement in 1691". Another grandso
Owen O'Conor
became O'Conor Don in 1820. A prominent supporter of

and was a close associate of

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

and the first catholic member of parliament for

Roscommon Roscommon (; ) is the county town and the largest town in County Roscommon in Ireland. It is roughly in the centre of Ireland, near the meeting of the N60, N61 and N63 roads. The name Roscommon is derived from Coman mac Faelchon who bui ...

since before the penal laws.

Partial bibliography

Among O'Conor's principal 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)

Footnotes

Sources

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

* https://archive.org/stream/irishecclesiast02recogoog#page/n740/mode/2up {{DEFAULTSORT:Oconor, Charles 1710 births 1791 deaths Irish antiquarians Irish genealogists 18th-century Irish historians Members of the Royal Irish Academy People from County Roscommon People from County Sligo 18th-century Irish male writers

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was ...