Matthew O'Conor Don ( ga, Mathghamhain Ó Conchubhair Donn; 1773–1844) of Ballinagare, County Roscommon, Ireland was an Irish historian, the

O'Conor Don The O'Conor family (Middle Irish: ''Ó Conchubhair''; Modern ga, Ó Conchúir) are an Irish noble house and were one of the most influential and distinguished royal houses in Ireland. The O'Conor family held the throne of the Kingdom of C ...

and ''de jure''

King of Connacht The Kings of Connacht were rulers of the ''cóiced'' (variously translated as portion, fifth, province) of Connacht, which lies west of the River Shannon, Ireland. However, the name only became applied to it in the early medieval era, being named ...

. O'Conor Don was the grandson of Charles O'Conor Don (1710-1791) the famed Irish antiquarian of the 18th century. His brother the Rev. Charles O'Conor (1767-1828) was likewise a historian. Matthew was educated for the priesthood in Rome, but changed his mind and became by profession a lawyer.RICORSO: See O'Conor, Matthew under Authors A-Z
/ref> Matthew was highly regarded by fellow Irish scholars such as George Petrie and John O'Donovan. To the latter he gave unstinting aid during his field work in Roscommon for the

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

; O'Donovan held him in very high regard, not only because of his historical efforts and political work, but also because of his noble descent and status as a Prince of the Royal Family of Connacht. In this he was not alone; during the

Tithe War The Tithe War ( ga, Cogadh na nDeachúna) was a campaign of mainly nonviolent civil disobedience, punctuated by sporadic violent episodes, in Ireland between 1830 and 1836 in reaction to the enforcement of tithes on the Roman Catholic majority ...

a large assembly of Roscommon Catholics unanimously elected him King of Connacht (in his absence) and sent word to him to meet them at

Carnfree Carnfree (Irish ''Carn Fraoich'', Fráech's cairn) is a site south of the village of Tulsk in Roscommon that also lies close to the more celebrated ancient landscape of Rathcroghan. The chief feature here is the bronze-age mound of Carnfree itself ...

for the formal inauguration. He wrote ''The History of Irish Catholics from the Settlement in 1691'', based on letters of his grandfather Charles O’Conor to Dr. John Curry.

Bibliography

''The History of Irish Catholics from the Settlement in 1691''
(1813) ''Military History of the Irish Nation comprising a Memoir of the Irish Brigade in the Service of France... AD 1550-1738'' (1845).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oconor, Matthew 1773 births 1844 deaths People from County Roscommon Kings of Connacht 18th-century Irish people 19th-century Irish people Matthew 18th-century Irish historians 19th-century Irish historians