O ' C onnor, A rthur (1763–1852)

Abstract

Arthur O'Connor is the most important Irish revolutionary most people have never heard of. As one of the central leaders of the United Irishmen at the time of the 1798 Rebellion, he played a significant role in the origins of Irish republicanism and Irish nationalism. But for an accident of weather – a storm preventing a French army led by General Lazare Hoche from landing at Bantry Bay in December 1796 – English domination of Ireland would have received a severe challenge from a liberation army commanded by General Arthur O'Connor. Today, however, his name and reputation are not nearly as well remembered as are those of Theobald Wolfe Tone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Emmet, and several others of his United Irish colleagues.