Daniel O'Connell and the Monster Meetings for Repeal

The History of Ireland: Rebellion, Empire, and Independence — Fexingo History · May 9, 2026 · 5m · transcript

Before the Young Irelanders, before the Famine, there was Daniel O'Connell — the Liberator who won Catholic Emancipation through mass mobilization. In the 1840s, he launched a new campaign to repeal the Act of Union, using peaceful 'monster meetings' that drew hundreds of thousands across Ireland. This episode follows O'Connell's rise from a Catholic farming family to the leader of the Repeal Association, the enormous gatherings at Tara and Clontarf, and how British nervousness and a government ban broke the movement. We explore O'Connell's constitutional…