Feargus O'Connor
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Feargus Edward O'Connor (1794 – August 30, 1855) was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan.
In 1832, he was elected to the British House of Commons as Member of Parliament for County Cork, but was disqualified in 1835 because he failed to satisfy the property requirement for MPs. In 1837 he founded a radical newspaper, the Northern Star. He was the leading figure in Chartism. When the first wave of Chartism ebbed he founded the Chartist Land Company in 1845. When Chartism again gained momentum he was elected MP for Nottingham and organised the Chartist meeting on Kennington Common, London, in 1848.
In 1852, O'Connor visited the United States. On his return, he insulted the MP Beckett Denison. Certified a lunatic, he was committed to an asylum in Chiswick, where he died in 1855.
Most of the early historians of Chartism were quite negative about his role. In recent years, however, there has been a trend to reasses him in a more favorable light. [Dorothy Thompson: The Chartists, p96]
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Categories: Irish politician stubs | British MP stubs | People of the Revolutions of 1848 | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from Irish constituencies (1801-1922) | Members of the United Kingdom Parliament from English constituencies | UK MPs 1832-1835 | UK MPs 1847-1852 | Chartists | People buried in Kensal Green Cemetery | 1794 births | 1855 deaths
