¹ Plummer, Alfred, Bronterre: a political biography of Bronterre O’Brien, 1804–1864 (Toronto, 1971);Google Scholar Stack, David (ed.), Lives of Victorian political figures II, vol. 4: James Bronterre O’Brien (London, 2007), pp 11–14, 109, 144, 174;Google Scholar Kemnitz, T.M., ‘Recent work on the Chartist movement’ in Newsletter: European Labour and Working Class History, 2 (1972), pp 25–7;Google Scholar ‘A radical in his time’ in Times Literary Supplement, 20 Aug. 1971 (a review of Plummer’s Bronterre); Faherty, Ray, ‘Bronterre O’Brien’s correspondence with Thomas Allsop: new evidence on the decline of a Chartist leader’ in Newsletter: European Labour and Working Class History, 8 (1975), pp 28–33.Google Scholar

² Gammage, R.G., History of the Chartist movement, 1837–1854 (New York, 1969), first published in 1854;Google Scholar Rothstein, Theodore, From Chartism to Labourism (London, 1983), first published in 1929;Google Scholar Cole, G.D.H., Chartist portraits (New York, 1965), first published in 1941.Google Scholar

³ Stack, (ed.), Bronterre O’Brien, pp 9–12, xxi–xxiv, 25–6, 47–8, 61–2, 71, 143—4, 180;Google Scholar Koseki, Takashi, ‘Chartism and Irish nationalism, 1839–1848: Bronterre O’Brien, the London Irish, and attempts at a Chartist-Irish alliance’ (M.Phil. thesis, University of Birmingham, 1988);Google Scholar Maw, Ben, ‘Bronterre O'Brien, class, and the advent of democratic anti-capitalism’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Swansea, 2005).Google Scholar O’Brien did not rate an entry in the Oxford companion to Irish history, though he is briefly mentioned in the entry on Chartism: Connolly, S.J. (ed.), Oxford companion to Irish history (Oxford, 1998), p. 85.Google Scholar An article on O’Brien is included in D.I.B., by Fergus A. D’Arcy. (There appears to be only one surviving copy of Professor Koseki’s thesis, his own, and I am grateful to him for allowing me to borrow it.)

⁴ Pickering, P.A., Feargus O’Connor: a political life (Monmouth, 2008), pp 81, 107;Google Scholar Keane, Timothy, ‘“Ireland’s wrongs as England’s grievance”: representations of Ireland in English radical discourse, 1824–1850 (Ph.D. thesis, National University of Ireland, Galway, 2010), pp iii, 1–2, 22, 145–7, 152–3, 160–1, 178–80, 248.Google Scholar (I would like to thank Dr Keane for sending me a copy of his thesis.)

⁵ Bronterre’s National Reformer, 7 Jan. 1837; Gammage, , Chartist movement, pp 71–2;Google Scholar Plummer, , Bronterre, pp 15–34;Google Scholar Canavan, Bernard, ‘The Edgeworths of Edgeworthstown: a rediscovered heritage’ in History Workshop Journal, 43 (1997), pp 240–8;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cole, , Chartist portraits, pp 242–3;Google Scholar Thompson, Dorothy, ‘Ireland and the Irish in English radicalism before 1850’ in Epstein, James and Thompson, Dorothy (eds), The Chartist experience: studies in working-class radicalism and culture, 1830–1860 (London, 1982), p. 129;Google Scholar Hollis, Patricia, The pauper press: a study in working-class radicalism of the 1830s (Oxford, 1970), p. 313;Google Scholar Stack, , Bronterre O’Brien, pp 7–15, xxviii, xli, 1–2, 17.Google Scholar

⁶ Plummer, , Bronterre, pp 37, 43–5, 48–9, 52–3, 56–7, 73–6, 84–8, 139–40, 152, 165–7, 176–7;Google Scholar Chase, Malcolm, Chartism: a new history (Manchester, 2007), pp. 14–16, 44, 236, 241Google Scholar; Stack, (ed.), Bronterre O’Brien, pp 14–18, xix, xli–xliv, 1–2, 17–18, 61–2, 71–2, 88, 109–10, 131–2, 173–4, 180, 192, 219, 226;Google Scholar Cole, , Chartist portraits, pp 239, 241–4, 246, 248–50, 254, 259;Google Scholar Thompson, Dorothy, The Chartists: popular politics in the industrial revolution (New York, 1984), pp 14, 17, 23, 29, 31–2, 35–8, 42, 49–50, 268–9;Google Scholar Lees, L. H., Exiles of Erin: Irish migrants in Victorian London (Ithaca, NY, 1979), p. 239;Google Scholar Gammage, , Chartist movement, pp 72–3, 76, 206;Google Scholar Jones, David, Chartism and the Chartists (London, 1975), pp 37–8, 97, 99–100;Google Scholar Ward, J.T., Chartism (New York, 1973), pp 54, 64–6, 69–71, 77–8, 107–8, 144, 150–1;Google Scholar Kemnitz, T.M., ‘Chartist newspaper editors’ in Victorian Periodicals Newsletter, v (1972), pp 1–2, 4–5;Google Scholar Hollis, , Pauper press, pp 108, 291;Google Scholar Pickering, P. A., ‘Class without words: symbolic communication in the Chartist movement’ in Past and Present, no. 112 (1986), pp 144–6, 152;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Turner, M.J., ‘Chartism, Bronterre O’Brien, and the “luminous political example of America”’ in History, 97 (2012), pp 49–51, 53–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ The Operative, 18 Nov. 1838. Broadly, one’s class identity rested on economic function, social status, and political rights, but although the hierarchical structure of society was evil and wrong, O’Brien thought, individuals within that structure were not necessarily evil and wrong. See especially ‘Bronterre’s letters’ (1836), B.L. General Reference Collection 8139.eee.39 [hereafter ‘Bronterre’s letters’], no. 1; O’Brien, J.Bronterre, The life and character of Maximilian Robespierre (London, 1838), pp 259–60; British Statesman, 15 May, 25 June, 9 July, 27 Aug. 1842; Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, nos 1, 11; National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 25 May 1847. There is a detailed examination of O’Brien’s ideas on class in the mid-1830s inGoogle Scholar Maw, Ben, ‘Bronterre O’Brien’s class analysis: the formative phase, 1832–1836’ in History of Political Thought, 28 (2007), pp 253–89.Google Scholar

⁸ Bronterre’s National Reformer, 15 Jan. 1837; The Operative, 17 Mar. 1839; Epstein, James, ‘The constitutional idiom: radical reasoning, rhetoric, and action in early nineteenth-century England’ in Journal of Social History, 23 (1990), pp 557–8, 569;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Jones, , Chartism and the Chartists, pp 37–40, 64, 186–7;Google Scholar Stack, (ed.), Bronterre O’Brien, p. 29;Google Scholar Thompson, Dorothy, ‘The Chartists in 1848’ in Brotherstone, Terry, Clark, Anna, and Whelan, Kevin (eds), These fissured isles: Ireland, Scotland, and the making of modern Britain, 1798–1848 (Edinburgh, 2005), pp 170–2,Google Scholar and eadem, , The Chartists, p. 105;Google Scholar Hollis, , Pauper press, pp 8, 100, 203–4, 207, 210, 218–58, 286–90, 293, 299, 302;Google Scholar Jones, G. Stedman, ‘The language of Chartism’ in Epstein, and Thompson, (eds), Chartist experience, pp 16–17.Google Scholar

⁹ Poor Man’s Guardian, 7 Dec. 1833. See also ‘Bronterre’s letters’, no. 7; Bronterre’s National Reformer, 4 Mar. 1837; British Statesman, 5 June 1842; Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, nos 3, 7–8; National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 3, 24 Oct., 5, 19, 26 Dec. 1846, 30 Jan., 6 Mar. 1847; Power of the Pence, 27 Jan., 24 Feb., 3 Mar. 1849; Social Reformer, 18 Aug., 1 Sept., 6 Oct. 1849.

¹⁰ O’Brien, J. Bronterre, Buonarroti’s history of Babeuf’s conspiracy for equality (London, 1836);Google Scholar idem, Life and character of Robespierre, pp 3–11, 12, 15, 17, 21–2, 24, 41–5, 83–96, 217, 219–22, 256–7, 274, 276, 280–2, 303–4, 307–10, 313, 350–3, 468–70, 519–22; idem, An elegy on the death of Robespierre (London, 1857), pp 2, 14–15; idem, A dissertation and elegy on the life and death of the immortal Maximilian Robespierre (London, 1859), pp 4–5, 7–15, 20–2, 32, 34, 36; ‘Bronterre’s letters’, nos 2, 5, 7, 9; Bronterre’s National Reformer, 11 Mar. 1837; Power of the Pence, 18 Nov., 16 Dec. 1848, 17, 24 Mar., 7 Apr. 1849; Social Reformer, 18 Aug., 1 Sept. 1849.

¹¹ Faherty, ‘O’Brien’s correspondence with Thomas Allsop’.

¹² Davis, Graham, The Irish in Britain, 1815–1914 (Dublin, 1991), pp 166–9, 189;Google Scholar Hearn, Francis, Domination, legitimation, and resistance: the incorporation of the nineteenth-century English working class (Westport, Conn., 1978), pp 215–16;Google Scholar Strauss, Emil, Irish nationalism and British democracy (New York, 1951), pp 127–31.Google Scholar

¹³ Bronterre’s National Reformer, 4 Feb. 1837.

¹⁴ Thompson, Dorothy, Outsiders: class, gender, and nation (London, 1993), pp 109, 111–12, 126–7;Google Scholar D’Arcy, Fergus, ‘Irish trade unions before Congress’ in History Ireland, 2 (1994), pp 25–30;Google Scholar Kinealy, Christine, ‘Politics in Ireland’ in Williams, Chris (ed.), A companion to nineteenth-century Britain (Oxford, 2007), pp 478–9;Google Scholar Clayton, Joseph, ‘Irish Catholics and the British labour movement’ in Studies, 14 (1925), pp 284–94;Google Scholar Hollis, , Pauper press, pp 117, 121, 279;Google Scholar Stack, (ed.), Bronterre O’Brien, p. 11; Huggins, Michael, ‘Democracy or nationalism? The problems of the Chartist press in Ireland’ in Allen, Joan and Ashton, Owen (eds), Papers for the people: a study of the Chartist press (London, 2005), pp 129–34, 136, 142–3.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Contemporary debate about land reform often focused on Ireland: for example, Martin, David, ‘The agricultural interest and its critics, 1840–1914’ in Wordie, J.R. (ed.), Agriculture and politics in England, 1815–1939 (Basingstoke, 2000), pp 128–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Kinealy, Christine, ‘Economy and society in Ireland’ in Williams, (ed.), Nineteenth-century Britain, pp 493, 495, 497;Google Scholar Gray, Peter, Famine, land, and politics: British government and Irish society, 1843–1850 (Dublin, 1999), pp 5–16;Google Scholar Jackson, T.A., Ireland her own: an outline history of the Irish struggle (London, 1976), pp 228, 235, 244–5, 261–5;Google Scholar Hoppen, K.T., Ireland since 1800: conflict and conformity (London, 1996), pp 19, 21, 29, 36–50;Google Scholar Foster, R.F., Modern Ireland, 1600–1972 (London, 1989), pp 331–7, 342–4;Google Scholar Strauss, , Irish nationalism, pp 74–9, 81–3, 86–7, 101–3, 106, 129–30, 133–7, 140–1, 161;Google Scholar Davis, , Irish in Britain, pp 162–3, 165–7;Google Scholar Nowlan, K.B., ‘O’Connell and Irish nationalism’ in Nowlan, K.B. and O’Connell, M.R. (eds), Daniel O’Connell: portrait of a radical (New York, 1985), pp 12, 15.Google Scholar

¹⁶ O’Higgins, Rachel, ‘The Irish influence in the Chartist movement’ in Past and Present, no. 20 (1961), pp 90, 93–4.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Thompson, , The Chartists, pp 305–6;Google Scholar Armytage, W.H.G., ‘The Chartist land colonies, 1846–1848’ in Agricultural History, 32 (1958), pp 87–96.Google Scholar On the significance of the Land Plan see also Macintyre, Angus, review of Hadfield, Alice M., The Chartist Land Company (Newton Abbot, 1970) in Economic History Review, 5 (1971), pp 301–2.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Chase, Malcolm, ‘“Wholesome object lessons”: the Chartist Land Plan in retrospect” in English Historical Review, 118 (2003), pp 59–85. See also idem, ‘Chartism and the land: “the mighty people’s question”’ in Matthew Cragoe and Paul Readman (eds), The land question in Britain, 1750–1950 (Basingstoke, 2010), pp 57–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁹ For example, Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, nos 7–8; National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 17, 24 Oct., 19 Dec. 1846, 9 Jan., 17 Apr., 1, 15, 22 May 1847; Power of the Pence, 31 Mar. 1849; Social Reformer, 25 Aug. 1849. See also Pickering, , Feargus O’Connor, pp 102, 107–8;Google Scholar Keane, ,‘“Ireland’s wrongs as England’s grievance”’, pp 142–3.Google Scholar

²⁰ Berry, R. E., Nationalisation in British politics: the historical background (Stanford, Calif., 1965);Google Scholar Parsinnen, T.M., ‘Thomas Spence and the origins of English land nationalisation’ in Journal of the History of Ideas, 34 (1973), pp 135–41;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Ashcraft, Richard, ‘Liberal political theory and working-class radicalism in nineteenth-century England’ in Political Theory, 21 (1993), pp 249–72;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Strauss, , Irish nationalism, pp 129, 161.Google Scholar

²¹ O‘Higgins, , ‘Irish influence’, pp 93–4;Google Scholar Davis, , Irish in Britain, p. 165 Google Scholar; Strauss, , Irish nationalism, pp 129–30.Google Scholar

²² ‘Bronterre’s letters’, nos 4, 9.

²³ ‘Bronterre’s letters’, no. 14. The disfranchisement of 40-shilling freeholders reduced the Irish county electorate from 216,000 to 37,000. O'Connell never approved of this in public, but he suggested privately that the change would concentrate power in reliable hands: Hoppen, , Ireland since 1800, p. 18;Google Scholar MacDonagh, Oliver, The Emancipationist: Daniel O’Connell, 1830–1847 (New York, 1989), ch. 1.Google Scholar

²⁴ ‘Bronterre’s letters’, no. 14. O’Brien was a forthright contributor on the negative side, but O’Connell’s contemporary and subsequent reputation offers a record of interpretive twists and turns, often related to the course of political and social change in and beyond Ireland.

²⁵ Bronterre’s National Reformer, 7, 15 Jan., 4, 18, 25 Feb., 18 Mar. 1837.

²⁶ For example, O’Brien, , Life and character of Robespierre, p. 312.Google Scholar

²⁷ British Statesman, 6 Aug. 1842.

²⁸ Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, no.1.

²⁹ Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, nos 2–4.

³⁰ Thompson, Outsiders, pp 109,Google Scholar 112–13, 116–19, 124, 136–8, 150, 153, 157–8, 161, and idem, ‘The Chartists in 1848’, pp 172–3; Nowlan, ‘O’Connell and Irish nationalism’, pp 12–14;Google Scholar Koseki, ‘Chartism and Irish nationalism’, ch. 2, and eadem, Patrick O’Higgins and Irish Chartism (Hosei University, Ireland-Japan Papers no. 2, 1990), pp 10–11 (I am grateful to Professor Koseki for a copy of his paper on O'Higgins);Google Scholar Jackson, Ireland her own, pp 227–8,Google Scholar 235; Lees, Exiles of Erin, pp 226–7;Google Scholar Strauss, Irish nationalism, pp 102, 104;Google Scholar Lowe, W.J. ‘The Chartists and the Irish Confederates: Lancashire, 1848’ in Irish Historical Studies, 24 (1984), p. 174;CrossRefGoogle Scholar O’Higgins, ‘Irish influence’, pp 86–7, 92;Google Scholar Treble, J.H. ‘O’Connor, O’Connell, and the attitudes of Irish immigrants towards Chartism in the North of England, 1838–1848’ in Butt, J.J. and Clarke, I.F. (eds) The Victorians and social protest (Newton Abbot, 1973), pp 37–40, 42–3; 47–8, 56–8, 60–1;Google Scholar Davis, Irish in Britain, pp 175, 187–8;Google Scholar Harris, R.A. ‘The failure of republicanism among Irish migrants to Britain, 1800–1840’ in Eire-Ireland, 21 (1986), pp 125–6;Google Scholar Mitchell, M.J. ‘The Catholic Irish and Chartism in the West of Scotland’, in Clark, Brotherstone and Whelan, (eds), These fissured isles, pp 179–80;Google Scholar Pickering, Feargus O’Connor, pp 29–30293–0, 34, 49–51, 53–4;Google Scholar Kinealy, Christine Repeal and revolution: Ireland in 1848 (Manchester, 2009), pp 42–4, 104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

³¹ Treble, ‘O’Connor, O’Connell, and the attitudes of Irish immigrants’, pp 33–5, 56–8;Google Scholar Granath, Andrew ‘The Irish in mid nineteenth-century Lancashire, 1830–1881’ (M.A. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1975),Google Scholar ch. 4; Mitchell, ‘Catholic Irish and Chartism’, pp 178–94.Google Scholar

³² Koseki, ‘Chartism and Irish nationalism’, pp 3–6, 9–10, 15, 22, 24–30, 49, 108–21, 130–64;Google Scholar Kinealy, Repeal and revolution, pp 7, 43, 104, 147–9, 151–2;Google Scholar Strauss, Irish nationalism, pp 72, 126–31;Google Scholar Swift, Roger ‘The historiography of the Irish in nineteenth-century Britain’ in O’Sullivan, Patrick (ed.), The Irish in the new communities (London, 1992), pp 66–7, 69–70;Google Scholar Jackson, Ireland her own, pp 231–2, 249, 252, 254;Google Scholar Gray, Famine, land, and politics, pp 303–4;Google Scholar Lees, Exiles of Erin, pp 226–9, 237, 239;Google Scholar Davis, Irish in Britain, pp 161–2, 164–5, 169–75, 178–80, 183, 188–9;Google Scholar Hearn, Domination, legitimation, and resistance, pp 215–17;Google Scholar O’Higgins, , ‘Irish influence’, pp 83, 85, 89–94;Google Scholar Belchem, John ‘English working-class radicalism and the Irish, 1815–1850’ in Swift, Roger and Gilley, Sheridan (eds), The Irish in the Victorian city (London, 1985), pp 85–93;Google Scholar McCalman, Iain ‘“Erin go Bragh’: the Irish in British popular radicalism, 1790–1840’ in MacDonagh, Oliver and Mandle, W F. (eds), Irish-Australian studies: papers delivered at the fifth Irish-Australian Conference (Canberra, 1989), pp 169, 171, 174, 179–81;Google Scholar Lowe, ‘Chartists and Irish Confederates’, pp 172, 174–87, 196;Google Scholar Neal, Frank Sectarian violence: the Liverpool experience, 1819–1914, an aspect of Anglo-Irish history (Manchester, 1988), pp 115–21;Google Scholar Reaney, Bernard ‘Irish Chartists in Britain and Ireland: rescuing the rank and file’ in Saothar, 10 (1984), pp 94–7;Google Scholar Harris, ‘Failure of republicanism’, pp 122–7, 133, 136;Google Scholar Thompson, Outsiders, pp 103–6, 108–11, 113–16, 120–3, 125–8, 135–40, 148, 155–6, 158–61;Google Scholar Billy, G.J. Palmerston’s foreign policy: 1848 (New York, 1993), pp 55–83.Google Scholar

³³ Engels, Friedrich The condition of the working class in England, ed. McLelland, David (Oxford, 1999), p. 280;Google Scholar Koseki, ‘Chartism and Irish nationalism’, pp 10–11, 30, 89, 91–100, 108–13, 164,Google Scholar and idem, Patrick O’Higgins, pp 1–3, 5–9, 12–15, 18–27, 29, 30–2;Google Scholar Kinealy, Repeal and revolution, pp 44–5;Google Scholar Pickering, Feargus O’Connor, pp 19, 81, 143–7;Google Scholar Thompson, Outsiders, pp 119, 121–2; 145, 151–4, 158;Google Scholar Hearn, Domination, legitimation, and resistance, p. 212;Google Scholar O’Higgins, ‘Irish influence’, pp 87–9;Google Scholar Reaney, ‘Irish Chartists’, pp 94, 99–101;Google Scholar Huggins, ‘Democracy or nationalism?’ pp 129, 134–7, 139–1–0.Google Scholar

³⁴ The Times, 6 June 1843; Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, nos 2–3; Thompson, Outsiders, p. 124;Google Scholar Lees, Exiles of Erin, pp 226–7;Google Scholar Koseki, Patrick O’Higgins, p. 11.Google Scholar Many Chartists in 1843 decided to enrol as members of repeal bodies in an effort to gain influence over their policy.

³⁵ Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, nos 4–9.

³⁶ Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, no. 5.

³⁷ Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer’s Friend, 1843, nos 8, 10.

³⁸ Poor Man’s Guardian and Repealer's Friend, 1843, nos 10, 13; Freeman’s Journal, 23 Jan., 9, 15, 31 Mar., 20, 24, 29 July 1843; Northern Star, 29 July 1843.

³⁹ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 Oct., 14 Nov., 5, 19 Dec. 1846; Gray, Famine, land, and politics, pp 111, 119–20; Terry Brotherstone and Liz Leicester, –Chartism, the great hunger, and the “hugest question”” in Brotherstone, Clark, and Whelan (eds), These fissured isles, pp 202–3, 206–14.

⁴⁰ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 19 Dec. 1846.

⁴¹ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 24 Oct., 21, 28 Nov., 5, 26 Dec. 1846, 2, 9, 16 Jan., 6, 13, 20, 27 Feb., 6, 13, 20, 27 Mar., 3, 10, 24 Apr., 1, 29 May 1847.

⁴² National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 19 Dec. 1846, 9 Jan. 1847.

⁴³ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 16 Jan. 1847.

⁴⁴ Medearis, John, ‘Labour, democracy, utility, and Mill’s critique of private property’ in American Journal of Political Science, 49 (2005), pp 143–1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The socialist elements in Mill’s thought were partly shaped by O’Brien. See Claeys, Gregory, ‘Justice, independence, and industrial democracy: the development of John Stuart Mill’s views on socialism’ in Journal of Politics, 49 (1987), p. 142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁵ The Times, 1, 4, 11 Jan. 1847; National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 23, 30 Jan. 1847.

⁴⁶ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 13, 27 Feb., 6 Mar. 1847.

⁴⁷ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 24 Apr., 8 May 1847.

⁴⁸ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 1 May 1847. O’Brien’s claim that bad laws rather than the potato blight lay behind Ireland’s predicament resembles more recent verdicts, although this remains contested ground.

⁴⁹ National Reformer and Manx Weekly Review, 31 Oct., 7, 21, 28 Nov., 5, 12, 19 Dec. 1846, 2, 30 Jan., 29 May 1847.

⁵⁰ Huggins, , ‘Democracy or nationalism?’ pp 134, 137, 142;Google Scholar Thompson, , ‘Ireland and the Irish’, p. 135,Google Scholar and eadem, ‘The Chartists in 1848’, pp 170, 174–7; Royle, Edward, Revolutionary Britannia? Reflections on the threat of revolution in Britain, 1789–1848 (Manchester, 2000), pp 128–9, 133;Google Scholar Kinealy, , ‘Politics in Ireland’, p. 481,Google Scholar and idem, Repeal and revolution, pp 7, 105, 140, 147–52, 164, 279, 290-1; Lees, , Exiles of Erin, pp 227–8;Google Scholar Pickering, , Feargus O’Connor, pp 132–4, 137.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Power of the Pence, 11 Nov., 16, 23 Dec. 1848, 20 Jan., 3 Feb., 31 Mar., 7 Apr. 1849.

⁵² Social Reformer, 1, 8, 15 Sept. 1849.

⁵³ O’Brien did not write often about Ireland after the rising of 1848, probably because he came to accept the discrepancy between his ideals and Irish realities (and also, in his later career, the outlets for his writing were limited). Tellingly, there had been no sustained or detailed engagement with Irish journalists or political leaders, apart from O’Connell. O’Brien had apparently decided that he could learn little from them. This might be considered a mistake, as in the case of James Fintan Lalor, who was active in 1848, advocated a radical redefinition of the rights of property, and helped to shape the Irish revolutionary tradition. Lalor was much respected by later campaigners. Some of his ideas overlapped with those of O’Brien, but the latter preferred to focus on his own agenda. O’Brien might have had a better understanding of Irish politics had he reflected more deeply upon such sources as Lalor’s journalism.