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The Religious Development of Daniel O’Connell, II: The Making of a Devotional Catholic

1998; Philosophy Documentation Center; Volume: 2; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/nhr.1998.a926645

1534-5815

James E. Guilfoyle,

Catholicism and Religious Studies

Daniel O'Connell Entering the Cisteriari Monastery ofMount Melleray, August, 1838, Accompanied by O'Neill Daunt. Reproduced by kind permission of Fr. Uinseann 0 Maidfn, O.C.S.O., Mount Melleray Abbey, Cappoquin, County Wexford. 114 James E. Guilfoyle The Religious Development of Daniel O'Connell, II: The Making of a Devotional Catholic Daniel O'Connell might have continued as a relatively lukewarm Roman Catholic, as he had been between 1809 and 1816, had not a fateful event occurred in 1815. This event, which seems to have led him to becoming a devout practicing Catholic early in the following year, was his duel with John D'Esterre on February 1, 1815. D'Esterre, a merchant and member ofthe Dublin Corporation, had challenged O'Connell because of his charge that the Dublin Corporation was "beggarlY:'1 Surprisingly, though D'Esterre was an experienced duelist, O'Connell seriously wounded him in the encounter. The next day D'Esterre died, leaving his wife and young children to deal with his debts. At first O'Connell considered himself entirely blameless. He pointed out to a friend on February 6 that "the affair was forced on with a strange perverseness by the unhappy man. From my soul I am sorry for him but I could not have acted otherwise and am therefore free from self-reproach." He added, "Those are the consequences of labouring for the country."2 D'Esterre's death, however, soon filled O'Connell with a deep and lasting remorse. On March 13, Mary observed in regard to the duel to her husband: "You are, I see, irrevocably unhappy ... once suspicion enters the human mind, there is an end to all comfort and security."3 O'Connell had already offered to share half his income with D'Esterre's widow, even though he was heavily in debt himself. When he passed the house in which D'Esterre died, O'Connell always lifted his hat and said a prayer for his victim's soul, or for his own forgiveness. Later he began wearing a black glove on his right hand when taking Communion. "That hand once took a fellow-creature's life;' he said, "and I shall never bare it in the presence of my Redeemer."4 O'Connell's guilt about the death ofD'Esterre, however, did not prevent him from challenging Sir Robert Peel to a duel in June 1815 over an alleged insult. 1. John D'Esterre to O'Connell, 26 January 1815, 27 January 1815, in Maurice O'Connell, ed., The Correspondence ofDaniel O'Connell, 8 vols. (Dublin, 1972-1980), 2: 3-4. 2. O'Connell to George Bryan, 6 February 1815, Ibid., 2: 9. 3. Mary O'Connell to O'Connell, 13 March 1815, Ibid., 2: 14. 4. Michael MacDonagh, The Life and Times ofDaniel O'Connell (London, 1903), 83. NEW HIBERNIA REVIEW/IRIS EIREANNACH NUA, 2:4 (GEIMHREADH/WiNTER, 1998), 114-132 The Religious Development ofDaniel O'Connell, II The duel never took place. Mary O'Connell tried desperately to prevent the meeting, but could not deter her husband. He used a number of cunning subterfuges to get away from her, but was arrested in London on September 15 attempting to board a ship for Calais where Peel was waiting. Upon his arrest, O'Connell wrote to his wife and begged forgiveness.5 Mary was forgiving but very angry. She and Daniel had quarreled repeatedly since the D'Esterre duel, and O'Connell had made promises to obey her wishes as "sacred and solemn commands."6 It is not unlikely that he had promised her that he would give up dueling forever. The O'Connells had six young children and were heavily in debt; his death would have financially ruined his family. Moreover, Mary knew that dueling was a mortal sin and that Daniel could have no opportunity for atonement ifhe died in such a contest.7 While 1here is no direct evidence for this, it was highly probable that O'Connell's spiritual unease over D'Esterre's death and his own inability to control his temper, as evidenced in the affair with Peel, culminated in O'Connell's decision in early1816 to become a rigorously...