biography
| name: |
O'Brien, William Smith
|
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1803–64)
|
| biography:
| Irish nationalist, born in Dromoland, Co Clare, W Ireland. He studied at Cambridge, was Conservative MP for Ennis (1825) and Co Limerick (1835) and, though a Protestant, supported the Catholic claims as a Whig. In 1848 he urged the formation of a National Guard and a national rebellion, which ended ludicrously in a battle in the widow McCormack's cabbage garden at Ballingarry in Co Tipperary. Arrested and sentenced, he served five years in Tasmania, released in 1854 on condition of not returning to Ireland. In 1856 he received an unconditional pardon, but took no further part in politics. |
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