William Smith

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• politician, was born on October 3, 1803 in Dromoland, Co. Clare, the second son of Sir Edward O'Brien (1773-1837), baronet, and Charlotte (1781-1856), the elder daughter of William Smith of Cahirmoyle (or Cahermoyle). William was descended from the high-king of the eleventh century, Brian Bórama.
• Much of William's education took place in England, far from his home. William attended Harrow with his elder brother Lucius (later 13th Baron Inchiquin) and followed him to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1821, where he graduated in 1826 .
• William Smith followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a conservative member of Parliament for Ennis from 1828 to 1831. His first speech as an MP (3 June 1828) advocated for paper money. On July 3, 1828, in parliament, William supported Catholic claims. He joined the Catholic Association of Daniel O'Connell (qv), but opposed O'Connell's election to Clare in 1828 with his family.
• After leaving parliament in 1831, O'Brien married Lucy Caroline Gabbett (1811-61), the eldest daughter of William Gabbett, a former mayor of Limerick, on September 19, 1832. O'Brien began his political career in Limerick, where he advocated for emigration, education, and port development. He then bought 5,000 acres in Cahirmoyle and joined O'Connell's Anti-Tory Association.
• However, he abandoned his marriage to Lucy Gabbett of Limerick in 1832. Smith O'Brien vociferously highlighted the suffering of the Irish people in the House of Commons, calling for better government and an end to Catholic discrimination.
• The newlyweds chose Cahermoyle House as their permanent residence. They had seven children from their happy marriage. From 1835 to 1848, William returned to politics as the Member of Parliament for Limerick County.
• and since 1835, when he was returned for Limerick County .
• He gradually shifted into a nationalist stance, influenced by Young Irish, and declared for the repeal of the Union in 1843. He also shifted from advocating nonviolent agitation to experimenting with armed protest. He was tried in Dublin in May 1848 for making an inflammatory speech, but no verdict was returned. A planned August uprising devolved into a farcical riot in Ballingarry, Co. Tipperary, during which O'Brien explained that he had no food to give his followers and had no intention of causing property damage. An assault on 46 police officers who were holed up in Widow McCormack's cottage, James Buchanan, the US ambassador to Britain, intervened with the British government. On 22 February 1854, Lord Palmerston, now Home Secretary in the Aberdeen Government, recommended a conditional pardon for the transported Young Irish exiles and Chartists. They were still barred from entering the United Kingdom. The threat of war with Russia prompted the British government to appease Irish public opinion by freeing such a popular leader.
• O'Brien was pardoned and returned to Europe in 1854, but it wasn't until 1856 that he was allowed to return to Irish. William Smith O'Brien died on June 18, 1864, from a liver complaint. William died calmly and courageously on June 18, 1864, in the presence of his family. His death was widely publicized around the world. His body was transported by ship from Wales to Dublin, arriving at the quayside in the early morning hours. Mourners were heartbroken when they learned that the remains would arrive in Dublin on the Cambria in the early morning of June 23.
• Nonetheless, people from all over the country flocked to Dublin on their own. A contingent of 200 members of the National Brotherhood of St. Patrick marched two abreast to meet the Cambria at the North Wall. 20,000 people followed the hearse to Kingsbridge Station for rail transport to Limerick and then to Cahirmoyle. He passed away at the age of sixty. He was later buried in the Rathronan churchyard in County Limerick.
• On 25 June local aristocracy, Catholic and Protestant clergy, and ordinary people in their masses accompanied their hero to Rathronan graveyard.
• Source ((William Smith: William Smith O'Brien 1803-1864 By: Richard Davis).