O’CONNELL, John, Esq. M.P. The Repeal Dictionary. Part I. (from A to M, inclusive.) By John O’Connell. Printed by order of the Loyal National Repeal Association. All published. COUNT PLUNKETT’S COPY

Dublin: Printed by J. Browne, 1845. pp. [viii], 288. Original linen. From the library of George Noble Plunkett with his signature, dated October 22nd 1875 on front endpaper. A very good copy of an extremely rare item.
JISC locates the Bodleian and TCD copies only. WorldCat 1. Black 5885.
During this period he had taken a very active part as his father’s lieutenant in the repeal agitation. He prepared various reports for the repeal association on ‘Poor-law Remedies’ in 1843, on ‘Commercial Injustices to Ireland,’ and on the ‘Fiscal Relations of the United Kingdom and Ireland’ in 1844, and also in the same year his ‘Argument for Ireland,’ which was separately published and reached a second edition in 1847. He also wrote for the Nation his Repeal Dictionary, separately published in 1845. He shared his father’s trial in 1844, and his imprisonment in Richmond gaol, where he organised private theatricals, and conducted a weekly paper for his fellow-prisoners; rode in his father’s triumphal car when the prisoners were released on the success of their appeal to the House of Lords, and became, during his father’s frequent absences, the practical head of the repeal association in Ireland. In this capacity he strenuously opposed the ‘Young Ireland’ party, and incurred its bitter enmity. An amiable and conscientious man, he was generally respected, but he was quite unable to sustain the role of leader of the Repeal agitation after his father’s death.
Provenance: From the library of George Noble Plunkett (1851-1948) Irish nationalist politician, museum director and biographer was born in Dublin and educated in Nice, Clongowes Wood and Trinity College Dublin. He was founder and editor of the magazine Hibernia. In addition, he served as director of the National Museum, vice-president of the Royal Irish Academy and president of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland. Plunkett was also a politician and the father of the patriot, Joseph Plunkett, one of the signatories to the 1916 Proclamation. Descended from a prominent Old English family, which included St Oliver Plunkett, George’s relatives included the Earls of Fingall and the barons of Dunsany. In 1884 Pope Leo XIII created him a Papal Count for donating money and property to the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, a Catholic nursing order.

[Cat 161]