25 Facts About Roger O'Connor

Roger O'Connor was an Irish nationalist and writer, known for the controversies surrounding his life and writings, notably his fanciful history of the Irish people, the Chronicles of Eri.

Roger O'Connor was the brother of the United Irishman Arthur O'Connor, and the father of the Chartist leader Feargus O'Connor and of Francisco Burdett O'Connor who was to fight in the Spanish American wars of independence.

Roger O'Connor studied law and was called to the bar in 1784.

Roger O'Connor married Louisa Anna Strachan, who died after giving birth to two children, Louise and Roderic.

Roger O'Connor remarried in 1788, to Wilhamena Bowen, who bore him four sons and three daughters.

Roger's younger brother Arthur O'Connor was one of the United Irishmen.

Roger O'Connor was himself associated with the movement, editing the nationalist journal Harp of Erin.

Roger O'Connor went into hiding in the run-up to the abortive 1796 rebellion.

Roger O'Connor subsequently surrendered to the authorities and was released.

MP and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan wrote that "the usage of Roger O'Connor, who is one of the finest fellows I ever saw, has been merciless beyond example".

Roger O'Connor was held in Fort George near Inverness until 1801, when he was moved to London, but was barred from travelling to Ireland.

In 1803 Roger O'Connor was finally allowed to return to Ireland.

Roger O'Connor asserted that he had acquired it as "a suitable residence in which to entertain Napoleon" after the anticipated success of Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom.

Roger O'Connor did so from a position of scepticism towards religion; he once said Voltaire was his God.

Roger O'Connor was suspected of insurance fraud, as he had recently taken out a policy on the house.

Roger O'Connor stated that his only connection to the robbery was that his son had found the abandoned mailbags on his land.

Roger O'Connor published his version of events, in which he argued that there had been a conspiracy to have him convicted.

John P Prendergast, in an article on O'Connor, says that "thenceforth Roger O'Connor stood condemned in public opinion of the robbery for the Galway mail".

Shortly after these events Roger O'Connor's landlord attempted to get him evicted from Dangan, but the attempt failed.

The book was prefaced by a portrait of Roger O'Connor holding a crown, the caption to which proclaimed that he was the "Head of his Race" and "Chief of the prostrated people of his nation", a position he claimed as the supposed lineal descendant of the 12th-century king Ruaidri Ua Conchobair.

Roger O'Connor interpreted Biblical stories and medieval Irish lore to support this narrative.

Roger O'Connor returned to county Cork, but by this time had lost much of his money.

Roger O'Connor lived for the rest of his life in a fisherman's cottage in Ballincollig, cohabiting with a local young woman he called the "princess of Kerry".

Prendergast concludes that Roger O'Connor showed great courage in his patriotic statements during his arrest and imprisonment for alleged sedition, but that his eccentric personality and Irish nationalism "rendered him so odious [in the eyes of his enemies] that the grossest charges would be willingly believed".

James Dunkerley says that several authors have described Roger O'Connor as "a little mad", adding that the Chronicles of Eri is a "colourful concoction - a more 'imagined community' it would be hard to locate outside of Atlantis".