1. William Conolly, known as Speaker Conolly, was an Irish Whig politician, Commissioner of Revenue, lawyer and landowner.
16 Facts About William Conolly
1. 2.
William Conolly was an influential figure in Irish politics, serving as Speaker of the Irish House of Commons between 1715 and his death.
3.
William Conolly was born the son of an inn-keeper, Patrick Conolly, in Ballyshannon, County Donegal.
4.
Patrick Conolly was a native of County Monaghan, and a descendant of the O Conghalaigh clan of Airgialla.
5.
William Conolly set aside enough money that he was able to send William to Dublin to study law.
6.
William Conolly practised as a lawyer in Dublin and in 1694 he married Katherine Conyngham, daughter of General Sir Albert Conyngham.
7.
William Conolly was the largest individual buyer, in particular buying 3,300 acres in County Meath that had been assigned to the Earl of Albemarle.
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Patrick Conolly 8.
William Conolly built the first winged Palladian house in Ireland, Castletown House in Celbridge, County Kildare, starting in 1722, and specified that every part of it had to be made from Irish materials.
9.
William Conolly commissioned the Old Custom House and the Irish Houses of Parliament, the world's first building specifically designed as a bicameral parliament.
10.
William Conolly was the most important of the "Undertakers", the managers of Government business in the Irish House of Commons, in the early 18th century.
11.
William Conolly was associated with the moderate faction of Whigs and was opposed by the Brodrick faction from Cork.
12.
William Conolly was a Member of Parliament for Donegal Borough from 1692 to 1703 and subsequently for County Londonderry until his death in 1729.
13.
William Conolly was Speaker of the Irish House of Commons and a Commissioner of the Revenue from 1715 to his death in 1729.
14.
William Conolly's name was spelt "Conolly", rather than the more familiar Connolly, deriving ultimately from the Gaelic surname "O Conghaile".
15.
William Conolly built the Wonderful Barn and the Conolly Folly in the 1740s.
16.
William Conolly was reputed to be the wealthiest man in Ireland at the date of his death.