About

Enjoy a one of a kind Irish dining experience, making O’Connell’s your Irish home away from home.

Our magnificent building with all its beautiful Irish Antiques was originally joint owned by Irish-born entrepreneurs John Brennan & Billy O’Sullivan. O’Connell’s was created to be an ancient Irish setting run as a modern Irish bar. As you walk in the door you can see aspects of Dublin, Waterford, Kilkenny and Galway, putting Ireland right in the heart of King Street. The building itself was built in the 1800’s by Col. Fitzgerald from Co. Wicklow. In the 1970’s a restaurant called Bullfeathers Bar opened at the back section of the building and the front a quaint hat shop called Hats in the Belfry. Until one day Billy and John walked by and had a vision. They purchased both sections in June 2004. Shipping everything from Waterford in November of that year, they emptied out the countless precious antiques that were held in storage for over twenty years for that one special project they believed would inevitably come their way. 14 Master carpenters, 2 master stonemasons, 2 antique tillers, and 2 specialist painters, then in March of 2006 O’Connell’s was born to the magnificent restaurant we appreciate today. In 2018 John took over sole ownership of Daniel O’Connell’s with his wife Margaret and their family.

Born in Ireland, raised in Old Town, Daniel O’Connell’s is a traditional Irish Restaurant in an ancient Irish setting. Named after Ireland’s great patriot Daniel O’Connell “The Liberator,” stroll through our four unique bars with blazing fires, historical artifacts, and cozy snugs. Enjoy a one of a kind Irish dining experience, making O’Connell’s your Irish home away from home.

Daniel O’Connell was born near Cahirciveen, Co. Kerry, Ireland on 6 August 1775.His wealthy childless uncle adopted him at an early age and brought him up at Derrynane. In 1791 he attended school in France at St. Omer and Douai. What he saw there of the French Revolution left him with a life-long aversion to violence. He read law at Lincoln’s Inn (1794 -96) and continued his studies in Dublin where he was called to bar in 1798. He had soon built up a large law practice.

The 1798 rising and the terrible butchery that followed it confirmed his horror of violence. While he approved of the principles of the United Irishmen, their call for reform and for Catholic Emancipation, he disagreed with their methods.

In 1815 O’Connell harshly criticized the Dublin corporation and was challenged to a duel by one member, D’Esterre. In the exchange of shots D’Esterre was shot in the leg only, but the injury eventually killed him. O’Connell, much in despair and full of remorse, eternally wore a black glove on his left hand as a reminder.

O’Connell was soon drawn into political action. In 1823, O’Connell founded the Catholic Association to promote and secure emancipation.

The Clare election in 1828 was a turning point. O’Connell managed a huge victory against the government candidate. He was well supported by the clergy whose influence on the poor uneducated peasant class was enormous. The polling took place in Ennis at the old courthouse where the O’Connell monument now stands.

The British Government feared a rising and granted Catholic emancipation in April 1829. O’Connell was now the undisputed leader in Ireland and he gave up his practice at the bar to devote his time entirely to politics. In February 1830, O’Connell became the first Catholic in modern history to sit in the House of Commons.

O’Connell now decided to concentrate on winning repeal of the act of union and getting an Irish parliament for the Irish people. British political saw repeal of the Act of Union as the first step in the break-up of the act of union, as the spirit of the repeal movement was revived when the young Ireland writers wrote about it in the Nation.

In 1841, O’Connell was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin. He now began to organize large meetings throughout the country. It is thought that three-quarters of a million people gathered on the hill of Tara to hear the man they called ‘The Liberator.’ The government became alarmed at the strength of the Repeal Movement and a meeting which O’Connell had planned for 8 October 1843 in Clontarf, Dublin was banned. Huge crowds were already on their way when O’Connell called off the meeting to avoid the risk of violence and bloodshed.

He was charged with conspiracy, arrested and spent three months in prison. When he was released he continued with his campaign for repeal. It was now clear the tactics that had won emancipation had failed. O’Connell was now almost seventy and his health was failing. There was also some failure in the potato crop in the 1840’s, a sign of things to come in the Great Famine of 1845-1847.

Aware of the fact that he had failed with his great goal, (the Repeal Movement), O’Connell left Ireland for the last time in January 1847. He made a touching speech in the House of Commons in which he appealed for aid for his country. In March, acting on the advice of his doctor, he set out to Italy. Following his death in Genoa on 15 May 1847, his heart was buried in Rome and his body was returned to Ireland and buried in Glasnevin Cemetery (now known as Prospect Cemetery in Dublin).