Feargus O'Connor

Feargus Edward O'Connor (1794 - August 30, 1855) was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan, he was a Member of Parliament from 1832 until 1835. In 1835 he was disqualified because he failed to satisfy the property requirement for MPs. In 1837 he founded a radical newspaper, the Northern Star. He was the leading figure in Chartism. When the first wave of Chartism ebbed he founded the Chartist Land Company in 1845. When Chartism again gained momentum he organized the Chartist meeting on Kennington Common in 1848. After assaulting several Members of Parlament he was committed into a lunatic asylum in Chiswick, where he died in 1855.

Most of the early historians of Chartism were quite negative about his role. However there has been a trend to reasses him in a more favorable light. [Dorothy Thompson: The Chartists p96]

1. Spartacus entry on O'Connor [1]
2. Spartacus entry on the Kennington mass meeting [2]