FREDERICK ENGELS
FEARGUS O'CONNOR AND THE IRISH PEOPLE
The first issue of the Northern
Star for 1848 contains an address to the Irish people by
Feargus O ’Connor, the well-known  leader of the English
Chartists who  also represents them in the House  of Com mons.  The whole  address deserves to be read and carefully
considered by  every democrat, but  our  restricted space prevents us  from reproducing it in full.
We  would, however,  be remiss in our  duty if we  were
to pass it over in silence. The momentous  consequences of
this forceful appeal to the Irish will very soon  be clearly
evident. Feargus O ’Connor — who  is of Irish descent, a Protestant and who  has been for over ten years a leader and
main pillar of the great labour movement  in England— must
henceforth be regarded as the virtual chief of the Irish
Repealers and advocates of reform. The part he played in
opposing  the latest of the ignominious  Irish Coercion Bills
has given him the first claim to this status, and his continuous  agitation for the Irish cause has shown  that Feargus
O ’Connor  is just the man Ireland needs.
O ’Connor is indeed seriously concerned about the wellbeing of the millions in Ireland, Repeal— the abolition of the
Union,  that is, the achievement of an independent Irish
Parliament— is for him not  an empty  word,  not  a pretext for
obtaining posts  for himself and his friends and for making
profitable business  transactions.

In his address he shows  the Irish people that Daniel
O ’Connell, this political juggler, led them by  the nose  and
deceived them for thirteen years by  means of the word
“Repeal” .
He  correctly elucidates the conduct of John  O ’Connell,
who  has taken possession  of his father’s political heritage
and who  like his father is prepared to sacrifice millions of
credulous Irishmen for the sake of his personal ventures and
interests. All O ’Connell ’s orations at the Dublin  Conciliation
Hall31 and all his hypocritical protestations and beautiful
phrases will not  obliterate the disrepute he has brought
upon  himself by  his earlier actions and in particular now  by
the way he acted during the debates on  the Irish Coercion
Bill.
The Irish people must  and will in the end grasp the real
position, and then it will kick out  the entire gang of so-called
Repealers, who  under cover of this cloak laugh up  their
sleeves and in their purses, and John  O ’Connell, the fanatical
papist and political mountebank,  will be kicked out  first of
all.
If this were all the address contained, we  should not  have
especially referred to it.
But  it is of much  wider importance. For  Feargus O ’Connor
speaks in it not  only  as an Irishman but  also, and primarily,
as an English democrat and a Chartist.
With  a lucidity which even the most  obtuse  mind cannot
fail to notice, O ’Connor  shows  that the Irish people must
fight strenuously  and in close association with the English
working  classes and the Chartists in order to win  the six
points  of the People’s Charter— annual parliaments, universal suffrage, vote by  ballot, abolition of the property  qualification for members  of Parliament, payment of M.P.s and
the establishment of equal electoral districts. Only  after these
six points  are won  will the achievement of the Repeal have
any advantages for Ireland.
Furthermore  O ’Connor  pointed out  that justice for Ireland
had been demanded even earlier by  the English workers  in
a petition which had received million signatures,32 and
that now  the English Chartists again protested against the
Irish Coercion  Bill in numerous  petitions. He  finally stressed

that the oppressed classes in England and Ireland must  fight
together and conquer together or continue to languish under
the same burden and live in the same misery and dependence
on  the privileged and ruling capitalist class.
Henceforth the mass of the Irish people will undoubtedly
unite ever more  closely with the English Chartists and will
act in accordance with a common  plan. This will bring  the
victory of the English democrats, and hence the liberation of
Ireland, considerably nearer. That is the significance of
O ’Connor ’s address to the Irish people.
at the beginning  of January 1848
Published in Deutsche-Briisseler- Translated from the German
Zeitung No.  3, January 9,  1848