A man of honour
Has O’Faoláin encapsulated the truth about the O’Connell who strides across the pages of European history as a colossus, or is it all hyperbole? Patrick M Geoghegan does not set out to prove or disprove O’Faoláin’s verdict. His book “is the story of the rise, fall, resurrection, and decline of O’Connell, in the dramatic final 17 years of his life”. But his work — no, his story told by a craftsman — who is not in awe of his subject lends credence to O’Faolain’s conclusion.
This is the story of O’Connell and repeal, the story of O’Connell the abolitionist and above all else the story of O’Connell the pluralist. Men, it has been wisely written, are as the time is. And this man is too except for those occasions when he is ahead of it.
