Page 317 - Demo

Chapter NiNe 317
and as a result of the vigorous and iery manner in which he argued against it, he in turn generated great enthusiasm and support amongst the people throughout the land. Con- sequently, the weak and submissive gentriied Catholic leaders were sidelined as the new O’Connell led movement for Emancipation began in earnest.
The two years from 1813 to 1815 proved to be a watershed in both O’Connell’s personal life and career, because during those years three momentous incidents occurred which as one commentator noted “lifted him to the pinnacle of leadership.” The three episodes were his defence of John Magee, the patriotic Presbyterian owner of the Evening Post newspaper; his infamous duel with the Dublin Corporation Member John Norcot d’Esterre, and his smashing of the aforementioned veto.
John Magee was arraigned for attacking in the columns of his newspaper Charles Len- nox, Duke of Richmond, the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. O’Connell was hired by Ma- gee as his chief counsel and it is maintained that he very quickly showed the court and the country, but particularly the Catholic inhabitants, who had for ages sufered greatly under the Penal Laws and consequently had been too submissive and sevile to assert themselves, an example of independence by the manner in which he conducted himself throughout the proceedings.
The second episode and one which was to have a massively deining inluence on O’ Connell was his clash with D’Esterre. Apparently D’Esterre had vociferously threatened to publicly horsewhip O’Connell up and down Grafton Street in Dublin, probably the most fashionable thoroughfare in the capital at the time-all because O’Connell had ver- bally abused the members who formed the then Dublin Corporation. It is recorded that O’Connell referred to the members as “beggarly,” a remark which was interpreted as a personal insult by D’Esterre. Not noted for being a ‘shrinking violet,’ O’Connell, in an efort to give D’Esterre an opportunity to carry out his threat, paraded seemingly unconcerned along Grafton Street at the appointed time, a time when all of fashionable Dublin, and more, had gathered to see the whipping.
It is told that when he witnessed this public show of force, D’Esterre got cold feet, folded his horse-whip and departed, only to later send O’Connell a challenge to a duel.
O’Connell accepted the challenge and in response he stated that although he would not be the aggressor, yet he would defend his honor. With all of Ireland agog over the af- fair, D’Esterre’s challenges and taunts continued, and eventually he and O’Connell, in the