Political Career
His first known public speech was made in 1822 at Enniskene, County Cork, at which time he denounced the iniquities of the landlords and the Protestant clergy. During that year he composed a pamphlet entitled "State of Ireland." As far as is known he had taken no part in politics until this year.
Around this time, allegedly a member of the Whiteboys (a secret agrarian organisation), he was wounded in a fight with soldiers and, fleeing to London to escape arrest, attempted to eke out a living by writing. He produced five manuscripts at this time, but none were ever published.
In 1831 he agitated for the Reform Bill in Cork and, after its passage in 1832, he travelled about the county organising registration of the new electorate.
During the 1830s he emerged as an advocate for Irish rights and democratic political reform, and a notable critic of the British Whig government's policies on Ireland.
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