Daniel  O'Connell successfully campaigned for Catholic and civil rights - including the right of Catholics to sit in the British Parliament, achieved in 1829 - and his opposition to slavery was crucial to its abolition in 1833 within British jurisdictions. Throughout his life and career, O'Connell regularly visited and lived in London.

He fled revolutionary France for the city in 1793 and studied at the Inns of Court before being called to the Irish Bar. His political outlook was influenced by attending the trials of the London radicals Thomas Hardy and John Horne Tooke. Once he took his parliamentary seat in 1830 as the first popularly elected Catholic MP since the Reformation, he sat in the Commons for the rest of his life, becoming a major player in Westminster.

The blue plaque is at 14 Albemarle Street in London's Mayfair, marking the house where the Irish campaigner lived from February until at least July but probably August 1833. The period was a significant one for him: at a General Election, 39 of O'Connell's supporters had been returned to the House of Commons while the Act to abolish slavery, in which O'Connell played a prominent part, was given royal assent in August 1833.

Number 14 Albemarle Street is a terraced house of four storeys, dating from the 18th century. The size of the house and its fashionable Mayfair location reflected O'Connell's political prominence at the time. "I am anxious to make a good appearance in London for the sake of our girls," he said to his wife, Mary. The house was also home to O'Connell's sons Maurice, Morgan and John and his son-in-law, Charles.

The blue plaque unveiling was attended by the Irish Minister for the Diaspora, the Ambassador of Ireland to Great Britain, and members of the O'Connell family.

Professor Martin Daunton, Deputy Chair of the English Heritage Blue Plaques panel, said: "Daniel O'Connell was arguably the Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi of his age. His campaign for Catholic emancipation and his principled opposition to slavery was - and still is - admired around the world. We are delighted to honour this towering figure in the city which formed the backdrop for much of his career."

Irish Minister for the Diaspora, Jimmy Deenihan, said: "I have been a lifelong admirer of my fellow Kerryman, Daniel O'Connell, and particularly his towering achievement in advancing through peaceful means the rights of the Irish people at a very difficult time in our history.

"O'Connell was not just an Irish figure, but a man of international stature, renowned for his progressive views, his belief in the universality of human rights and his unshakeable commitment to liberal, reforming principles. It gives me great pleasure to officially unveil the English Heritage Blue Plaque commemorating Daniel O'Connell, Ireland's Liberator and one of the commanding figures in the politics of these islands during his lifetime."
Geoffrey O'Connell, great-great-grandson of Daniel O'Connell, said: "We are delighted that Daniel O'Connell has been recognised with the award of an English Heritage blue plaque in this great city which did much to shape his beliefs and ideals. The 'prophet of a coming time' was how the future British Prime Minister William Gladstone described O'Connell and his peaceful struggle for universal rights for people of all races and creeds is as pertinent today as it was prescient then."

Daniel O'Connell is by no means the first Irish person to be commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque - Ernest Shackleton, Bram Stoker, Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats are among the other Irish blue plaque recipients.
The English Heritage London Blue Plaques scheme is generously supported by David Pearl, the Blue Plaques Club, and members of the public.