The University of Notre Dame Dublin welcomed over 280 guests for the Gala Premiere of Daniel O’Connell: The Emancipator, a landmark documentary on the life and legacy of one of Ireland’s most important historical and political figures.
The documentary marks the 250th anniversary of Daniel O’Connell’s birth and kicks off a series of screenings and academic events over the next three years, culminating in 2029 with the bicentenary of Catholic Emancipation in Ireland, one of O’Connell’s greatest achievements in his lifetime.
Directed by Ruán Magan and narrated by Domhnall Gleeson, Daniel O’Connell: The Emancipator is a Create One production in association with the University of Notre Dame, University College Cork, and RTÉ.
The documentary is supported by Ireland's Department of Culture, Communications and Sport and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. It will be included in school curricula across the island of Ireland, as laid out in Ireland’s “2025 Programme for Government,” to highlight “how Irish identity was, and remains a European identity, while showcasing O’Connell’s contribution to intellectual and political thought on a global scale.”
“I would like to congratulate everyone involved in this excellent project,” said Taoiseach Micheál Martin TD, Prime Minister of Ireland, at the Cork International Film Festival. “It is a tough challenge to bring to life someone who was born 250 years ago, but you managed to do this with great success and to invite a wider national discussion about The Liberator.” (Read An Taoiseach's full speech here.)
“In a time of extreme social inequality, famine, and disease, Daniel O’Connell almost singlehandedly raised a nation from its knees and forced Britain, the most powerful empire in the world, to grant the Irish people their democratic rights.” - Domhnall Gleeson, narrator
The 50-minute documentary follows the journey of O’Connell, from a humble cottage in Kerry to one of the world’s most influential political leaders of the nineteenth century.
With insights from leading scholars from the University of Notre Dame, University College Cork, Trinity College Dublin, and University of Cambridge, the film illuminates O’Connell’s use of mass mobilization, oration, and a bold imagination to advance Catholic Emancipation in Ireland, the abolitionist movement in the United States, and other nonviolent, democratic movements worldwide.
Following the premiere screening, Gary Murphy, professor of law and politics at Dublin City University, hosted a panel discussion with director Ruán Magan and documentary contributor Chanté Mouton Kinyon, assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame.
Magan discussed the original seed of the documentary after an approach by Notre Dame Dublin, the stewards of Daniel O’Connell’s former home on Merrion Square, who sought to mark the 250th anniversary of his birth and reintroduce O’Connell to a new generation.
“What makes O'Connell less of a nationalist than The O'Rahilly or Pearse?” Magan mused. “They all contributed, together, to create this country that we have. The more I get to know O'Connell, the more I feel that none of what happened subsequently—the Irish Revival and then the Nationalist Movement that brought us independence—could have happened without O'Connell laying the foundations during those first five decades of the 1800s.”
Mouton Kinyon, an expert in transatlanticism, expanded the discussion to O’Connell’s international impact, particularly on Black American thinkers and abolitionists in the United States. His meeting with Frederick Douglass remains a seismic moment in the intertwined Black and Irish histories.
Countering the immediate gratification of the often leaderless, violent revolutions that swept Europe in O’Connell’s lifetime, Mouton Kinyon says that O’Connell offered people “a different way, this pacifist way…without revolutionary violence, but a revolution of thought,” and that’s what still resonates with us today.
The evening concluded with a special live performance of the film’s score by composer Colm Mac Con Iomaire (violin, bouzouki), accompanied by Declan Cosgrove (piano) and Muireann Ní Shé (vocals).
The medley included the air “Johnny Seoighe,” written by one of Mac Con Iomaire’s ancestors, and the sean-nos song “Dónall Binn Ó Conaill Caoin,” originally a poem written in celebration of O’Connell around the time of Emancipation, bringing the audience right back into that historic moment.
Watch the post-screening panel discussion and music here.
Daniel O’Connell: The Emancipator will premiere on RTÉ One on December 29, 2025, at 6:30 pm GMT. Screenings, events, and symposia will follow as part of the University of Notre Dame’s Global O’Connell series in the lead up to the bicentenary of Ireland’s Catholic Emancipation in 2029.
Contact: Maggie Arriola Fagan, associate director for partnerships and engagement, Notre Dame Dublin, marriola@nd.edu
Originally published by at dublin.nd.edu on December 09, 2025.