Also across the square is O’Connell House, home of Notre Dame’s Dublin Global Gateway. Daniel O’Connell was a leader in the campaign for Catholic Emancipation and in fact, it was with his election to Parliament that the British government conceded Catholic Emancipation and he was therefore the first Catholic Member of the British Parliament. Though his home was in Kerry, he maintained a residence on Merrion Square, now occupied by Notre Dame.

Students of Daniel O’Connell and the various causes he championed will find every history book they could want in the Hesburgh Libraries. Additionally, the library holds a letter in O’Connell’s hand, and also a broadside that shows another aspect of O’Connell’s campaigning – his vocal objection to slavery. This 1838 broadside, The testimony of Daniel O'Connell, the liberator of Ireland, against the infamous system of American slavery, records a speech made by O’Connell on slavery with the ensuing discussion.

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