Editing Daniel O'Connell (section)

===Reputation as a landlord===
An article appearing in ''[[The Times]]'' on Christmas Day, 1845, created an international scandal by accusing O'Connell of being one of the worst landlords in Ireland. His tenants were pictured as "living in abject poverty and neglect". The Irish press, however, was quick to observe that this was a description of famine conditions and to dismiss the report as a politically motivated attack.<ref name="Galway Advertiser">{{Cite web |url=http://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/76842/daniel-oconnell-a-man-not-without-flaws |title=Daniel O'Connell – A man not without flaws |work=[[Galway Advertiser]] |access-date=8 December 2019 |date=2 April 2015 |archive-date=8 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191208204634/https://www.advertiser.ie/galway/article/76842/daniel-oconnell-a-man-not-without-flaws |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Literature and the Irish famine, 1845–1919|last=Fegan, Melissa.|date=2002|publisher=Clarendon Press|isbn=1-4237-6751-9|location=Oxford|oclc=67614412}}</ref>

To manage his property O'Connell employed a kinsman, John Primrose, who had a reputation as a strict agent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ó Tuathaigh |first=Gearóid |date=2009 |title=O'Connell, Daniel {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/oconnell-daniel-a6555 |access-date=2023-04-25 |website=www.dib.ie |language=en}}</ref> But when cholera struck the Kerry coast in 1832, he instructed Primrose to "be prodigal of relief out of my means--beef, bread, mutton, medicines, physician, everything you can think of". When the Great Famine hit in 1845, he wished his son Maurice "to be as abundant to the people as you can", and was so intent on securing relief that he sought to buy the government food depot in [[Cahersiveen]], an offer refused from [[HM Treasury|the Treasury]] by  [[Sir Charles Trevelyan, 1st Baronet|Trevelyan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neville |first=Grace |title=Irish Food History: A Companion |publisher=Royal Irish Society |year=2024 |isbn=9781802050189 |editor-last=Mac Con Iomaire |editor-first=Máirtín |location=Dublin |publication-date=2024 |pages=(354–371) 368–369 |chapter=Food, Feast and Famine in the Correspondence of Daniel O'Connell |editor-last2=Cashman |editor-first2=Dorothy}}</ref>