O'Brien, William definition of O'Brien, William in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

O'Brien, William, 1852–1928, Irish journalist and political leader. He became (1881) editor of a newspaper, United Ireland, which championed the Irish agrarian cause (see Irish Land Question Irish Land Question, name given in the 19th cent. to the problem of land ownership and agrarian distress in Ireland under British rule. The long-term result of conquest, confiscation, and colonization was the creation of a class of English and Scottish landlords and
..... Click the link for more information. ). Imprisoned in the same year, he wrote, at the behest of Charles Parnell Parnell, Charles Stewart (pär`nəl, pärnĕl`), 1846–91, Irish nationalist leader.
..... Click the link for more information. , the famous No Rent Manifesto. He sat in the British Parliament (1883–95, 1900–1918), initiated the United Irish League (1898), which helped to reunite the pro- and anti-Parnell factions of the nationalist movement, and helped shape the Wyndham Land Act of 1903. Later he founded the All-for-Ireland League, advocating a more conciliatory policy toward Britain. He wrote Recollections (1905), Evening Memories (1920), and The Irish Revolution (1923); his letters were edited by his wife, S. F. O'Brien, as Golden Memories (2 vol., 1929).