Open AccessUKRAINIAN O'CONNORS: THE FAMILY OF IRISH ANCESTRY IN THE CULTURAL LIFE OF THE 19TH CENTURY UKRAINE
Author(s) -
Gennadii Kazakevych
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
vìsnik - kiïvsʹkij nacìonalʹnij unìversitet ìmenì tarasa ševčenka. ìstorìâ
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1728-2640
DOI - 10.17721/1728-2640.2017.132.1.03
Subject(s) - ukrainian , irish , politics , emigration , history , reign , ancient history , spanish civil war , classics , law , political science , philosophy , linguistics
The article is devoted to the O'Connor family, which played a noticeable role in the Ukrainian history of the 19 – early 20th centuries. A founder of the family Alexander O'Connor leaved Ireland in the late 18th century. The author assumes that he was a military man who had to emigrate from Ireland shortly after the Irish rebellion of 1798. After some years in France, where he had changed his surname to de Connor, he and his elder son Victor arrived in Russia where Alexander Ivanovich De-Konnor joined the army. As a cavalry regiment commander, colonel De-Konnor took part in the Napoleonic wars. He married a noble Ukrainian woman Anastasia Storozhenko and settled down in her estate in the Poltava region of Ukraine. His three sons (Victor, Alexander and Valerian) had served as army commanders and then settled in Chernihiv, Poltava and Kharkiv regions respectively. Among their descendants the most notable were two daughters of Alexander De-Konnor jr – Olga and Valeria as well as Valerian De-Konnor jr. Olga De-Konnor married a famous Ukrainian composer and public figure Mykola Lysenko. As a professional opera singer, she stood at the origins of the Ukrainian national opera. Her younger sister Valeria was a Ukrainian writer, publicist and political activist who joined the government of the Ukrainian People's Republic in 1917. Valerian De-Konnor jr. is well known for his research works and translations in the field of cynology.