Patrick M. Geoghegan in his biography about O'Connell, 'King Dan' stated that "Daniel O'Connell remains one of the most important and complex figures in Irish history. And yet, in recent years he has become unfashionable, sidelined by much lesser men and relegated to a position of relative obscurity.Geoghegan concluded that "It was O'Connell, who created the modern Irish nation, for better or for worse, in the nineteenth century...".