MacDonnell, Randal (1762–1821), merchant and catholic politician, may have been born in Cartagena, Spain, where he was prominent as a merchant until he moved to Ireland c.1790. He first attended a meeting of the Catholic Committee on 6 February 1791. Soon he was, with John Keogh (qv) and Edward Byrne (qv), a member of a sub-committee of the Catholic Committee convened to press for repeal of the remaining penal laws. He was by then a leading catholic merchant with addresses in Dublin and Kildare. The sub-committee drew up a relief petition, which was presented by five delegates to George III in January 1793 and was followed in April by a bill which extended the elective franchise to catholic property holders and granted further rights but fell short of the full emancipation demanded. The committee meeting following the publication of this bill was irate until MacDonnell moved to conciliate and successfully secured a vote of thanks rather than censure for the delegates.
By 1794 he was in partnership with Byrne in Allen's Court, Mullinahack, Dublin, where Byrne had built up a sugar and distillery business. On the latter's death (1804), MacDonnell took over these premises entirely and was then the richest catholic in Dublin, with wealth estimated at £100,000. He was also a magistrate from 1803 of the Usher's Island district in Dublin. MacDonnell was a founder member of the 1804 Catholic Committee convened to repeal remaining anti-catholic laws and took a prominent role, frequently chairing meetings and using his conciliatory tactics to bring them to resolution. With Denys Scully (qv) and Daniel O'Connell (qv) he was appointed in December to the sub-committee of five who drafted the parliamentary petition. Concurrently he was holding secret meetings with Alexander Marsden (qv), under-secretary at Dublin Castle, who both flattered his vanity and convinced him of the government's inflexibility on emancipation. MacDonnell therefore favoured drawing up a statement of grievances rather than a petition, but he possessed less influence than Marsden suspected and was strongly overruled by Scully. He was not among the original five delegates named to present a petition to William Pitt in February 1805, but on 20 April was appointed to go to London to assist its reception. The petition was overwhelmingly rejected by parliament on 14 May.
Over the following decade, MacDonnell remained active and was appointed to various catholic committees. He was too treasurer of the Lay College, Maynooth. He advanced large sums to defray the costs of parish representatives on the 1811 committee being prosecuted under the 1793 convention act. On 30 January 1813 he was one of four delegates appointed to accompany Lord Fingall (qv) to present a petition to Henry Grattan (qv), who introduced a catholic relief bill which was narrowly defeated on 24 May. After twenty years’ involvement in catholic politics, and disliking the more aggressive tactics of O'Connell, MacDonnell was a spent force. He chaired his last meeting on 24 July 1813 and thereafter made no further contribution, though he continued to be civic-minded and was the catholic representative on an 1817 government committee appointed to disburse £50,000 for famine relief. He died 5 April 1821 in Dublin. MacDonnell was generally regarded as a useful committee member, though Keogh said of him: ‘he is always wavering and never decided’ (Freeman's Journal, 11 Aug. 1810).
He married Anne Thomasine Ryan, daughter of another Irish trader at Cartagena; they had eleven children; a brother (or son?), Emiliano or Myles, continued in business at Cartagena; Randal's daughter Elizabeth married George Taaffe of Smarmore Castle in 1814. A portrait of Randal MacDonnell is held by Richard MacDonnell, a descendant.