The most direct encounter between Irish and Hungarian nationalism occurred in 1861 through William Smith O’Brien’s travels in Hungary in August and September of that year. The visit carries political, cultural and literary significance for Irish perceptions of Hungary as they developed during the nineteenth century. A leader of the Young Ireland rebellion of July 1848, Smith O’Brien travelled to Hungary as part of a longer visit on the European continent in 1861. During his time in Budapest (then Pesth-Buda), Smith O’Brien met several leading figures in Hungarian political life, including the Head of the Hungarian Diet, Ferenc Deák, who maintained a policy of passive resistance to the Austrian Government. Smith O’Brien was present at the final sitting of the Hungarian Parliament in August 1861 before Emperor Franz Joseph dissolved it. Recording these experiences, Smith O’Brien’s journal not only links back to the period of the Young Ireland movement in the 1840s when Irish nationalists looked to Hungary as an example to follow. It also looks ahead to the major settlement between Austria and Hungary of 1867 that would be very influential in the development of constitutional Irish nationalism in the late-nineteenth/early-twentieth century. Apart from political matters, the journal is important for Smith O’Brien’s observations on religion and culture in the Kingdom of Hungary. His transcription of English, German and French translations of Mihály Vörösmarty’s ‘Szózat’ [‘Appeal’], during his time in the Slovakian region of the Kingdom of Hungary, is significant for literary transnationalism between Ireland and Hungary. This poem is an accompaniment to the national anthem of Hungary.