The Early Life of Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Parnell was born in 1846 in County Wicklow to Protestant landholding parents. He received his education at Magdalene College, Cambridge and was elected as MP for Count Meath in 1875. In 1880 he ran and won the seat for Cork city, a post he held until 1891. Parnell joined the Parliament in Westminster at a time when the Irish had been relegated to a quiet corner. However, along with fellow Irish MP, J. G. Biggar, Parnell practiced a policy called ‘obstruction’, which basically made the Irish voice heard through constant annoyance and filibustering.
Charles Stewart Parnell and the Land League
During his early years in Parliament, Charles Parnell had secret meetings with Fenian leaders. They agreed to suspend any violent activities in exchange for Parnell’s support of land reform in Ireland. In 1879, Parnell became president of the Land League, and encouraged the Irish to protest against unfair rent and evections by shunning all of those involved. This shunning took on a new name when it was put into effect against the British landlord, Captain Boycott. The incident got so much press that Irish ‘boycotting’ was read about all over Europe.
The Kilmainham Treaty
Despite preaching non-violent protest, Parnell was arrested in 1881 and thrown into Kilmainham jail. Instead of bringing greater stability to Ireland, the move elevated Parnell to hero status and caused outrage across the Island. In order to restore order, Prime Minister William Gladstone gratefully released Parnell from jail in return for his support of the Land Act of 1881 in a political move known as the Kilmainham Treaty.
The Fight for Home Rule
Shortly after his release from jail, Parnell and all of Ireland was shocked when members of the IRB murdered the new Chief Secretary of Ireland in Phoenix Park in Dublin. Parnell used to incident to completely separate himself from all violent radicals in Ireland and turned his efforts to constitutional reform through Parliament. In 1885, Parnell’s powerful party held the deciding votes in the formation of government and threw in their lot with William Gladstone’s Liberal party in return for Home Rule for Ireland. Since the Act of Union in 1800, Ireland and Britain had been one country, Parnell and the Home Rulers wanted separate countries under the same monarch.
Charles Parnell and Katherine O’Shea
Just when Parnell stood at the height of his power, rumours leaked out about his affair with Katherine O’Shea, wife a British officer. In 1889, Captain O’Shea filed for divorce, a nearly unheard of move in Victorian England. The story caused a rift within Parnell’s own party and that of the Liberals. Gladstone demanded Parnell step down. Two years later, Charles Parnell died at the age of 45. Without his leadership, Home Rule was defeated.
Sources
A History of Ireland by Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, Barnes and Nobles Books, 1998
A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes by Jonathan Bardon, Gill & Macmillian Ltd, 2008
The Oxford Companion to Irish History, edited by S. J. Connolly, Oxford University Press, 1998
