In 1888 Cecil Rhodes, an Englishman living in South Africa, donated £10,000 to Charles Stewart Parnell. His motive for contributing to a cause to which he had no emotional attachment is curious. The answer may lie in the manner in which Rhodes’s political ambitions were dependent on the Home Rule bill, and therefore on Parnell. … Read more
After the Phoenix Park murders in May 1882, Gladstone introduced a stringent crimes act and created at Dublin Castle what was intended to be a permanent secret service department: the Crime Special Branch, led by an ‘Assistant Under-Secretary for Police and Crime’. From July 1882 until January 1887 this position was occupied by Edward George … Read more
Sir, —I read with interest D. R. O’Connor Lysaght’s letter in the lastissue on the different strands of Irish nationalist thought dealt within the previous (March/April 2007) issue. I think he misinterpreted thetheme of my short piece on John O’Leary, however, which was concernedsolely with analysing why Yeats came to associate O’Leary with apoetical idea … Read more
Throughout the 1880s Parnell was renowned as Ireland’s ‘uncrowned king’, while his personal life was dominated by his furtive relationship with the attractive wife of a parliamentary colleague, Captain Willie O’Shea. When Parnell was cited in the O’Shea divorce case in November 1890, his political world fell apart and Irish nationalism was plunged into turmoil … Read more
‘An Appeal for Aid’ The first notice presented the contents of a cablegram sent to John Fitzgerald, president of the Irish National League, from members of the Irish Parliamentary Party. It referred to the Plan of Campaign that was then under way and emphasised the urgent need for funds to help to deal with the … Read more