Abigail Francis Woods’ Relationship with Charles Stewart Parnell, Ireland’s “Uncrowned King” Over his seventeen year career (1874-1891), Charles Stewart Parnell achieved more influence than any Irish politician before him. He led the Irish Parliamentary Party, which sought Home Rule for Ireland, and he presided over the Irish National Land League, which battled landlords and their … Read more
When Lord Frederick Cavendish was killed by the Invincibles in the Phoenix Park in May 1882, nothing like it had happened in British political life since Prime Minister Spencer Percival was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons in 1812. Percival is the only British prime minister to have been assassinated, and … Read more
Sir, —In connection with Micheál Ó Siochrú’s September/October article ‘The curse of Cromwell’, you may be interested in a few more points about the Cromwell statue at Westminster, most of which I picked up while doing research on the Irish Independent of the 1890s (when it was the paper of the Parnellite party). The proposal … Read more
Redmond the Parnellite Dermot Meleady (Cork University Press, €43.20) ISBN 9781859184233 In the tumult of 1916 and the War of Independence, it is easy to forget that an agreement had already been made to give Ireland autonomy over its own affairs. The role played by John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party (IPP) and … Read more
Following the defeat of Gladstone’s first Home Rule bill in June 1886, some of Charles Stewart Parnell’s lieutenants decided to raise morale and lower rents by renewing the land war that had caused so much havoc and fear since the founding of the Irish National Land League in October 1879. Although Parnell opposed this new … Read more