CHARLES STEWART PARNELL
Taken in the sitting-room at Wonersh Lodge, Eltham
by Mrs. Parnell
CHARLES STEWART PARNELL
His Love Story and Political Life
BY
KATHARINE O'SHEA
(Mrs. Charles Stewart Parnell)
"No common soul was his; for good or ill
There was a mighty power"
HAWKSHAW—Sonnet IX
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
1921
First published in Two Volumes 1914
One Volume Edition 1921
DEDICATED TO
LOVE
Had the whole rich world been in my power,
I should have singled out thee, only thee,
From the whole world's collected treasury."
MOORE
PUBLISHERS' NOTE
Of all the love stories in history possibly none had moreintense reactions upon politics than that of Charles StewartParnell and Katharine O'Shea, which is unfolded withcandour so compelling in this record of their life.
The engrossing interest in Ireland has demanded a newand popular edition of Mrs. Parnell's book. No realcomprehension of the Irish question is possible without athorough knowledge of Parnell's life and his part in thecreation of the modern Home Rule movement; and nointimate knowledge of Parnell's character and the springsof his policy during the critical decade of the 'eighties canbe had without studying the revelations of hiscorrespondence with his wife.
In this edition some abridgment has been necessary tobring the book within the compass of a single volume. Theless material parts of Mrs. Parnell's narrative of her owngirlhood have been curtailed, and the long correspondenceof Captain O'Shea has been summarised in a note appendedto Chapter xxvii. One or two omissions are indicatedin footnotes. The text has been subject to no otherinterference.
La Belle Sauvage,
September, 1921.
MRS. PARNELL'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
On October 6th, 1891, nearly twenty-three years ago,Charles Stewart Parnell died in the arms of his wife;nearly twenty-three years ago the whole of the civilizedworld awoke to laud—or to condemn—the dead chief. Itranked him with the greatest heroes, or with the vilestsinners, of the world, because he had found and kept thehaven of her arms with absolute disregard of that world'spraise or blame, till death, the only power greater than thelove that held him there, tore him from them.
And then the hate that followed him to the grave turnedto the woman he had loved, to vent upon her its baffledspleen; not considering that such a man as he would keepthe heart of his wife as closely in death as he had kept itin life, so closely that none could come near it, so secretlythat none could find the way to plant therein a sting. Andso for these more than twenty-two years, I, his wife, havelived upon memories so happy and so precious that, aftertime had brought back some meaning to my life, I took