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Editor says, what if Charles Stuart Parnell had lived to see Irish Home Rule? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the July 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1926, on this day Irish landlord, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party Charles Stewart Parnell (pictured) died just weeks short of his eightieth birthday.
Strong to the point of weaknessA vigourous spokesman for Parliamentary nationalism in Ireland between 1875 and 1891 he was eventually brought down by a scandalous extra-marital affair with Katharine O'Shea. Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, described him as one of the three or four greatest men of the nineteenth century, while Lord Haldane described him as the strongest man the British House of Commons had seen in one hundred and fifty years. Despite these patronising statements from the British political class, the Irish author James Joyce was far closer to the mark when he described Parnwell as " Strong to the point of Weakness". For example, as a matter of principle he chose to marry O'Shea immediately her divorce was granted and just before a crucial by-election.
Having taken Irish Home Rule inside what Victorians would describe as "the sphere of practical politics", he was at the zenith of his popularity considered an "uncrowned King". And yet Joyce's observation marked a deeper flaw, his stubborn unwillingness to extend the franchise or contemplate any form of irregular warfare. In his later years, he would be forced to watch a new generation of leaders such as Michael Collins take the necessary ruthless steps forward to seize devolved power from the British. Locked in a Victorian gentleman's system of thinking, he was by then a sad distant figure out of time living in a brutal era of Civil War where ironically Home Rule was finally achieved through methods he could not force himself to countenance.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Charles Stuart Parnwell, Home Rule, Ireland, James Joyce, Dublin. Editor says, in authoring this article we have repurposed significant amounts of content from Wikipedia and also explore ideas discussed on RTE and the essay "A Counterfactual Chief? If Parnell had lived till 1918" written in 2010 by Patrick Maume.
~ How brutal an era are we talking about?
~ Yes, history is moving against him.
~ The empire under Victoria was a horrific disaster for virtually every conquered nation she ruled - not least of which was poor, betrayed Ireland.
Please click hyperlink for Google Groups Discussion comments.
~ It was indeed. The problem is that if Parnell lives does it make the split in the Nationalist party worse? It became divided into pro and anti Parnell factions over what we would regard today as a minor private matter of the affair with Mrs. O'Shea.
~ Excellent point by Mr. Taylor. Too bad the gilding of the age could not go deeper.
~ Past is another country, however I think its mistake to view Parnell, as anything other than slightly constitutional. He was willing to work with the hillside men. In this fact he is not different from Collins, Dev, or Haughey. However what is moving against him is the spirit of the times. Ireland is going through the devotional revolution. Sooner or later the Irish are going to lose patience with an Anglo Irish landlord.
~ One has to wonder if Parnell had lived 'til 1926, who would have held more sway over Irish politics from 1916 to 1922? Parnell or de Valera?
~ I well remember James Joyce's story about "Ivy Day in the Committee Room"...where the cynical Irish politicians are reduced to tears by the memory of their fallen king...Parnell. Joyce, of course, also wrote "Finnigans Wake"...meaning "Fenians, Awake!" and he counted on Parnell's memory to help awaken them. How much more inspiring the fallen king might have been if he had actually been alive at the time.
~ With Parnell alive and in charge of the Home Rulers, does the Easter Uprising happen? I can see why he was against "irregular warfare"---that did nothing but get good Irishmen killed.
~ Collins, DeValera (I take it that is who you mean by Dev) and Haughey WERE the Hillside Me.
If parnell is still around thw whole equations change.
Will Parnell hold the Nationalist party together around him over his affair and marriage?
If he does he will have much more authority than John Redmond as well as much more clout with the British Liberal government.
You are not up against Anglo-Irish landlordsbut the British Empire, as James Connoly told the American members of the IRB on one famous occasion.
~ We would be spared a bad poem by Yeats. (Or at least Yeats would later
regard it as a bad poem and would exclude it from his collected poems.)
~ Comment from Pete Barrett on Discussion Groups - Yeats was right!
~ t's by-election not bi-election. A bi-election would be half
an election. A by-election is a irregular nonmainstram local-
specific election, in the same way a by-law is an irregular
nonmainstream local-specific law. - JGH Fixed - thanks
~ Yeats, write a bad poem about the Irish rebels, David? NEVER! I have his complete works on hand so please tell me the name of the poem you had in mind. If he thought it was a bad poem...well that might just show how modest he was.
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