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Charles Stuart Parnell

Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell - Brady-Handy.jpg
Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party
In office
1882–1891
Succeeded by John Redmond
Leader of the Home Rule League
In office
1880–1882
Preceded by William Shaw
Member of Parliament
for Cork City
In office
5 April 1880 – 6 October 1891
Preceded by Nicholas Daniel Murphy
Succeeded by Martin Flavin
Member of Parliament
for Meath
In office
21 April 1875 – 5 April 1880
Preceded by John Martin
Succeeded by Alexander Martin Sullivan
Personal details
Born (1846-06-27)27 June 1846
Avondale, County Wicklow, Ireland
Died 6 October 1891(1891-10-06) (aged 45)
Hove, England
Nationality Irish
Political party Irish Parliamentary Party (1882-1891)
Home Rule League (1880-1882)
Spouse(s) Katharine O'Shea
Children Claude Sophie
Claire
Katharine
Alma mater Cambridge University
Religion Church of Ireland

Charles Stewart Parnell (Irish: Cathal Stiúbhard Parnell; 27 June 1846 – 6 October 1891) was an Irish nationalist politician and one of the most powerful figures in the British House of Commons in the 1880s.

Born into a wealthy and powerful Anglo-Irish Protestant landowning family, he entered the House of Commons in 1875. He was a land reform agitator, and became leader of the Home Rule League in 1880, insisting on operating independently of the Liberals, and winning great influence by his balancing of constitutional, radical, and economic issues, and by his skillful use of parliamentary procedure. He was imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol in 1882 but, a very capable negotiator, was released when he renounced violent extra-Parliamentary action. That same year he reformed the Home Rule League as the Irish Parliamentary Party, which he controlled minutely as Britain's first disciplined democratic party.

The hung parliament of 1885 saw him hold the balance of power between William Gladstone's Liberals and Lord Salisbury's Conservatives. His power was one factor in Gladstone's adoption of Home Rule as the central tenet of the Liberal Party. His reputation peaked in 1889-90 when letters published in The Times linking him to the Phoenix Park Killings of 1882 were shown to have been forged by Richard Pigott. However, the Irish Parliamentary Party split in 1890 after the revelation of Parnell's long adulterous love affair, causing many English Liberals (many of them nonconformists) to refuse to work with him, and strong opposition from Catholic bishops. He headed a small minority faction until his death in 1891.


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