Charles Stewart Parnell - Overall Assessment

Overall Assessment

Charles Stewart Parnell possessed the remarkable attribute of charisma, was an enigmatic personality, politically gifted and is regarded as one of the most extraordinary figures in Irish and British politics. He played a part in the process that undermined his own Anglo-Irish caste; within two decades absentee landlords were almost unknown in Ireland. He created single-handedly in the Irish Party the first modern disciplined political party machine with its whip, holding together all strands of Irish nationalism and harnessing Irish-America into the Irish cause. He had the power to make and unmake governments in the United Kingdom and converted the British Prime Minister Gladstone to Irish Home Rule.

Over a century after his death he is still surrounded by public interest. His death, and the divorce upheaval which preceded it, gave him a public appeal and interest that other contemporaries, such as Timothy Healy or John Dillon, could not match. Historians speculate as to whether, had Parnell lived, the enactment of All-Ireland Home Rule with the consent of all of Ulster and its inclusion in an All-Ireland parliament, could have taken place. That this would have pre-empted the need for Edward Carson, the Ulster leader, backed by the Ulster Covenant and his armed Ulster Volunteers, to force through his amending "exclusion of Ulster Bill" to the 1914 Third Home Rule Act. Which subsequently resulted in the establishment of a Northern Ireland Home Rule Government in Belfast under the Government of Ireland Act 1920. Had All-Ireland home rule evolved earlier, there would most likely have been no Easter Rising, no Anglo-Irish War, no independent twenty-six county Free State and no ensuing civil war. However, Unionist opposition since 1885 to any form "All-Ireland Home Rule" has proved itself to be extremely resilient and steadfast.

The scale of Parnell's impact can be seen in the fact that parties from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have tried to claim him as "one of their own". The uniqueness of his appeal was shown when, in the early 1890s two visiting members of the Royal Family, the Duke of Clarence and the Duke of York (later King George V), paid a private visit to the grave of the "uncrowned king of Ireland" in Glasnevin.

Ultimately the O'Shea divorce issue and Parnell's premature death changed the shape of late 19th century politics, to an extent that can be but speculated. He had been prepared to sacrifice everything for his love to Mrs O'Shea, including the cause to which he had devoted his political life. For generations of Irish people, his life as the "lost leader" was highly dramatic and deeply tragic, against whose mythical reputation no later leader who lived a normal lifespan and who faced the practicalities of governance that Parnell never faced, could hope to prevail.