Mr Kitty O'Shea - Captain Willie O'Shea - the Most Vilified Man in Ireland - Why ??

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

He had to divorce her to get his hands on her (and because of marriage his) inheritance. If he had just stayed away from her he would not have got any (?)

have consequently telegraphed to Bell
to say he must get Parnell's consent. I believe, if
I chose to do it, I could get returned in some Irish
division, even without Parnell's leave, but that I
would not do.

" This morning Parnell and Justin M^^Carthy made
each a statement of their interviews with Lord
Carnarvon. I have no doubt Parnell's account is
correct; and T. P. O'Connor tells me that the man
at whose house it was originally proposed that
Carnarvon and Parnell should meet was Howard
Vincent. This Howard Vincent, I remember, asked
me to meet the Prince of [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Wales[/COLOR][/COLOR] at his house four
years ago, and is something of a professional go-
between, having been Inspector-General of the
Secret Police. He seems to have gone on a secret
spying mission last autumn to Ireland, and poor Dr.
Croke complained very bitterly of his having come
to him with letters from Cardinal Manning, and of
having been afterwards betrayed by Vincent. Vin-
cent's wife wrote rather an absurd account of Dr.
Croke in the ' Pall Mall,' and of his cat and dog,
which offended him more. Vincent declared for

147



Dr. BligJi of Liverpool

Home Rule at the elections, and got returned by
the Irish vote; yet, when I met him in the Lobby
three months ago and asked him whether he was
still a Home Ruler, he denied that he had ever had
any connection with the idea.

"In the afternoon to Liverpool for an Irish
meetine, havinor first lunched with Mrs. Howard,
who is rejoiced that I have at length taken my
name off the Carlton Club. I committed this happy
despatch to-day.

''June 13. — I slept last night at the North-Western
[COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]Hotel[/COLOR][/COLOR], but moved to-day to Dr. Bligh's house, where
I occupy ' Mr. Parnell's room.' Dr. Bligh is a
Catholic, the head of the National League in Liver-
pool, and a capital fellow. In the morning we went
to Mass, and afterwards down to the quays, and at
three we had our meeting in the Hall in Nelson
Street. The audience, chiefly Irish, received me
very well, and listened throughout, though I spoke
for nearly two hours. It was one of the best speeches
I have made. In it I declared my severance from
the Conservative party, and my intention to support
Mr. Gladstone at the coming elections. Afterwards
I was much urged to stand for some division of
Liverpool or the county. I like these Liverpool
Irish amazingly, and such of the Liberals as I have
seen. Back by night train to London.

''June 14. — To the British Home Rule Associa-
tion. Joseph Cowen takes a gloomy view of things,
which I share. He thinks that Ireland is farther
away from Home Rule than ever, that it will be at
least ten years before she gets her wish, and that the
present elections will go strongly against Gladstone

In 1869[3], he married Lady Anne Noel, who was the daughter of the Earl of Lovelace and granddaughter of Lord Byron. Together they travelled through Spain, Algeria, Egypt, the Syrian Desert, and extensively in the Middle East and India. Based upon pure-blooded Arabian horses they obtained in Egypt and the Nejd, they co-founded Crabbet Arabian Stud, and later purchased a property near Cairo, named Sheykh Obeyd which housed their horse breeding operation in Egypt.[4]
In 1882 he championed the cause of Urabi Pasha, which led him to be banned from entering Egypt for four years.[5] Blunt generally opposed British imperialism as a matter of philosophy, and his support for Irish causes led to his imprisonment in 1888.
Wilfrid and Lady Anne's only child to live to maturity was Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth, later known as Lady Wentworth. As an adult, she was married in Cairo but moved permanently to the Crabbet Park Estate in 1904.
Wilfrid had a number of mistresses, among them a long term relationship with the courtesan Catherine "Skittles" Walters, and eventually moved another mistress, Dorothy Carleton, into his home, an event which triggered Lady Anne's legal separation from him in 1906. At that time, Lady Anne signed a Deed of Partition drawn up by Wilfrid. Under its terms, unfavourable to Lady Anne, she kept the Crabbet Park property (where their daughter Judith lived) and half the horses, while Blunt took Caxtons Farm, also known as Newbuildings, and the rest of the stock. Always struggling with financial concerns and chemical dependency issues, Wilfrid sold off numerous horses in order to pay debts, and constantly attempted to obtain additional assets. Lady Anne left the management of her properties to Judith, and spent many months of every year in Egypt at the Sheykh Obeyd estate, moving there permanently in 1915.[6]
Due primarily to the manoeuvring of Wilfrid in an attempt to disinherit Judith and obtain the entire Crabbet property for himself, Judith and her mother were estranged at the time of Lady Anne's death in 1917, and thus Lady Anne's share of the Crabbet Stud passed to Judith's daughters, under the oversight of an independent trustee. Wilfrid filed a lawsuit soon afterward. Ownership of the Arabian horses went back and forth between the estates of father and daughter in the following years. Wilfrid sold yet more horses in his control, mostly to pay off debts, and shot at least four in an attempt to spite his daughter, action which required intervention of the trustee of the estate with a court injunction to prevent him from further "dissipating the assets" of the estate. The lawsuit was eventually settled in favour of the granddaughters in 1920, and Judith bought their share from the trustee, combining it with her own assets and reuniting the stud. Father and daughter briefly reconciled shortly before Wilfrid's death in 1922, but his promise to rewrite his will to restore Judith's inheritance never materialised.[7]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfrid_Scawen_Blunt

By a strange trick of faith Parnell had been speaking prior to the 1880 general election and won his seat but also elected at that election was a minor Clare landlord named captain William O’Shea. It so happened that his wife, Catherine had gone to hear Parnell speak on that day in Ennis. She was near the platform and more than once caught his eyes as he glanced in her direction. Apparently Charles had an eye for more than a beautiful landscape for he never forgot the woman he had seen near the platform in Ennis.

Catherine O’Shea was now 35 years old. She was a beautiful woman, with a mouth expressive of sweetness and tenderness with sultry eyes and a head of well kept glossy black hair. She had been married to the captain when she was 21 and they now had three children, a boy aged ten and two daughters aged seven and five. She visited the London Parliament some time later and met Parnell for the first time. Some time after she told a friend “When he came out I saw a tall man, looking gaunt and deadly pale. He looked straight at me smiling and his curiously burning eyes looked into mine wit a wondering intentness, that threw into my brain the sudden thought, this man is wonderful and different.” That summer Parnell and Catherine O’Shea met several times in the House and when he took her for drives in the country.

Meanwhile, back in Ireland, the power of the land league was increasing every day and the British government under Gladstone was determined to act. On Wednesday 3rd of November 1880 while Parnell was at lunch in Dublin a plain clothes police officer approached him and handed him an indictment for conspiracy nineteen counts. Thirteen other land league members also were indicted on much the same accounts. The trial camp up, the jury disagreed, and the charge came to nothing.

At this time Parnell had been deeply involved with Katie O’Shea but if her husband knew he said nothing about it. Yet Katie told a friend that he knew well what was going on and that he knew Parnell stayed with her during her husband’s absences

At this time Parnell had been deeply involved with Katie O’Shea but if her husband knew he said nothing about it. Yet Katie told a friend that he knew well what was going on and that he knew Parnell stayed with her during her husband’s absences. This may have been true but on 12th July 1881 O’Shea wrote to Parnell challenging him to a dual because what was happening. Apparently O’Shea had returned and found Parnell’s suitcase in the house. After a fierce row with his wife he had gone back to London and wrote the letter. It appears that O’Shea later accepted Parnell’s word that nothing was going on and there was no more about the dual. On 13th October 1881 Parnell was arrested and brought to Kilmainham jail. The Land League was finally suppressed some time later. Parnell was in the jail for six months and while he was there Katie gave birth to their first child, a baby girl, on 15th February 1882. A healthy baby at first the child began to sink later, and when Parnell, on parole due to the death of a nephew, visited Katie in Eltham in England he found the baby seriously ill. He and Katie were along with the child when the baby Sophie died. Captain O’Shea was not aware that he was not the father of the child and wrote on April 25th. “My child is to be buried at Christchurch this afternoon.” On the day of the funeral Parnell was back in prison but was released along with Davitt on 2nd May 1882. Katie got her divorce and married Parnell. He was in Eltham with Katie when he read of the murder of Burke and Cavendish in the Phoenix Park. Katie maintained that Parnell was never the same man after. The strength of the Land League followers was now greatly reduced and although Parnell travelled the country the ‘Parnell Split’ which followed the news of the Parnell-Katie O’Shea affair had taken its toll and there was no road back.

Miss Frances Power Cobbe, in her Life from which quotation has already been made, has the following passage:
“Mrs. Evans, née Sophia Parnell… and a great-aunt of Charles Stewart Parnell… often spoke to me of the Avondale branch of her family, and more than once said: ‘There is mischief brewing! I am trouble at what is going on in Avondale. My nephew’s wife’ (the American lady, Delia Stewart) ‘has a hatred of England, and is educating my nephew, like a little Hannibal, to hate it too!’”URL="http://www.irishhistorylinks.net/Historical_Documents/Parnell_Family.html#27"]27[/URL
The octogenarian Mrs. Parnell, when she tried to account to Mr. O’Brien her son’s singular antipathy to the race from which he had sprung, omitted to inform him that she had deliberately misshaped her son’s mind, and had reared him and his brothers and sisters in a rage which could not end otherwise than in the ruin of those whom it racked

he lady’s second son, Charles Steward Parnell, a young militia officer, who bluntly asserted that the patriots were tramps. His disgust with them was such that he used to lie in wait for them behind the hall door, and, directly it was open, make a rush for them and kick them down the steps.URL="http://www.irishhistorylinks.net/Historical_Documents/Parnell_Family.html#1"]1[/URL His dislike of the Fenians was as strong as his sister’s affection for them, and since his temper was quick and fierce and sometimes uncontrollable, he caused dismay among the patriots who thronged about his mother’s door. This house was so divided against itself that the Fenians had to be careful how they approached it in search of sustenance and charity.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.

The Parnell Peach Farm

An interesting venture in the current Valley, AL area was the John Howard
Parnell cotton and peach farm. Parnell was from a very wealthy family in
Avondale, Wicklow Co., Ireland, and came to the area in 1867, to purchase
a "plantation." The 1870 and 1880 census of Chambers Co. (pg. 21/203) shows
that he was born ca. 1845, and would have been about twenty-two years old at
the time of his arrival. However, the book, Charles Stewart Parnell, A Memoir,
that he wrote around 1905, shows his birth date as 1843.

His mother, Delia Tudor Stewart, an American, was the daughter of Admiral
Charles Stewart, U.S. Navy, who had served in the Revolutionary War and the War
of 1812, and from 1813-1815, was Captain of the USS Constitution, known as "Old
Ironsides.” He was also referred to as the "American Nelson." John Parnell's
uncle, Charles Stewart, who lived in America, had advised him that after the
Civil War that great fortunes were to be made here, and advised him to come to
America. Parnell had just inherited some money and his uncle told him that he
had the chance to double it. He decided to come and purchased 1,482 acres of
land from Col. George W. Huguley on July 11, 1867, for $12,000, after seeing it
advertised for sale in the New York newspapers (Chambers Co. deed book 14, pg.
768). As the story goes, he took a train from New York to West Point and met
with Col. Huguley on the front porch of his home. After a few minutes of
conversation and negotiation, he bought the land for cash in the form of gold
coin. This land was located on the old Columbus-Berlin road, about eight miles
south of West Point, near Glass, AL. According to his book, he originally
purchased this land for growing cotton. Later, he started a peach-growing venture on part of the property

The Avondale Tea-House.

I BEGIN the life of my brother, Charles Stewart
Parnell — or, as I cannot help calling him, Charley
— in a small cosy room in the old tea-cottage on
the banks of the Avonmore, near the Meeting of
the Waters on my brother's demesne at Avon-
dale.

This cottage took the place of the historical tea-
house, of which two rooms are left in a somewhat
mined state. The old tea-house stood on the
same spot two hundred years ago, and was then
the rendezvous for all the Wicklow nobility and
gentry, who came there to drink tea when on a
visit to the Parnell and Hayes families. I re-
member specially that Lord and Lady Wicklow
used to drive round there to recall old memories
on their way to visit my mother. My brother
Charley always called in there on his daily walk
down to the sawmills.

3



4 CHARLES STEWART PARNELL

While the original tea-house has practically dis-
appeared, the old trees and shrubs all remain, as
well as young trees planted since by my brother
during his ownership. One feature is the im-
mense old silver firs — the largest in Ireland.

As I write this [in 19051] on a fishing visit, they
stand there, looking as if they kept lonely guard
with their funereal plumes, sorrowing, as it were,
for the departed tea-drinkers and the ancient
associations of Avondale.

This cottage is built on the banks of the beauti-
ful River Avonmore, about half a mile from
Charley's old home of Avondale. The road from
Avondale winds in and out along a charming
wooded valley, with the demesne meadows be-
tween the woods and the cottage, and is looking
its best on this beautiful spring day.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

---

Vii

^ BOOK I

\ EARLY DAYS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HOME AND FAMILY

---

3

\ II. IN THE NURSERY - - - - - l8

• III. CHILDHOOD - - - - - 26

"^s IV. WARDS IN CHANCERY - - - - 38

"^ V. AT WISHAW'S - - - - - 47

^) VI. NEARING MANHOOD - - - - 54



^:i •



BOOK II



ij STEPS TO THE THRONE

\ I. THE FENIANS - - - - - 67

II. NEARLY MARRIED - - - - 73

III. CHARLEY IN AMERICA - - - - 82

IV. ADVENTURES IN THE COALFIELDS - - - 89
V. THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT - - - - 96

VI. BACK TO EUROPE - - - - - IIO

VII. Charley's entrance into politics - - 119

VIII. FIRST BLOOD - - - - - 133

IX. IN parliament ..... 141

X. OBSTRUCTION - - - - - 1 49
XI. A TRIUMPHAL TOUR - - - - . I56

XII. LEADER AT LAST - - - - - 1 65

V



219898



vi CONTENTS

BOOK III
IN POWER

CMAPTEB PACK

I. MY brother's personality - - - 171

II. THE RIGHT TO LIVE _ . _ - 183

III. IN PRISON

---

193

IV. THE PHCENIX PARK MURDERS - - - 1 99
V. THE ARREARS ACT

---

205

VI. A SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN - - - - 2X1

VII. THE PIGOTT LETTERS - - - - 221

BOOK IV
A LOSING FIGHT

I. THE DIVORCE AND AFTER - - - - 23I

II. THE GOD FROM THE MACHINE - - - 24 1

III. Charley's betrayal - _ _ . 246

IV. AFTER THE DEATH

---

254
V. A VISION

---

258

APPENDICES

A. Charley's superstitions - - - - 263

B. Charley's influence in America - - 268
c. avondale industries - - - - 277
D. where the tribute went to - - - 286
e. a friend's appreciation - - - - 290

F. THE manifesto OF 1890 - - - - 294

G. - - - - - - - 302

Katharine O'Shea, b. NOV 1884, d. 1947 . She married Arthur Moule, East Lancashire Regiment posted to West Africa.
Living in some poverty in the 1930s.
Died in an asylum in 1947.

BIOGRAPHY: Ireland's Misfortune: The Turbulent Life of Kitty O'SheaBy Elisabeth Kehoe Atlantic Books, 608pp. £19.99
IN NOVEMBER 1937 the following headline appeared in the Sunday Dispatch: Boarding-House Keeper Says 'I was Parnell's Favourite Daughter'. Katie Moule, the youngest child of Katharine O'Shea and Charles Stewart Parnell, by then reduced to living in the attic bedroom of a house in Mornington Crescent in north London, sold her story, as she freely admitted, because "my money has gone". Her mother, the daughter of a vicar, the wife of Captain Willie O'Shea, the mistress of Charles Stewart Parnell, "that English whore", "the uncrowned queen of Ireland", had done
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2008/0503/1209717334134.html

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

The link is an interesting newspaper report that detailed some background to the case, the case & verdict, and the start of the contestion of the will. There are some more nuggets from the courtcase in this. The first paragraph calls William O'shea "a guileless innocent" and notes that his charachter has been cleared "at the cost of his intelligence". Also noteworthy is that this newspaper report is from a New Zealand paper from the time- Good news travels fast.
http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=NOT18910115.2.20&l=mi&e=

---

10--1----0--

> > Children of KATHARINE WOOD and WILLIAM O'SHEA are:
> > i. GERARD WILLIAM HENRY11 O'SHEA, b. 1870, Brighton,
> > England; d. Aft. 1936, in ?; m. CHRISTABEL BARRETT-LENNARD, ?
> > ii. MARY "NORAH" O'SHEA, b. January 1873, Chelsea, England; d.
> > 1923, in ?.
> > iii. ANNA MARIA DEL "CARMEN" O'SHEA, b. August 1874, Chelsea,
> > England; d. 1921, in ?; m. (1) EDWARD LINGUARD LUCAS,
> > Aft. 1914, in ?; m. (2) ARTHUR HERBERT BUCK, ?.
> >
> > Children of KATHARINE WOOD and CHARLES PARNELL are:
> > iv. CLAUDE SOPHIE11 O'SHEA, b. 1882, Eltham, Kent, England;
> > d. 1882, Eltham, Kent, England.
> > 33. v. CLARE GABRIELLE ANTOINETTE MARCIA O'SHEA,
> > b. March 04, 1883, Eltham, Kent, England; d. 1911, in ?.
> > vi. FRANCES "KATIE" FLAVIA O'SHEA, b. November 27,
> > 1884, Eltham, Kent, England; d. 1947, in ?; m. LOUIS D'OYLEY
> > HORSFORD MOULE, July 1907, in ?.
> >

http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/WOOD-ENG/2000-10/0971388700

Barrett-Lennard married Emma Wood, daughter of Reverend Sir John Wood, 2nd Baronet, on 18 January 1853. They had eight children:

# Anna Cristabel Barrett-Lennard (d. 1945), married Lieutenant Gerard Henry William O'Shea in 1895;

Parnell came from a wealthy Catholic family of eleven children

He was the eldest son and inherited the family estate in Avondale when his father died.
The remainder of the lands and properties went to the other sons. Anna and Fanny, two of the Parnell sisters in the family received a very small allowance which was at the discretion of the brothers. They were disgusted at the injustice of this. Anna Parnell was a painter who had studied in Paris and England and Fanny Parnell was a poet.

Anna Parnell was heart broken

The men once again took over the running of the Land League.
They made it impossible for the women to continue to work alongside them. The money that the women had collected was now withheld from them. They continued on by getting an overdraft from the bank but when this reached £5,000 the bank demanded payment. They assumed the men would now hand over the money that they had raised.
But Parnell refused to pay the bank unless the women agreed to dissolve the Ladies Land League. The women tried to continue with their work under very difficult conditions and held out for a few more months until September, but in the end they had to give in. Anna Parnell was heart broken.

Anna Parnell never spoke to her brother Charles Stuart Parnell again.

While all this was going on Anna Parnell had to deal with the sudden death of her sister Fanny, who died on 20th July of a heart attack. By this stage she was completely worn out and could not accept the betrayal of her own brother. Charles Stuart Panell had broken his sister's heart and she was never to forgive him. She never spoke to him again.
If she met him by accident she would ignore him completely.
On 6 October 1891, Charles Stuart Parnell died at Brighton. He was only forty-five years of age. Anna went to live in England and started painting again. She kept in touch with the political happenings in Ireland, but was never to live there again. Anna Parnell drowned while swimming in the sea in September 1911.

It is no doubt true that Parnell looked even on the men of his own party rather as counters in the political game he had sat down to play than as friends and confidants. In response to a plea from Mrs. O'Shea that "after all they were human beings" he would answer characteristically, "In politics, as in war, there are no men, only weapons."[6] When his will was thwarted he would fling out of the party even a man who had been useful to him in former days, saying, "While I am leader they are my tools, or they go."[7] A man so autocratic made few personal friends and had, among his party, no confidants. He held himself aloof, and his very aloofness surrounded him with that attraction which an impenetrable mystery always provokes. But the world was not wrong in believing that there were fires smouldering beneath the impassive exterior, and that he was a man of strong feeling. Parnell was in truth a man of two passions, which absorbed, controlled, and dominated his life. For the attainment of both of these aims he was ready to employ all means, lawful and unlawful; to go through any suffering; and to sacrifice ruthlessly both himself and others.
http://www.libraryireland.com/HullHistory/Parnell1.php

jonniebgood1 wrote: »

IHe didnt seem to understand this when he refused to step down, even temporarily as had been suggested (ala Peter Robinson in NI) .