Before Parnell’s appointment as Home Ruler, Isaac Butt, a protestant lawyer, had spearheaded the creation of the Home Rule Association in 1870. It was a non-sectarian organisation, which aimed (successfully) to appeal to men of all political ideologies. Its single aim was Home Rule for Ireland. However, Butt’s leadership skills were questionable right from the start. He lacked the charisma, political ingenuity and eloquence to really move people and rally support for the cause. Parnell’s emergence as a fresh new politician certainly boosted the credentials of the association. He brought ‘virility’ and fresh blood to their nationalistic aims. He was also aggressive and indifferent towards English opinion. Between 1877-8, he held a number of secret meetings with Fenians, and although refusing to commit himself properly to any of their immediate interests, he impressed them greatly. It already seemed that he was a prime candidate to ‘advance’ the cause of Irish Independence. One Fenian wrote of him: ‘He has many of the qualities of leadership and time will give him more’. Even so, Parnell made it imperative for himself to keep well quiet in his earlier years in the Association. He did not wish to directly challenge Butt’s authority as the leader of the Home Rule Party.
By 1879, Parnell’s impressive political skills were being further showcased at the Wespart demonstration, when he urged small holders to ‘hold a firm grip of your homesteads and lands’. He had charisma in abundance, and more than bettered Butt on all fronts. He was passionate and dedicated, and his actions usually supported such claims. In 1880, he travelled to America so as to support the Irish National Land League – to further the cause of Irish Independence. There can be no doubt that he was a man of both actions and words, and that he amassed wide support for Irish Liberation. As further testament to this, he was even imprisoned in October 1881 for ‘deliberately wrecking the working of the Land Act’ (Adelman and Pearce p.87). This did nothing to quell is ambitions – if anything, it served to strengthen his already hardened reputation. In 1882, the likelihood of Home Rule increased due mainly to Parnell. With Gladstone, he signed the Kilmainham Treaty, ensuring his freedom and the amendment of the 1881 Land Act. Ties between Britain and Ireland at last seemed to strengthen in this time.
For the next nine years of Parnell’s life, he tirelessly campaigned for Home Rule. Before he died at the age of 45 on 6 October 1891, the last years of his life were overshadowed by his scandalous affair with Kitty O’Shea. However, his reputation on balance never wavered, and it is this virtue that justifies the claim that he did more to advance the cause of Irish Independence, rather than to retard it.
Parnell’s work concerning Home Rule and Irish Independence shows his courage in bringing about traditional Nationalism in Ireland. Although he was a Protestant leader set with the objective to ‘free’ a Catholic country, he still never shied away from his responsibilities. This is of huge significance, because he can be perceived as a symbolic figurehead, who taught many others that the Irish cause was much more important, rather than the question of Religion. He knew that Irish Independence and Home Rule was imperative, and this showed in his aggressive attitude. He was the most prominent Home Rule activist ever to have graced the Irish political world, and yet ironically, all that he had fought for was fulfilled after his death. Charles Stewart Parnell undoubtedly deserves to be credited more readily for the advancement in Irish Independence. His faults were far outweighed by his virtues, and this is evident from the results that he gained tirelessly for the good of Ireland.
