Katharine O’Shea and Parnell Part I

On a trip to Ireland, I read a book about Katie O’Shea, Parnell’s mistress and later his wife.  I hope to blog later about Parnell, but I want also to write about his wife...

Parnell was an Anglo Irish landowner, who inherited an estate in Wicklow, and tried to develop it, so as to improve the conditions of his tenants.  However, in the late 19^th century, generally speaking relations between tenants and landlords in Ireland were very poor.  Memories of the Famine were still very much alive and in order to protect themselves against rural poverty, tenant farmers did not usually divide their farms among their children as had been common before the “Great Hunger”.  Tenants had few rights and were often desperately poor.

Irish landlords were often relatively poor and because of this, and because of differences of religion and politics, many of them did not do much for their tenants.  They did not try and encourage better farming methods or rural industries.  So when farmers could not pay their rent and were evicted, or had children who could not find work on the land, emigration to America or England seemed to be their only option.

Parnell was one of the better landlords, who did try to help his tenants.  On inheriting Avondale - he took an interest in planting trees, and in developing a sawmill and industrialising the area.   He also like many gentry took an interest in politics.  However, in spite of his conservative Anglo Irish background, he adhered to the Nationalist rather than the Unionist side. 

during the Land Wars, he worked with Michael Davitt, agitating to help the tenants in fighting for land reform, so that they had more security of tenure, and could see themselves as co-partners in managing their farms.  The various Land Acts that came in at the time led in the end towards the farmers being given loans to buy out their farms from the landlords, so that Ireland eventually became a nation of “owner-farmers” rather than a country where much of the land was owned by the upper classes.

However Parnell’s ambitions extended also towards securing Home Rule for Ireland.  As a young man, he was not interested in literature or history, and knew little of Irish history.   But he learned. He developed politically and became a skilful “Operator” who welded the Irish Party into a weapon that was able to influence the Tories and Liberals, on the question of Home Rule. 

Gladstone came to believe that Ireland would ever be peaceful or prosperous until she had some degree of self-government... And Parnell wielded enough power in the House of Commons to be able to push the Liberal Party towards bringing in a Home Rule bill.

By 1890, he had achieved a great deal of success on this issue.  But his private life became public knowledge, and brought him down.

In 1880, Parnell, a bachelor, met Katharine O’Shea, the wife of an Irish Nationalist MP.  Willie O’Shea was a member of a Catholic “gentry” family, who had been a captain in the British army.  He had married Katharine (Katie) Wood in 1867.  She was the daughter of a Liberal gentry family, but was one of many children… and the family were comparatively poor.   They had had three children but within a few years, the marriage had become distant and not very happy.  Willie was not making much money, he was probably unfaithful and they had grown apart.

Katie was not a militant feminist, she woud have been contented as a wife and mother but she grew disenchanted with her husband.  In the 1870’s she had become companion to her rich and elderly Aunt Mrs Benjamin Wood or “Aunt Ben”.  The old lady was fond of her, and paid for a house for her and for rooms in London for Willie... and it was expected that she would leave Katie the bulk of her large fortune.

Katie kept her aunt company, read to her and was occupied with her children, but in 1880 she met Parnell, who was becoming known as an important Irish politician.  As a society hostess, she made a big effort to get him to go to one her parties, but he was shy and unsociable and didn’t want to attend social events. She succeeded in persuading him to come, and within a short time they had fallen passionately in love.  Parnell was awkward and often seemed cold to people he met, but he had found in Katie a woman he could love and communicate with.