Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called for a new appraisal of Kitty O’Shea, the lover and – later – wife of Charles Stewart Parnell.
Mr Martin suggested that the treatment of O’Shea when she was alive and in Irish history since has been “terrible”.
O’Shea was the wife of Cpt William O’Shea, who was an Irish Independent nationalist MP. She began an affair with Parnell five years after separating from her husband in 1875. She had three children with Parnell out of wedlock.
Parnell’s political career ended when Cpt O’Shea named him as a co-respondent in the London divorce courts in 1890. The public revelations that Cpt O’Shea’s wife was having an adulterous affair with Parnell divided Victorian society in Britain and Ireland.
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British prime minister William Gladstone and the Catholic Church in Ireland eventually withdrew their support. Parnell married Kitty O’Shea in June 1891. Four months later, he died at the age of 45.
‘A pillar’
At the annual Ivy Day ceremony in Glasnevin Cemetery, organised by the Parnell Society, the Taoiseach stated the relationship between Parnell and Kitty O’Shea was “no passing attraction”.
His speech was delivered by Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien on behalf of the Taoiseach, who was in Donegal following the Creeslough tragedy.
A moment’s silence was observed before the event in Glasnevin Cemetery.
“We should honour her as an individual and as a pillar who enabled his work for our country,” Mr Martin wrote in his speech.
“There’s was a deep personal bond. They believed in each other and they supported each other in every way possible. They had children together and never considered anything but spending their lives together.
‘Ability and intelligence’
“Katharine was a person of real ability and intelligence – trusted by Parnell to represent him in highly sensitive negotiations.”
Mr Martin, who was a historian before he became Taoiseach, stated that Parnell’s greatness as an Irish nationalist leader had never been really understood.
Parnell’s vision was one of a progressive, liberal democracy, not one hung up on “extreme” ideologies of the right.
“Parnell was the essential transformative figure who helped our country off its knees and towards securing independence within three decades of his death.
“For Ireland, we had the great fortune to have a leader such as Parnell at that time which prevented our nationalism from becoming more inward-looking and exclusive.
“He gave new life to the idea that you could not caricature what it meant to be Irish or an Irish nationalist. To follow Parnell was to accept the ideal of a diverse nation was central to Irish identity.”
Parnell did this through his role as the president of the Land League which helped transform the Irish countryside and the transfer of land back to the Irish people, Mr Martin believed.
