Charles Stewart Parnell

Violence flared in the countryside but Parnell preferred to use parliamentary means to achieve his objectives and the result was a series of Land Acts which greatly improved the conditions under which the Irish agricultural class toiled.

Parnell's main ambition was Home Rule for Ireland (local Government) and he led the Irish Party, deposing Isaac Butt in the process to achieve this aim. He and colleagues such as Joseph Biggar made a science out of 'fillibustering' and delayed the English parliament by introducing amendments to every clause of every Bill and then discussing each aspect at length. His popularity in Ireland soared to great heights.

Trouble loomed for Parnell however, in his private life. He had secretly courted a married woman, Kathleen O'Shea, the husband of whom filed for divorce, naming Parnell as the co-repsondent. He tried to ignore the scandal and continued his public life. Public pressure in Ireland and from Gladstone in England eventually brought his downfall and he died shortly afterwards, in 1891. The Home Rule Bill that he had forced Gladstone into introducing was passed in the House of Commons, but defeated in the House of Lords.

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