PARNELL SCANDAL.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 671, 23 May 1914, Page 2

PARNELL SCANDAL.

KITTY O'SHEA'S STORY

A REMARKABLE JNTRIG bE,

Ottawa, May 19. The life of Parnell haß been pub lished by Mrs Parnell.

The book ia a remarkable love story. Parnell held that the marriage bond was not binding when love ceased. At the end of 1880, addressing Mrs O'Shea, he says:—

"My Dearest Wife —After the dehate in the House of Commons, I drove to Eltham, where I love living, and talked until daylight. I slept until four in the afternoon, when I went to the Commons."

O'SHEA'S CHALLENGE.

Mr O'Shea's husband, in June, 1891, visited Eltham without the customary invitation, and "challenged Parnell to a duel.

The book provides an extraordinary revelation of Parnell's Btratagems and devices to prevent the discovery of the intrigue. He used false names, employed cyphers,and once Lived a fortnight at Mrs O'Shea's house without the servants suspecting. While in prison at Kilmainham he wrote in invisible ink.

When he learnt that a baby was about to be bcrn, he secured his release on parole for a week,' stating that he wished to attend his nephew's funeral. He went to the O'Shea's house immediately. While Mrs' O'Shea was upstairs with the dyhsg child, Parnell and O'Shea were below talking of Irish politics far into the night. When Parnell stole in at'daybreak to bid good-bye before returning to prison, Mrs O'Shea put the , dying child into his arms. PHOENIX PARK MURDERS. When Parnell heard of the Phoenix Park murders, he said he would resign, Mrs O'Shea replied: "No, you are not a coward." Parnell read the Pigott letters in the Times with unconcern, and was with difficulty persuaded to deny them. The books reveals a close subterranean relationship between Parnell and Gladstone. Mrs O'Shea states that Bhe acted as tbe go-between, commencing in May, 1882, for 10 years. Gladstone knew her relations with Parnell and took advantage of them to keep in touch with Parnell, but he changed his attitude after the divorce in deference to th 9 Nonconformist conscience.

The publication of this work arose out of the publication by Mr William O'Brien, M.P., in the Cork Free Press in September last of what he described as "two pages of secret history bearing upon the inner light of the Parnell divorce case." Mrs Parnell —Kitty O'Shea —then decided to publish, in the middle of May, the history of the O'Shea divorce case, Parnell's love letters, and political revelations, including Parnell's draft •of the Iri li constitution, with Mr Gladstone's comments upon it. In introducing the correspondence in September last regarding the O'Shea divorce case, Mr O'Brien said: — "It is notorious that it was the painful character of the contradicted evidence in the O'Shea v. Parnell divorce suit that turned the publiccondemnation of the great Irishman's fault into bitter indignation and disgust. It is now certain that if Parnell had been allowed to go into the witness box the public verdict upon the entire transaction would have been altogether revolutionised. Th 9 fault would have remained, but the Irish leader would have been shown to.be rather the victim than the destroyer of a happy home, and the divorce would never have taken place."

£ When the proceedings were first made public property, he wrote to Parnell, and received the following tetter, dated London, 14th January,

"I thank you,verv much indeed for your kind letter, which I shall * always highly prize. If this casa is ever fully gone into, a matter which is exceedingly doubtful, you may reßt assured that it will b9 shown that the dishonour and discredit have not been upon my side. I trust you will not allow anything to interfere with the certainty of your being able to be present at the opening of the session. Believe me, yours very sincerely, Charles S. Parnell." Mr O'Brien continued:— "Parnell afterwards told me at Boulogne that the whole complex ion of the case would have been changed if be had given evidence as to his relations with Captain O'Shea; that h.e had pressed upon Sir Frank Lockwood, Mrs O'Shea's counsel, in the strongest manner that he should ba examined; and that upon one occasion he and Sir Frank Lock wood hEd almost come to blows upon that point."

Mr 0 brien said that the importance of tbe letter, th*n for the fir?t time given to the public, was that it would probably be the only confidential glimDse of history we would ever receive, from Darnell's own hand at all events, of the inmost truth of a transaction which, had it only been fully investigated at the divorce suit, would' have saved the Irish leader from the most painful part of the discredit, prevented the divorce, and revolutionised the his tory of the last twenty years Mr Gerald H. W. O'Shea, wrote in reply : "As the only son of the late Captain

William Henry O'Shea, I must protest against the scandalous insinuations contained in statements made by Air William O'Brien to the Cork Fres Press,and which were reproduced by you in your issu" of Monday last. "The deduction drawn by Mr William O'Brien —'The Irish leader have been shown to be rather a victim than a destroyer of a happy home and the divorce would never have taken place' —is a slander-upon my late father and my mother and absolutely without foundation.

"I have written to my mother — now the widow of the late Mr C. S. Parnell —upon the subject, and she replies:—

" 'I quite agree with you as to the insult to myself, your father's memory,. and, above all, to my late husband, Mr Parnell, that is contained in the unwarrantable interpretation Mr O'Brien has put upon that letter of my husband's he has published, and I now propose, with your coneert, to publish as soon as gossible myself the letters of my late husband, which, as you know, I had left directions should be published after my death."