THE O'CONNOR MEMOIRS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20241, 29 April 1929, Page 8

THE O'CONNOR MEMOIRS.

REMINISCENCES OF " T.P."

[IRELAND' AND HOME RULE. PARNEUJ IN HIS ZENITH. FOOTSTEPS OF HIS FATHERS. (CopyriGht.) No. XII. Ono of the influences which doubtless produced, the opinions and the acts of Parnell was his heredity. He inherited from an ancient and historic family a long and consistent tradition of adhesion to Nationalist views. Parnell did. not, I should add, get any of his inspiration from leading. I doubt if to the very end of his days he could give ono anything like a correct account of any epoch of Irish history. ... He had, in no sense of the word, any literary taste; there are not half-a-dozen records of visits to a theatre; the only quotation from Iris!], poetry he is ever recorded as making wfere the well-known lines —" First flower of the earth, first gem of the sea"—• and my recollection is that he quoted even (hose wrong, substituting " jewel" for

i' gem." ' [A lengthy account is given by Mr. O'Connor of his first visit to America—in 1881—and his work there as " ci'n unpaid missionary" of the Irish Party. It was in New York that he first met Mi-s. Parnell, mother of the leader of the party. !Mrs. Parnell's maiden name' was Delia Tudor Stewart. Her father, Commodore Charles Stewart, from being the soil of poor Irish emigrants had risen to be a historic character, for he had taken part in the war between Britain and America in 1815, and his boat, the Constitution, captured two British battleships.] Parnell's Mother and Sisters.

Mrs. Farnell was an ardent Nationalist, even in the days of her youth. She had intense sympathy with the Fenians, who were then trying to make a revolution in Ireland. Though Parnell never really had even an approach to faith in revolutionary methods, he was thus brought by his own mother into intimate association with these extreme advocates of the rights of Ireland. There were other women in the Parnell household who doubtless also influenced the young mind of Parnell. Two of his sisters certainly were Nationalists and of rather a violent type. The first of these was Fanny. I never eaw her, but I have been told that she was ai beautiful girl, and she certainly had a brilliant and an ardent mind. Orte of her poems, "Post Mortem," written shortly before her own death and beginning " Shall mine eyes behold thy glory, 0 my country ■" takes its place in the anthologies of Irish patriotic poetry, and probably is immortal. Her tragic fate X was to be found dead one morning in the family mansion, whether by accident or illness or self-destruction, nobody was ever able to tell. The other sister, .Anna Parnell, I did know very well. She was not in the least pretty, either in face or figure, though she bore a somewhat startling resemblance to her illustrious brotherj she had great angularity of figure. Her manner and "voice were even colder than his, though behind the frigidity of the language there was intense and passionate feeling and opinion. She was far more extremo both in thought and in method than her brother.

The Ladies' Land League. When Parnell and his colleagues later on were removed from all control of the Land League by their imprisonment in Kilmainharn Gaol, Anna was partially responsible for the creation of the Ladies' Land League, and as such she was perhaps the most violent of the women zealots who controlled that somewhat revolutionary organisation. After the death of her brother and the breakdown for the time being of the organisation of the movement which he had created, Anna disappeared, and the leaders of our party were informed that she was, in something liko a penniless condition. She was mainly concerned at the moment in obtaining the publication of a book of poems. We got the poems published, and sent her a sum which was supposed to be the profits—entirely imaginary—on the sale of the book, then ono day we heard that, going out for a bathe on a somewhat ugly morning at Ilfracombe, she had been caught by the waves and drowned. In the family history of Parnell there was more than one case of madness and of suicide. His brilliant grand-uncle Henry hanged himself in his dressingroom in Cadogan Place, Chelsea. It was one of the abiding terrors of those quite close to Parnell in hours of crisis that his brain might also give way and his end might be like that of some of his ancestors. The truth is that Ireland was Jed—and consummately led—by a madman of genius, not an uncommon phenomenon in the history of other leadprs and other countries. Feverish and Activa Worker.

At the moment of Parnell's career which I have now reached he was at his best, both personally and politically. His hours /of work were extremely long and ho WuS just as feverish and as enthusiastically active outside as inside the House. Similarly, after his American campaign for mopey and support, those who weie ■with him—including Mr. 'P. M. Healy, who plavecl so important a part in his life later on—described to me the extraordinary exertions which Parnell took without hesitation and without complaint. [Mr. O'Connor introduces Mr. I. M. Healy/--the first Governor-General of thn present Irish l'Veo State —and speaks of the great help that he gave Parnell in the earlv period of the latter's political carter. Mr. Hcalv accompanied his leader to America, and subsequently supported his policy as a contributor to an Irish newspaper. Subsequently a breach occurred between Parnell and Mr. Healy, and Mr. Henry Campbell became secretary t-. th.- Irish l?ader.] Parnell at this time had a splendid nerve that nothing could shake. One of the contests in which ho had been engaged during the general election was against the old member for tine of the seats in the County of Wexford. His name wa3 Count O'Clery. He was a harmless, rather ernpty-headed fellow. His chief claim to a seat in Parliament was that, ho had been one of the Irishmen who had gone is a soldier to fight tor the Pop© against the Garibaldians, and his title •>vas supposed to be the recognition of these services.

"Like a Man of Iron." O'C or had for some reason or other strongly opposed Parnell, who thereupon determined to substitute for him a, supporter ot his own. O'Clery had a considerable following, especially among the clergymen. One priest, rather more ardent than the others and a real fighting *nan, had helped to organise a mob to interrupt, if not to drive out, Parnell ■Wiien he came to conduct his campaign Bgainiit the ex-Papal soldier. Thei/ scene was A ery violent, and it is tome indication of how long a way Parnell had still to go that eggs were thrown at him. I asked Mr., llealy, who was present at. the scene, how Parnell had gone through it. "Like a man of iron," said Mr. llealy enthusiastically. Parnell was extremely modest in bearing, in speech, and, above all, in his own estimate of himself. As I went home with him one night to the Westminster Palace Hotel, where we were both living at the time, I tried to impress him with his immense possibilities. I did not succeed. "I think I have got as far as I will ever Ret" he said a« he opened the door of tha hotel: Not long from that period I was to associate with n very different Parnell. (To be continued daily.),