The Parnell—O'Shea Divorce Suit.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 57, 18 January 1890, Page 3

The Parnell— O'Shea Divorce Suit.

Now that the Home Eule battle is to be fought out on the floor ofjthe Divorce Court, it may be well to give a resume of the causes which have led to the suit in which Charles Stuart Parnell is Co-respondent. In Mr Parnell's early manhood he was betrothed to the lovely daughter of the late Sir John Page Wood ; they were devotedly attached to each other, and preparations were being made for their marriage, when the young lady died. Many attribute Mr Parnell's continued bachelorhood to the irreparable loss of his early love. On her deathbed she placed the hand of her sister — Mrs O'Shea — in that of her betrothed and pledged them to. a friendship that has been continued all these years. Captain O'Shea shared the friendship for many years, and at Parnell's suggestion, was returned for an Irish constituency, although hi 3 election was not universally favoured by the voters. As the gallant captain f aiied to keep his pledges with his constituents when in Parliament, he was requested to retire, Mr Parnell no longer using his influence on behalf of a Parliamentarian who in important divisions took exactly the opposite Bide to that which he had pledged himself to. Since then O'Shea has been the Irish leader's implacable enemy, and was one of the chief witnesses with useless testimony against him in the Times-V&vneil enquiry, when it was mooted that the captain would make some preliminary reference to his present plea for divorce, for which no •one believed there was the slightest ground. He did not, however, and there was great disappointment amongst Parnell's enemies. A sensational story is told of a plot to murder Mr Parnell, of which Mrs O'Shea, the respondent, by some means became cognisant in time to save him. The lady is held by all, except her husband, to "be, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion. She has ■been married twenty- two years.