Charles Stuart Parnell

Charles Stuart Parnell was from a Protestant Ascendancy family and leader of the movement for Irish Home Rule. Under his direction the Irish Nationalist Party elected a solid bloc of MPs to the British Parliament, where they worked effectively to convince England 's rulers to grant Ireland at least the same degree of self-government that Canada had gained in 1867.

For a while, it looked as if Parnell's tactics were going to pay off. Prime Minister William Gladstone was a supporter of Home Rule and was prepared to grant it.

Parnell's political career was destroyed as a result of a sex scandal involving him and a married woman named Katherine O'Shea. Denounced for his immoral behaviour by the Catholic clergy, Parnell died a broken man, and his party fragmented into feuding factions.

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