Anna Catherine Parnell (1852–1911)

Ladies Land League Leader,  Irish Nationalist, Writer and Painter

 

A scion of the ruling colonial establishment in Ireland, Anna grew up to resent and reject its repressive and predatory policies. In a selfless act of solidarity with its oppressed victims, she took a leadership role in the most widespread agrarian rebellion against landlordism in modern Irish history. In a stunning act of betrayal, she was double-crossed and vilified by her brother, Charles Stewart Parnell and his toadies who feared the  growing influence of women in the public arena.

Family Background

Anna Catherine Parnell was born in Avondale House in the Vale of Avoca, Co. Wicklow on May 13, 1852, the tenth of eleven children born to John Henry Parnell and his American-born wife, Delia Tudor Stewart, the daughter of Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, US Navy. 

The Vale of Avoca was made famous by Thomas Moore's poem The Meeting of the Waters.  Moore, who was a friend of Anna's grandfather, William Parnell, penned the poem during one of his visits to Avondale.  The waters referred to in the poem are the two rivers, Avonbeg and Avonmore, that come together near Avondale House to form the River Avoca.

Anna's parents came from historically high-profile families with politically divergent backgrounds rooted in colonial bondage and wars of national liberation. Their respective Anglo-Irish and Anglo-American backgrounds and underpinning loyalties fostered a century of bitterness and mistrust within their respective ancestries despite their common Anglo-Saxon Protestant heritage. Outside of the family unit, each of Anna's parents lived their own high-profile life according to the value system inherited from their forebears.

Anna's paternal family lineage can be traced back to a Thomas Parnell in Cheshire, England in the early years of the 17th century. The first Parnell to settled in Ireland was a grandson of Thomas Parnell who purchased land there circa 1660.  Members of successive generations became active in politics. Four of them served as MPs in the subordinate Irish Parliament.  Two of them had distinguished careers including Sir William Parnell MP who vigorously opposed the Act of Union and advocated for Catholic rights. His son, Henry Parnell also served in the subordinate Irish Parliament, After the Act of Union was passed in 1801, he served in the Westminster parliament. He also opposed the Act of Union, before and after it became a lamentable actuality. As best as can be determined, all the landed Parnell's were reasonable landlords who valued and treated their tenants and farm workers with respect.

Anna's grandfather on the maternal side of the family, Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, was commissioned a lieutenant in the US Navy in March 1798. His first assignment as a fourth lieutenant was aboard the frigate United States under the command of Commodore John Barry.  During his long and distinguished carrier, Stewart served in the Quasi-War with France, in both the Barbary and Mediterranean wars and in the War of 1812 with Britain. He was promoted to rear admiral in 1862. Anna's great grandfather, William Tudor, was the first Judge Advocate General (JAG) of the US Army. He was appointed by George Washington in July of 1775 at the age of 25.  William's father, John, a wealthy businessman, was born in England in 1709.

John Henry Parnell, Anna's father, was apolitical, who focused on agricultural improvement and managing his estate. He was a good landlord who deemed the welfare of his workers of utmost importance.  He was affable in his dealings with all classes, was liberal in his outlook on life and was a good and generous friend.  During a visit to the United States in 1834, he met and married Miss Delia Tudor Stewart, the daughter of Commodore Charles Stewart, possibly the most significant happening in John's otherwise ordinary life.

Delia Tudor Stewart, Anna's mother, was wary of the British establishment, a trait she inherited from her celebrated ancestors. However deep that feeling, there is no doubt that it was exacerbated by what she witnessed firsthand in Ireland—the dehumanization of the Irish people by the same British colonial juggernaut that her ancestors vanquished in the American colonies a century past. In hindsight, it's evident that Delia's convictions and sense of independence were passed on to Anna and her sisters.  However, on the male side of the family, the British monarchy and the foisted magnanimity of its Empire constituted their political reality and, at the same time, the bane of their existence.

Childhood Years

Anna was educated at home in Avondale by governesses, as were her sisters. Her mother, who did not abide by the staid convention that a woman's role in life was inferior to that of her male counterpart, encouraged her daughters to study literature, history and politics and other subjects or activities that were of interest to them.  In pursuit of subjects to explore or study, they had at their disposal a substantial library of literary works in their Avondale home. One subject that Anna liked and studied was art. Over time she became an adept artist, gaining a certificate from the Royal Dublin Society Art School in 1875.

After Anna's father's death in 1859, the family moved to Dalkey, a seaside town located south of Dublin City, and later in 1860 relocated to Temple Street in the city.  During the years the family lived in Dublin, Anna and her sister Fanny were free to mingle with their mother's guests, who included politicians, artists, academics, and revolutionaries. The takeaway from the conversations and discussions that took place in their presence was an awareness of the sorry situation in Ireland that later factored into their nationalistic activism. Anna's older brother, Charles, when home from school in England, was another source of information for his adoring young sisters regarding the aims of the Fenian movement and his dislike for the English who in his opinion denigrated the Irish people with whom he identified. Anna, still young in years, was beginning to exhibit an independent quality that set her apart from her peers who so willingly accepted the subordinate role of women in society and the systemic ill treatment of the working poor. 

In 1865, Delia and her four youngest children—Fanny, Henry, Anna, and Theodosia—relocated to Paris to live with Delia's wealthy brother, Charles Tudor Stewart, who lived on the Champs Elysée amongst a large colony of wealthy Americans.  Although Anna availed of the opportunity that Paris offered to learn French and study art and literature, she nonetheless missed the freedom, space, simplicity, and familiarity of Avondale she once shared with her parents and siblings. As the years passed, she grew more cynical of the opulent lifestyle of the upper classes she lived amongst, a lifestyle she viewed as contrived to set them apart from the suffering masses on whose labors they ultimately depended.

Political Awakening

Circa 1870 after Anna gained her independence on reaching the age of 18, she left Paris to return to Dublin to be amongst the people she identified with and to live her life according to her own value system. While in Dublin she continued her art studies at the Royal Dublin Society Art School. 

In 1875, the same year her brother Charles Stewart Parnell became a Member of Parliament (MP) for Meath, Anna moved to London to continue her art studies at the Heatherly School of Art. When parliament was in session, Anna spent much of her spare time in the Ladies' Cage listening to the debates and taking copious notes of the goings-on. Her first involvement in Irish politics was in 1877 during the policy of obstruction pursued by members of the Home Rule Irish Parliamentary Party. The tactic of obstruction was the brainchild of Charles, who held the floor with his fellow members by continuing to debate, thus slowing bills they opposed and, when opportune, plugging for Irish Home Rule. Due to the many hours Anna spent listening to parliamentary debates she was proficient at supplying Charles with the debate materials he needed to hold the floor for prolonged periods. A parliamentary reporter who was aware of her involvement referred to Anna as the "Mother of Obstruction". 

In a series of essays published in the United States based  Celtic Monthly magazine in 1878 entitled "How They Do in the House of Commons; Notes from the Ladies’ Cage", Anna described proceedings of the 1877 British parliamentary sessions and the obstructionist tactics used by the Irish MPs and the reasons for their use. The analytical prowess and political writing skills she displayed in the essays set the stage for her brother's successful 1880 tour of the United States as well as the support generated there for the Land League. The essays were also sprinkled with a liberal dose of derision of parliamentary procedures and English politicians, a subject matter that would later nuance her Land League writings and speeches.  Towards the end of 1878, Anna departed for the United States to spend time with family in Bordentown in New Jersey. 

The Land Wars and the Land League

The Irish Land War is generally acknowledged to have started with a public meeting held in Irishtown, Co. Mayo on April 20, 1879 that drew approximately 15,000 people. The meeting was organized by Michael Davitt and the Mayo Tenants Defense Association. The purpose of the meeting was to rally tenant farmers to pressure landlords to reduce ever-increasing rents and end evictions for rent arrears. Throughout the remainder of the year, similar meetings were held in other towns in Connaught to ratchet up the pressure and to generate as much publicity as possible at home and abroad. The festering rent problem and the underlying issue of landlordism and land ownership was exacerbated by consecutive bad harvests, harbingers of yet another looming famine. The likelihood of that possibility was heightened when the incessant bad weather resulted in a catastrophic harvest in England. That development was a wake-up call for Irish leaders of all persuasion’s to take action to prevent a repeat of what happened during the Great Hunger years when Ireland's survival food supply was confiscated to make up for severe food shortages in England.

On December 21, 1879 the Irish National Land League was founded to control the momentum and expansion of the new agrarian movement spearheaded by tenant farmers and to set in motion plans to rid Ireland of the landlord system and return ownership of the land to the Irish tenant farmers.  Due to the prevailing situation caused by a series of bad harvests, the first order of business was to maintain solidarity amongst the tenant farmers, by not giving in to the demands of the landlords, not breaking rank, not acting independently or making separate deals.   

The spreading agitation and defiance of the Irish tenant farmers was causing unease within the British government especially at a time when food shortages were manifest in England. To put a stop to that problem they arrested several Land League leaders, including Michael Davitt, for sedition. Due to resulting outcry and the emboldened reaction of the tenant farmers, the government dropped the charges and released Davitt and his companions.  Mainline newspapers in the United States were reporting on the situation, usually in a manner favorable to the landlords and the British government.  Since Anna's arrival in the Unites States she and her sister Fanny wrote letters of rebuttal castigating newspaper accounts that echoed the British government viewpoints and setting the record straight with eyewitness accounts of evictions and other inhuman acts perpetrated by the police at the behest of landlords. Their letters were published in numerous newspapers, including the New York Daily Tribune, The Boston Pilot and The Irish World.  In anticipation of a publicity and fundraising tour of the United States by Parnell, his sister Fanny prepared a lengthy dossier titled "The Irish Land Question" that was published in the North American Review. The dossier, which was loosely based on Parnell's House of Commons speeches, was published under his name. The preparatory work and published articles by Anna and Fanny paved the way for Parnell's grand tour of the United States in 1880.  Another event that coincided with his arrival and helped publicize his tour were accounts of the Battle of Carraroe that pitted tenant farmers against a process server and a large contingent of police in one of the most famous battles of the Land War.  Accounts of the battle were carried by major newspapers across America. 

Although beset by controversy from the onset of his US tour regarding the disbursement of monies raised by existing fundraising organizations, Parnell’s overall fundraising effort was a success, with the various organizations raising approximately $2.25 million total. Though they were quick to complain about other organizations' fundraising practices, Parnell and John Dillon, who managed the Irish National Land League fundraising effort, lacked the wherewithal to record or respond to donations pouring into their headquarters in both the United States and Ireland to the extent that many contributors refused to send more money, not knowing what happened to previous remittances. When Parnell returned to Ireland in March of 1880 to prepare for a general election called for by the British prime minister, Anna and Fanny and Michael Davitt who had come to the United States to take charge of the fundraising campaign, were left the task of clearing up the administrative mess left after Parnell's departure as well as recording and responding to new contributions coming into the office.

The Ladies' Land League

By the mid-1880s contributions to the offices of the Irish National Land League were slowing down at a time when land agitation was intensifying in Ireland and the need for financial support was greater than ever. Anna sister Fanny realized that a novel approach to fundraising was needed before their dwindling support in the United States would peter out.  Not lost for ideas, Fanny convinced Davitt that a Ladies' Land League could do a better job of fundraising by virtue of women's acumen, compassion, perseverance, and organizational skills. The first meeting of the New York Ladies' Land League was held on October 15, 1880.  During its short life cycle through August of 1882 the Ladies' Land League grew to more than 200 branches and 17,000 members and raised substantial sums of money.

Before the launch of the Ladies' Land League in the United States, Anna had returned to Ireland to help the fundraising campaign there. By January of 1881, the British government was in the process of passing another Coercion Act aimed at the leadership of the Land League. In tandem with the Coercion Act, more troops were brought into Ireland to deal with a hoped-for armed confrontation by local militants in response to the tyrannical actions of the troops against peaceful demonstrators. The British government was hoping that such a confrontation would justify an all-out military response resulting in enough dead bodies to bring the Land War to a speedy conclusion.  Davitt proposed the formation of a Ladies' Land League like the one set up by Fanny in the United States. Although initially opposed by the leadership of the Land League, they eventually agreed, knowing that they had no other option if the Land League was to survive. They were fully aware that they would be the first casualties of the newly passed Coercion Act that allowed for imprisonment without trial, a fallback tactic used many times in the past to quell opposition to the British plundering presence in Ireland.

Anna was tasked with setting up the Irish branch of the Ladies' Land League. On January 31, 1881 she called for the first meeting of the Ladies' Irish National Land League. Anne Deane was elected president, Kate Molony and Ellen O'Leary were appointed joint treasurers. Anna and three other women were named honorary secretaries. The Ladies' League was responsible for 1) supporting evicted tenants, 2) discouraging land-grabbing, 3) providing shelter for evicted families, 4) supporting dependents of prisoners and 5) providing food for those imprisoned.  In her first appeal to the women of Ireland that was later published in the Boston Pilot on February 26, 1881, Anna wrote.

Women of Ireland, you must do your duty whilst your countrymen do theirs. They do not shrink from danger and one of their noblest, Michael Davitt, has already been re-consigned to a convict cell.  Be ready at least to help the evicted sufferers in every part of Ireland. You cannot prevent evictions, but you can and must prevent them from becoming massacres. Form yourselves into branches of the Ladies' Irish National Land League.  Be ready to give information of evictions in your districts, to give advice and encouragement to the unhappy victims, to collect funds, and to apply those which may be entrusted to you as emergencies arise. 

From the onset the ladies' and men's branches of the Land League found it difficult to work together. The men, who were not used to working with women on an equal basis, took every opportunity to criticize them because, unlike themselves, the women were in sync with their charter, familiar with the aims of the Land League and focused on the task at hand.  Irritated by the pettiness of the men, Anna offered to disband the ladies' branch, an offer the men refused, knowing that the survival of the League would soon depend on the women. 

Undaunted by the enormity of the challenges they faced, the women proceeded to hold public meetings where they encouraged tenants to withhold rent, resist evictions and refrain from taking over the land of evicted tenants. They raised funds to support prisoners and their families. Their fundraising efforts were supplemented by funds raised by the Ladies' Land League in the United States. The men's branch retained responsibility for the distribution of the monies raised.  Within a year of its founding the Ladies' Land League had over five hundred branches and thousands of active members. They generated considerable publicity, were consistent in their messaging and caused serious concern within British government circles due to their effectiveness, lack of fear and indifference to police threats and assaults. In a desperate attempt to intimidate the women, the British government started arresting women at random, on various trumped-up charges, hoping to stymie and discourage other women from joining.  When that tactic did not produce the desired results, the government relented and released the women.

When the leaders of the men's Land League were imprisoned on October 13, 1881, the women took on the men's work while continuing with their own. They took responsibility for the distribution of funds to affected tenant farmers as well as providing shelter for evicted families. When it was no longer feasible to provide them with wooden huts, they found them lodgings. They were diligent as to who received money, weeding out those who applied for help from a district that saw no evictions. By April of 1882 it was acknowledged by the government and the Land League leaders in prison that the women had control of the situation and that they were in for the long haul.

The imprisoned leadership of the Land League were fretful of losing control of what was happening on the outside and that the women were being viewed as doing a better job of managing the affairs of the Land League than the men.  They were was also concerned that too much money was distributed to victims of the Land War, money the leadership needed for political purposes.  It's worth noting here that the leadership were not suffering through the same hardships as ordinary prisoners. They were housed in a furnished apartment house, provided with daily catered meals, newspapers and other reading materials, six hours of daily exercise, clean clothing and warm blankets while Anna was responsible for decision making, overall coordination and also attending and addressing public meetings throughout Ireland, England and Scotland.  Chick HERE for Anna's Land League speeches.

Against that backdrop Parnell, who was anxious to take back control of the Land League, and prime minister Gladstone, who wanted an end to the Land War, reached an understanding that gave both cover to claim victory. Gladstone agreed to release the Land League leaders, settle the fair rent and rent arrears issues and halt planned evictions.  Parnell agreed to disable the Ladies' Land League and "cooperate cordially" with the prime minister in future negotiations.

One of Parnell's first acts on his release was to take back control of the Land League's bank account, and the distribution of funds to victimized tenants and payment to vendors.  Having done that, he refused to release funds to cover outstanding obligations incurred by the Ladies' Land League in fulfilling their duties as managers of the Land League. What he wanted from Anna and the Ladies' Land League executive committee was an agreement that the committee would continue to work for the Land League under the auspices of the men. The underhanded purpose for that proposal was to use the women as a buffer between needy families and threatened tenants and the men's executive. Left with no alternative, Anna and the women continued to work until such time as Parnell saw fit to honor their outstanding obligations.  An agreement was proposed that would require the women to continue as the men's vassals. That insult was resolved when Anna found one word in the agreement that, if changed, would change the document's meaning. It's believed that the word was "not" in the following context. "We do not agree” instead of "We do now agree". According to Anna, the altered and signed document was accepted by the gentlemen "with effusion". Having paid the last outstanding bill, the Ladies' Land League books were finally closed in late August 1882.

The Aftermath

The betrayal by her brother Charles and the recent death of her sister Fanny in the United States weighed heavy on Anna, particularly Charles's refusal to have Fanny's remains returned to Ireland, stating that one should be buried where they died. Her disappointment was compounded by her empathy for the other women of the Ladies' Land League who had worked so hard and achieved so much, some of whom spent time in prison, just to have it all wiped away with the stroke of a pen.  Charles, the individual most responsible for the debacle, was primarily motivated by concern for his own career, Irish Home Rule, and his mistress Mrs. Kitty O'Shea. To Charles, the Land League was a means, not a cause.  Despite his preoccupation with the Irish Home Rule movement that lasted forty years, it nonetheless ended ignominiously, with the worst possible outcome---the partition of Ireland. 

Charles's posture regarding Fanny's final resting place was not based on some unique family norm or known cultural trait as he had made no such plans for his own demise. When he died in England in October of 1891 his remains were brought back to Ireland for burial. The reason he did not want Fanny's remains returned was to prevent an enormous display of reverence in Ireland for a beloved and honored patriot. Such a display would be embarrassing for Charles after having made a deal with Gladstone to disband the Ladies' Land League in exchange for his release from prison.  But history shows that Fanny and her sister Anna did more for the suffering tenant farmers and the tenement dwellers in Ireland than the egotistical and misogynistic Charles and his Irish Parliamentary Party cohorts ever did. 

After the demise of the Ladies' Land League, Anna's days of political and agrarian activism ended with a few exceptions. In 1886 she spoke at a campaign rally in Surrey, England for her friend  Helen Taylor who was running for a seat in parliament. In 1908 she appeared at a rally for C. J. Dolan, a Sinn Fein candidate for North Leitrim.

Anna lived in various locations in the south of England for the remainder of her life. She visited Ireland on several occasions to see her family and some of her compatriots from the Land League days. She spent her time painting and writing to support herself after her brother, John had stopped paying her annuity. In 1904 she began to write her own account of the Land League years, The Tale of a Great Sham, a rejoinder to Michael Davitt's account The Fall of Feudalism in Ireland, published in 1904. She entrusted the editing of the manuscript to Helena Molony, a young Republican activist who went on to take part in the 1916 Easter Rising.  Despite her own and Helena's best efforts to find a publisher it was to no avail. Women activists were not the flavor of the day in a male-dominated society. After that the manuscript went missing until 1959 when it was uncovered amongst the belongings of Sarah Fraser after her death. The manuscript was in a package addressed to Helena Molony.  Helena tried to find a publisher once again to no avail.  After that it went missing again until 1986 when Dana Hearne,  a lecturer at Concordia University in Montreal, found in the National Library of Ireland.  After further editing by Hearne it was published by University College Dublin Press.

Anna drowned while swimming at Ilfracombe, a seaside town in Devon, on September 20, 1911 at the age of 59.  She is buried in the Holy Trinity Church cemetery in Ilfracombe.

 

Contributed by Tomás Ó Coısdealbha

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cemetery

Name:     Holy Trinity Church  Cemetery                     

ADDRESS:   Church Hill, Ilfracombe, Devon, England

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HEADSTONE