John Howard Parnell
John Howard Parnell | |
---|---|
Member of Parliament for South Meath | |
In office 1895–1900 | |
Preceded by | Jeremiah Jordan |
Succeeded by | James Laurence Carew |
Personal details | |
Born | 1843 |
Died | 3 May 1923 (aged 79/80) |
Nationality | Irish |
Political party | Trinity College, Dublin |
John Howard Parnell (1843 – 3 May 1923) was an older brother of the
Biography
John Howard Parnell was the fifth child of
John Howard Parnell was educated in
John Howard Parnell was the first of the two brothers to stand for Parliament. He sought election as a Home Rule candidate for County Wicklow in the general election of 1874, but was unsuccessful. After this he went to Chambers County, Alabama, United States,[3] where he was a cotton-grower and. later, a pioneering peach farmer, establishing the 700-acre (2.8 km2) Sunny South Fruit Farm. He also founded the first Catholic congregation in that part of the state, now the Holy Family Catholic Church in Lanett, Alabama. (Quinlan-2004)
During his brother’s years of supporting the Irish Land League in the 1880s, John’s own land agents in his Armagh estate were involved in a number of evictions of tenants, reported in the press at the time (British Newspaper Archives). The high profile nature of these evictions was probably due to the contrast of this behaviour, with that of his brother Charles’ activities.
Parnell returned to Ireland when he inherited Avondale on Charles's death in October 1891, against the wishes of his brother, who had wanted to leave it to his wife Katharine (née Wood). He found the estate heavily mortgaged and eventually sold it in 1899 and five years later, at the suggestion of Horace Plunkett it was purchased by the State. It is open to public view, the local town Rathdrum, County Wicklow the location of the "Parnell National Memorial Park".
By this time the
On Carew's death in 1903, John Howard Parnell did not secure the official Irish Parliamentary Party nomination for South Meath. He contested the seat as an independent Nationalist, but was defeated by the official Irish Parliamentary Party candidate David Sheehy by more than two to one.
He made a late marriage, in 1907, to Olivia Isabella Smythe, daughter of Colonel James Smythe and widow of Archibald Matier of Carlingford.
In his obituary in 1923, The Times commented that John "was like his brother in appearance, but differed from him in every other respect. He never spoke in the House of Commons, and was far better known in the members’ chess room". His memoir of his more famous brother is an important source for the latter's biography. He was a member of Sackville Chess Club and competed for them in the
John Howard Parnell died on 3 May 1923 and was buried in
In April 2021 his grave in
Legacy
John Howard Parnell is mentioned in James Joyce's Ulysses, where Bloom sees him wandering the streets in "Lestrygonians," and again in "Wandering Rocks".[4]
The Parnell Society established the John Howard Parnell Memorial Garden Park in Valley, Alabama U.S.A.[5]
Publications
- Charles Stewart Parnell: A Memoir, with a foreword by Daniel Horgan, Constable London (1916)
References
- ^ Parnell, John Howard. Charles Stewart Parnell
- ^ O’Brien, R. Barry. Life of Charles Stewart Parnell, vol.I
- ^ "Parnell: Charles Stewart Parnell: A Memoir", Ask About Ireland
- ISBN 9781400861736
- ^ The Parnell Society Archived 2015-03-29 at the Wayback Machine
Sources
- F. S. L. Lyons, Charles Stewart Parnell, Collins London (1977)
- The Times (London), 14 July & 4 October 1900; 24 September 1903; 4 May 1923
- Brian M. Walker (ed.), Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin (1978)
- Who Was Who, 1916–1928
- D.J. Hickey, J.E. Doherty, A new Dictionary of Irish History from 1800, p. 386, Gill & MacMillan (2003) ISBN 0-7171-2520-3
- Quinlan, Kieran (2004) Strange Kin: Ireland and the American South. Baton Rouge, Louisiana: Louisiana State University Press ISBN 978-0-8071-2983-8
- Fair, John D. (April 2005) "Parnell and Peaches: A Study in the Construction of Historical Myth." Alabama Review
External links
- Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by John Howard Parnell
- photograph of Parnell at USGenWeb Archives Project - Alabama, Chambers County History
- Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. – via Wikisource. . . Dublin: