Lost Leader

PARNELL'S FAITHFUL FEW--Margaret Leamy--Macmillan ($2.50).

Of all the many fighting words the Irish have bandied with other people and themselves, one of the most actionable was Parnell. At the height of his power the whole Irish nation swore by him, and in Gladstone's Parliament his power was so great that he was in a fair way to wrest Irish Home Rule from an unwilling England. Then the scandal of his liaison with pretty Kitty O'Shea ruined his political career, Ireland relapsed into its normal strife, and Home Rule was set back two generations. Margaret Leamy, relict of one of Charles Stewart Parnell's few henchmen who stuck by him after his disaster, has recorded her memories of those gloomily exciting days. Her book is written with a kind of breathless broguishness that may make Irish hearts thump. To others it will be no more exciting than looking into a family album at faded and old-fashioned pictures.

Parnell went back to Ireland to fight for his lost leadership, but there was too much against him. He made Edmund Leamy editor of his Dublin paper, United Ireland, had to raid its offices twice in 24 hours to recapture it from an anti-Parnellite force. The Catholic Church turned almost solidly against him. Shillalah-bearing hecklers turned his meetings into free-for-alls by shouting "Tim Healy's Battle Cry"--"Three Cheers for Kitty O'Shea!" Only the faithful few still followed their lost leader, but when he died, worn out by his hopeless fight, 50,000 Dubliners marched behind his coffin. After his hero's death, Edmund Leamy stayed manfully by his post, writing away for United Ireland, but his heart was no longer in it. When he could spare the time, he wrote fairy tales.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.