The Ivy Leaf: The Parnells Remembered

This collection of essays commemorates the Parnells of Avondale and simultaneously uses the theme of commemoration to provide an insight into the shifting relationship between history and memory in the case of Charles Stewart Parnell and his family. The essays by two leading Irish historians have an elegiac tone. The authors show an elegant and sympathetic appreciation of Parnell's career and of how he has been viewed in Irish history since his death in 1891. Parnell's nationalism is explored and his political speeches, the significance of his sojourn in Kilmainham, his American connections, his funeral and the rise and decline of 'Ivy day' and other commemorations after his death. The authors also look at the careers of the Parnell women: his mother Delia and his sisters Anna and Fanny who were both political activists and involved in the Ladies' Land League; and his relationship with Katharine O'Shea, later his wife. There is also an essay on his brother and biographer, John Howard Parnell. The essays throw new light on the Parnell family and their place in Irish history.They will be valuable reading for students of nineteenth-century Ireland, the Parnell family and the debate on 'commemoration history'.