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Frances Isabelle Parnell  (1848-1882

Irish Patriot,  Poet,  Writer,  Human Rights Activist, Founder of the Ladies Land League in America

 

"That moral energy which inspires men with the ability and the desire to oppose themselves to injustice, to protest against the abuse of power, even when this injustice and this abuse do not directly affect them is the virtue which is the guaranty of order, security and independence".  Montalembert, 'Monks in the West' (quoted by Fanny Parnell in 'The Hovels of Ireland' to explain why her land-owning family were Irish nationalists)

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Early Years

Fanny Isabelle Parnell was born in Avondale, Co. Wicklow on May 13, 1852, the eight of the eleven children born to John Henry Parnell and his American-born wife, Delia Tudor Stewart, the daughter of Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, US Navy

Fanny'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 within their respective domains a century of bitterness and mistrust 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.

Fanny's paternal family lineage can be traced back to a Thomas Parnell in Chersire, England in the early years 17th century. The first Parnell to settled in Ireland was a grandson of Thomas Parnell who purchased land in Ireland circa 1660.  Members of successive generations became active in politics, four of whom served as MP's in the 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 who served in both the Irish and Westminster parliaments also opposed the Union before and after it became a lamentable actuality in 1801. As best as can be determined, all of the landed Parnell's were reasonable landlords who valued and treated their tenants and farm workers with respect.

Fanny'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 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. Fanny's great grandfather, William Tudor, was the first Judge Advocate General (JAC) of the US Army. He was appointed by George Washington in July of 1775 at the age of 25.  Williams father John, a wealthy businessman, was born in England in 1708.

Delia Tudor Stewart, Fanny's mother, was wary of the British establishment, a trait she inherited from her distinguished 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 a century past. In hindsight it's evident that Delia's convictions and sense of independence were passed on to Fanny and her sisters.  On the male side of the family the inclination was weighted in favor of the pomp and perceived chivalry, the trappings of the British Empire so closely linked to the Parnell's, albeit, not always favorably.

As there is no information available regarding the children education its assumed that they were coached by private tutors. Its obvious from Fanny accomplishments during her short life that she was highly intelligent having studied mathematics, chemistry, and astronomy and mastered almost all the major European languages. She was also accomplished in music and painting.

In 1859, following the death of her father, Fanny moved with her family to Dalkey, Co Dublin and in 1860 moved from there to Dublin. Fanny took a great interest in Irish politics and attended the trials of the Fenians. In 1864, under the pen name 'Aleria' she began publishing her poetry in the Fenian Brotherhood's  newspaper the Irish People founded in 1863 by John O'Leary and others. When the newspaper was suppressed by the British in 1865 she contributed articles and poems to the Nation and United Irishman newspapers.  

In 1865 she moved with her mother to Paris and then in 1874 to Bordentown in New Jersey, While in Paris she cared for wounded soldiers in the four month long Siege of Paris (1870-1871) during the Franco-Prussian War.

In 1880 Fanny founded the Ladies' Land League in America to raise money for the Land League in Ireland.  A pamphlet, The Hovels of Ireland (1880), and a collection of poems, Land League Songs (1882), were widely published. Her best known poem  Hold the Harvest was described by Michael Davitt,  leader of the Land League, as the 'Marseillaise' of the Irish peasant. Most of her work was published in the Boston Pilot, the leading Irish newspaper of the 19th century in America.

Little is known of the amount of work that Fanny and Anna, her sister, put into the running of the Land League Committee. It was Fanny, the Patriot Poet, who appealed to Irish-American women to form an relief fund to help the Land League in Ireland. Anne, the most radical of the sisters, was responsible for all the funds collected. She acknowledged every contribution and saw to it that the money went to the right quarter. The $60,000 collected for the relief fund came from poor Irish immigrants in cities around America. The money went a long way in averted another famine in Ireland in 1879 and 1880.

 Fanny and Anna's work in support of the tenant farmers in Ireland did not go unchallenged in America. On June 2, 1882, Bishop Gilmour of Cleveland, Ohio issued a Card to the ladies of the Land League threatening their excommunication unless they renounced all relations thereto. They refused to comply and told him to mind his own business. In response the bishop issued his Card which was read in all diocesan churches. Despite his best efforts the women of the Ladies Land League held their meeting as scheduled and went on to declare, "we have done nothing wrong against the Church as Irishwomen, we have organized a society to aid Ireland. If that be heresy, then we are heretics".

Following her return to Dublin in 1880, Anne founded the Irish branch of the Ladies Land League, which became a formidable force. When Michael Davitt, Charles Stewart Parnell and other Land League leaders were imprisoned in 1881 the Ladies' Land League took over their work. Other than an office in Dublin very little else was provided in the line of help or instructions. Nonetheless, the women were not daunted by the task at hand, proceeding to hold public meetings encouraging tenants to withhold rent, resist evictions and boycott landlords. They raised funds to support prisoners and their families and built wooden huts to shelter evicted tenant families. By 1882 they had five hundred branches, thousands of women members and considerable publicity. Their meetings were frequently broken up by police. Thirteen of their members were imprisoned not as political prisoners like the men but as common criminals. Considered the first modern Irish female agitator, Anne became estranged from her brother after he withdrew support for her movement.

The Parnell women were indeed in the forefront of the Women’s Liberation movement and were passionate advocates for human rights. Together with the thousands of other women activists they showed how the women of Ireland could be just as tough as men when the need arose.

Fanny Parnell died on July 20, 1882 at age 34 in Bordentown, New Jersey. The original plan was to have her remains sent back to Ireland for burial, however, her brother Charles opposed that plan stating, "Wherever you die you should be buried."

Parnell'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 remains returned was to prevent one of the largest display of reverence ever seen in Ireland for a beloved and honored patriot. 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 for Ireland or its people. Such a display would be embarrassing for Charles after having made a deal with Gladstone to disband the Ladies Land League in Ireland in exchange for his release from prison.

Once Charles made his wishes known, plans for her funeral proceeded. After a long funeral procession by train to Boston, by way of Philadelphia and New York, the casket bearing her remains was open for family and friends to view at Tudor home on Beacon Hill. After the viewing her coffin was placed in the Tudor family vault at Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston.

On April 11, 2001, the Parnell Society of Dublin placed a granite marker at the grave site, honoring her role as a patriot and poet of Ireland. Chick here for additional Funeral details.

 

Contributed by  Tomás Ó Coısdealbha


cemetery AND grave location

NAME:    Mt. Auburn Cemetery                                                       

ADDRESS:    580 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, MA 02138


                                                       

 HEADSTONE AND INSCRIPTION  

                                                                                                                                                             

Posted 11/15/08

email: tcoisdealba@hotmail.com