CHAPTER IV

AN APPRECIATION OF PARNELL


With the death of Parnell a cloud of despair seemed to settle upon the
land. Chaos had come again; indeed, it had come before, ever since the
war of faction was set on foot and men devoted themselves to the
satisfaction of savage passions rather than constructive endeavour for
national ideals. We could have no greater tribute to Parnell's power
than this--that when he disappeared the Party he had created was rent
into at least three warring sections, intent for the most part on
their own miserable rivalries, wasting their energies on small
intrigues and wretched personalities and by their futilities bringing
shame and disaster upon the Irish Cause. There followed what Mr
William O'Brien describes in his _Evening Memories_ as "eight
years of unredeemed blackness and horror, upon which no Irishman of
any of the three contending factions can look back without shame and
few English Liberals without remorse."

And thus Ireland parted with "the greatest of her Captains" and reaped
a full crop of failures as her reward. Too late there were flashing
testimonials to his greatness. Too late it became a commonplace
observation in Ireland, when the impotence of the sordid sections was
apparent: "How different it would all be if Parnell were alive." Too
late did we have tributes to Parnell's capacity from friend and foe
which magnified his gifts of leadership beyond reach of the envious.