Katharine O'Shea

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Katharine O'Shea, also known as Katie O'Shea, Kitty O'Shea or following her second marriage Katharine Parnell (1845–5 February 1921) was an English woman whose relationship over many years with Charles Stewart Parnell eventually caused his political downfall.

She was born Katharine Wood in Braintree, Essex, and had an older brother who became Field Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood.

Katharine has been generally known to history as "Kitty O'Shea". However, at the time she was known to her friends as Katie O'Shea. Parnell's opponents called her "Kitty O'Shea" because at that time "kitty", as well as being a Hiberno-English version of Catherine/Katherine/Katharine, was also a slang term for a prostitute. When she wrote a biography of Parnell in 1914 it was published as by "Katharine O'Shea (Mrs Charles Stewart Parnell)" so we should assume that this is the name by which she preferred to be known.

Katharine first met Parnell in 1880, when she was already married to Captain Willie O'Shea, a Catholic Nationalist M.P. from Galway; 3 of Katharine's children were fathered by Parnell.

Captain O'Shea knew about the affair, even challenging Parnell to a duel in 1881 and forbidding Katie to see him in 1886, but kept quiet for several years. His reasons for filing for divorce at the time he did are a matter for speculation. He may have had political motives. Alternatively, it has been suggested that he had been hoping for an inheritance from Katharine's aunt whom he expected to die soon, but the aunt obstinately remained alive. Although their relationship was common knowledge among politicians, public knowledge of the affair created a huge scandal and led to Parnell's being deserted by his own party and to his downfall. With Parnell's political life essentially dead, his physical life ended at age 45 quite likely of coronary heart disease inherited from his grandfather and father who also died prematurely.

However, Katharine and Parnell did marry shortly after her divorce from Captain O'Shea, and remained married until Parnell's death in Brighton in 1891. She lived the rest of her life in relative obscurity, and is buried in Littlehampton, Sussex, England.