The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-12-06
CBy T. p. O'Connor. M. PD

a letter in the newspapers from Mrs.
| Dickinson, a sister of the last Mr..
Parnell, recalls the family and its
tragic history to the attention of the
world. Mrs. Dickinson makes the de-
mand that certain moneys shall be de-
voted to paying off the mortgages on
the Parnell estate so as to allow the
survivors of the family to live there
once again. [ do not enter into the
details of the controversy which Mrs.
Dickinson raises; l simply allude to
the letter as reviving many memories
connected with the late leader of the
Irish race.
There are certain families which at
all times of human history seemed to be
pursued by some furies that drove them
to premature and tragic destruction.
This is the idea which underlies many
of the dramas of ancient Greece
stories that thrill us even in our own
days, and through the medium of an
imperfectly understood language. These
stories belong to Greece that lies
half hidden in the midst of long for
gotten centuries, but in Ireland of to-
day, unfortunately, this haunting spirit
of tragedy still exists. knew a family
when l was living in Galway, forty
years ago, which then counted twelve
persons. 1t was a remarkable family
in many ways-Wonderfully gifted by
nature, all highly intellectual, and al,
at the same time, marvellous examples
of robustness-the men athletes with
out nerves and without fear. Not one
member of that family lives in Galway
today, and many of them have died in
far off climes-in London, in the United
States, in South America, everywhere
except in the historic old town in which
they were born.
Some such malignant destiny seems
to have pursued the family of the Par
nells. In the days when Charles Stew
art Parnell was the powerful political
leader who was shaking an old society
to it's foundations some of his more i'll
natured opponents used to recall the
fact that there had been more than enc
| tragedy in his family history, and used
charitably to ascribe his own apparent
ly reckless acts to hereditary influences
of that kind. And in Parnell's own
face there was always something of the
tragic. remember hearing an irish
American poet once say-years before
Parnell's death-that he had the face of
a man who could not die natural and
ordinary death; that it was the face of
one who was bound to die on the scat
fold The tall, spare form, the long
thin, classic nose, the beautifully
shaped forehead, but. above all, the
eyes-red flint in color and little wild,
and later on d little hunted in express
| sion-these were the things in the face
that made it different from that of the
ordinary man., and surrounded it with a
halo of mystery, sorrow, ara presage
of an unusual and tragic ending.
! My Irish-American friend who fore
told the scaffold for ParneN was more
accurate in his forecast than he
thought, perhaps, for, though Parnell
died in his bed as a matter of TACT, his
ending had all the misery, and, per-
| haps, even all the suffering of death
| by the executioner. And, though some
members of his family survive, many
have either preceded or followed him to
an early and painful death. Next to
himself the most interesting member
of his family was his sister Fanny.
never saw her, but l am told
by those who did that she was a beau
| tiful woman. She was certainly a wo-
man of great intellectual gifts. She
wrote at least one beautiful and elo-
quent poem; it is constantly quoted in
| Irish newspapers. She was found dead
in her bed one morning taken off in
a night. His mother, who lived to a
| great age. died finally as. the result
1 of an accident. One of his sisters, who