The Parnell Affair

CharlesStewartParnell, a leader of the IrishHomeRule movement, became embroiled in a scandal based on a series of forged documents published in TheTimes^?. If you read TheTimes^? throughout 1888, you will see that the ParnellAffair dominates the news to a greater extent than did the JackTheRipper murders, which was not true in other papers especially -- though it was big news throughout England and Ireland.

Wikipedia entry

The Piggott Forgeries In March 1887, Parnell found himself accused by the British newspaper The Times of support for the murderers of the Chief Secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish, and the Permanent Under Secretary for Ireland, T.H. Burke. Burke and Cavenish had been brutally stabbed to death on May 6, 1882 in the Phoenix Park in Dublin. Letters were published which suggested Parnell was complicit in the murders. However a Commission of Enquiry, set up to destroy Parnell, vindicated him, as did a libel action instituted by him, when it was revealed in February 1890 that the letters were in fact a fabrication created by Richard Piggott, an anti-Parnell journalist who promptly committed suicide. They have gone down in history as the Piggott Forgeries. (See PhoenixParkMurders)

Comments and References

Note that Sir RobertAnderson contributed to a series in TheTimes^? called "Parnellism and Crime," in which he misused official sources.

See IrishFenians for the more radical end of the IrishHomeRule issue.

-- ChrisLehrich^? - 19 Jan 2005