Charles Stewart Parnell (1846 – 1891) was an Irish political leader and one of the most important figures in 19th century Ireland and the United Kingdom; William Ewart Gladstone (Prime Minister: 1868-1874, 1880-1885, 1886 and 1892-1894) described him as the most remarkable person he had ever met: "I do not say the ablest man; I say the most remarkable and the most interesting. He was an intellectual phenomenon." Though generally called the "uncrowned king of Ireland", Parnell was in fact the second to be described as such. The same term was applied thirty years earlier to Daniel O'Connell. Parnell is regarded as one of the most extraordinary figures in Irish and British politics. He single-handedly invented the modern political party with its whip, while having the power to make and unmake governments in the United Kingdom.
 

Parnell fundamentally changed the Home Rule League. Previously a rather informal grouping, in which MPs regularly voted on different issues or never bothered to come to the House of Commons at all, Parnell restructured it from top to bottom, creating a well-organised grass roots structure and membership. In 1882 he changed its name to the Irish Parliamentary Party and in 1884 imposed a strict party oath obliging its MPs to vote en bloc. The creation of a strict party whip and formal party structure was unique in politics. The Irish Parliamentary Party is generally seen as the first modern British political party, with its efficient structures and control contrasting with the loose rules and informality found in the main British parties. The scale of Parnell's impact can be seen in the fact that parties from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have tried to claim him as "one of their own", as more recently have some in Sinn Féin.

 

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