Charles Stewart Parnell

The street leading back to Parnell Square was lined with fast food and shoe stores. While I scouted the former, Gail stopped into the latter. I eventually settled on a McChicken sandwich to take back to my room. In an adjacent quickee mart I bought two cans of beer which Gail and I shared back at the hotel. On our way back to the hotel we could see things were starting to get lively as darkness approached. Scary-looking punk and Goth kids seemed to be appearing out of the woodwork. Screaming hen parties and rowdy soccer/rugby guys were carrying on at every street corner. We were accosted by a drunk as we tried to cross the street, but he left us alone when we ignored his ramblings. We knew we were almost back to the safety of our hotel when we saw this monument to the great Irish politician, Charles Parnell. As an elected member of Parliament in the 1870's and 80's , he was the architect of the concept of the political whip. The number of Irish representatives in the British Parliament was small and they were totally insignificant until Parnell came along and organized them into a potent block of voters. He was able to set much of the groundwork which led to Irish independence 40 years later. He led a controversial life that included a mistress, allegations of corruption and disputes with his Catholic Church. Back at the hotel Gail's Mom was pretty spent from our long day of walking around in the heat. She went up to bed while came came to my room where we watched some TV and drank our beers.