The run-up to Irish independence (1910-1920) was driven by the need to come to terms with Parnell's defeat and death.

When this book was originally published in 1960 no full-length study of the Parnell ‘split’ had been made, despite it being such a landmark in Irish history. The book treats the eleven months between the verdict on the O’Shea divorce case the death of Parnell as a dramatic unity. This was the first modern work to provide a connected account of such neglected episodes as the ‘Boulogne negotiations’ and Parnell’s final campaign in Ireland. The crisis was a crisis for English liberalism as well as Irish nationalism and the author discusses the effects of the catastrophe upon Gladstone and his colleagues. The author obtained access to several valuable collections of private papers in England and Ireland which throw a lot of light upon the actions and opinions of the main participants in this famous tragedy.

This short biography outlines the scope of Davitt's great interests and achievements

The crisis and tragedy which followed the naming of Charles Stewart Parnell as correspondent in a divorce decree in 1890 remains one of the most significant events in modern Irish politics. In this powerful reassessment of the split, Frank Callanan reargues the politics of Parnell's last campaign, and establishes the critical importance of T.M. Healy's ferocious attacks on the Irish leader for the consolidation of a conservative and reactionary Irish nationalism. Contemporary and previously unexplored sources—newspapers, periodicals, political speeches and private correspondence—are used to examine the politics and psychological character of the split. The author draws out from the bitter controversy Parnell's articulate and incisive critique of contemporary nationalist politics, and shows how it anticipated the predicament of the modern Irish state. Parnell's campaign in the split, against overwhe lming odds, emerges as a neglected political masterpiece.