William O'Shea
Encyclopedia
Captain William Henry O'Shea (1840–22 April 1905) was an Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 soldier and Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

.

Born in Dublin, O'Shea was a captain in the 18th Hussars of the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

.

Around 1880, his wife, Katharine O'Shea, entered into a family relationship with Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell
Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party...

, with whom she had three children. O'Shea, who was already separated from his wife, knew of the affair. He only filed for divorce in 1890 after her aunt, from whom he was expecting a large inheritance, died in 1889, but her legacy was inherited by cousins instead.

O'Shea was MP for Clare
Clare (UK Parliament constituency)
Clare was a parliamentary constituency in Ireland, represented in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From 1801 to 1885 it returned two Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland....

 from 1880 to 1885 and Galway Borough
Galway Borough (UK Parliament constituency)
Galway Borough was a United Kingdom Parliament constituency, in Ireland. It returned one MP 1801–1832, two MPs 1832–1885 and one thereafter. It was an original constituency represented in Parliament when the Union of Great Britain and Ireland took effect on 1 January 1801.-Boundaries:This...

 for a short period in 1886. Although supported by Parnell, he was never a member of the Irish Parliamentary Party
Irish Parliamentary Party
The Irish Parliamentary Party was formed in 1882 by Charles Stewart Parnell, the leader of the Nationalist Party, replacing the Home Rule League, as official parliamentary party for Irish nationalist Members of Parliament elected to the House of Commons at...

.

He managed to file for divorce from his wife in 1890 after her 3 year affair with Charles Stuart Parnell.

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