Parnell, Frances (‘Fanny’) (1849–1882) and Anna (1852–1911)

Sisters of the Irish nationalist leader Charles Stewart Parnell. They set up the Ladies' Land League in 1881, in support of the Land League founded by their brother and Michael Davitt two years earlier. Anna was the more radical of the pair, and was a fund-raiser in the USA in the 1870s. After setting up the Ladies' Land League her extremism was denounced by the Catholic Church. Considered the first modern Irish female agitator, she became estranged from her brother after he withdrew support for her movement. Fanny was a poet who gave Anna the idea for the Ladies' Land League. Her health was always poor and her poems became increasingly dark.