Later he took Emily and her daughter Delia to dinner at the Royal Marine Hotel in Kingstown. He sat in his wet clothes but drank champagne and seemed in the best of spirits.” (FSL Lyons, Charles Stewart Parnell)“It was only two weeks after this that he made his final speech in Ireland. Whether because of exposure to the rain at Cabinteely the previous Sunday, or because he was at last cracking under the accumulated strains of the past eleven months, he was quite evidently ill ...” (Ibid.) I asked ...‘Tomorrow morning if we have the scaffold up in time and unless it is raining. You would not believe how slippery the rain can make a new scaffold’.” (Ibid.)

Source: The Irish Times February 21, 2026 16:02 UTC