The successes of the political leader Charles Stewart Parnell were numerous, but they were not without failures. Parnell first entered politics in 1975 in a bi-election in Meath. From that time to the time of his death in October 1891 he was one of the most influential people trying to get home rule for Ireland (this lead to the name: The uncrowned king of Ireland). .
Parnell was first recognised in the radical wing of the Home Government Association at the time lead by Isaac Butt. With his alley Joseph Biggar they instituted the policy of obstructionism. Basically this was using the rules of the House of Commons to slow up the business of government. At the time there were no rules on the amount of time allowed for an issue to be discussed and anyone could raise a debate and everyone in the House had to sit and listen until it was over. The policy was quite clever too; British MPs were holding up the business of Ireland so they were going to hold up the business of Britain. This indeed was a success for Parnell, firstly this is how he became recognised by his party as someone who was willing to fight for his cause. Secondly, it showed he was not anything like Isaac Butt. Butt was a gentleman, he believed the House of Commons to be a polite debating chamber, but he was alone with this idea and his party were fed up because he wasn't aggressive enough. When Butt condemned the policy of obstructionism, the party sided with Parnell.
Parnell was the original president of the Irish National Land League. The idea of it was to bring reduction of rack-rents and to facilitate the obtaining of ownership of the soil by its occupiers. This was actually founded in August 1879 by Michael Davitt a member of the IRB who had strong views in land reform. Davitt originally asked Parnell to join the IRB but Parnell said he would never join a secret society. When Michael Davitt set up the Irish National Land League he believed it should not be an illegal organisation so asked a political figurehead to be president.
