A plaque was due to be placed on the grave of one of Littlehampton's most infamous residents today.

Kitty O'Shea was the controversial wife of 19th Century Irish politician Charles Stewart Parnell and is buried in Littlehampton Cemetery.

Fans of the Irish Home Rule leader are this week visiting Sussex places linked with his history.

Parnell was committed to a self-governing Ireland but his infatuation with a married woman - O'Shea - proved to be his downfall.

The pair had a secret affair, much of which was conducted in Brighton and Hove.

It is said that under the headrest of her coffin was placed a bundle of love letters from Parnell.

The Press called the politician the most infamous adulterer of the 19th Century and O'Shea was branded a proved British prostitute.

For a while, after their marriage, they lived in Kingsway, Hove, but Parnell died a few months later, on October 6, and was buried in Dublin.

O'Shea died in 1921 at the age of 75.

While they are in West Sussex, members of the Parnell Society will also be visiting the site of the old register office in Steyning where the couple were married in June 1891.