Parnell's personal complexities or his perception of a need for political expediency to his goal permitted him to condone radical republican and the atheist Charles Bradlaugh, while he associated himself with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. Parnell was a close friend and political associate of fellow land reform Activist Thomas Nulty, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Meath, until Parnell's divorce crisis in 1889. Charles Parnell was linked both with the landed aristocracy class and the Irish Republican Brotherhood, with speculation in the 1890s that he may have even joined the latter organisation. The Historian Andrew Roberts argues that he was sworn into the IRB in the Old Library at Trinity College Dublin in May 1882 and that this was concealed for 40 years. In Barry O'Brien's Parnell, X, Fenian Parliamentarian John O'Connor Power, relates, 'And, in fact, I was, about this time [1877], deputed to ask Parnell to join us. I did ask him. He said "No" without a moment's hesitation.' He was conservative by nature, leading some historians to suggest that personally he would have been closer to the Conservative rather than to the Liberal Party, but for political needs. Andrew Kettle, Parnell's right-hand man, who shared a lot of his opinions, wrote of his own views, "I confess that I felt [in 1885], and still feel, a greater leaning towards the British Tory party than I ever could have towards the so-called Liberals." In later years, the double effect of the Phoenix Park trauma and the O'Shea affair reinforced the conservative side of his nature.