John Redmond
John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 until his death in 1918. He was also the leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers.
He was born to an old prominent Catholic family in rural Ireland; several relatives were politicians. He took over control of the minority IPP faction loyal to Charles Stewart Parnell when he died in 1891. Redmond was a conciliatory politician who achieved the two main objectives of his political life: party unity and, in September 1914, the passing of the Government of Ireland Act 1914. The Act granted limited self-government to Ireland, within the United Kingdom. However, implementation of Home Rule was suspended on the outbreak of the First World War. Redmond called on the National Volunteers to join Irish regiments of the New British Army and support the British and Allied war effort to restore the "freedom of small nations" on the European continent, thereby to also ensure the implementation of Home Rule after a war that was expected to be of short duration. However, after the Easter Rising of 1916, Irish public opinion shifted in favour of militant republicanism and full Irish independence, so that his party lost its dominance in Irish politics.
Family influences and background
John Edward Redmond was born at Ballytrent House, Kilrane, County Wexford, his grandfather's old family mansion. He was the eldest son of William Archer Redmond, MP by Mary, daughter of General Hoey, the brother of Francis Hoey, heir of the Hoey seat, Dunganstown Castle, County Wicklow.For over seven hundred years the Redmonds had been a prominent Catholic gentry family in County Wexford and Wexford town. They were one of the oldest Hiberno-Norman families, and had for a long time been known as the Redmonds of 'The Hall', which is now known as Loftus Hall. His more immediate family were a remarkable political dynasty themselves. Redmond's grand uncle, John Edward Redmond, was a prominent banker and businessman before entering Parliament as a member for Wexford constituency in 1859; his statue stands in Redmond Square, Wexford town. After his death in 1866, his nephew, William Archer Redmond, this John Redmond's father, was elected to the seat and soon emerged as a prominent supporter of Isaac Butt's new policy for home rule. John Redmond was the brother of Willie Redmond, MP for Wexford and East Clare, and the father of William Redmond a TD for Waterford, whose wife was Bridget Redmond, later also a TD for Waterford.
Redmond's family heritage was more complex than that of most of his nationalist political colleagues. His mother came from a Protestant and unionist family; although she had converted to Catholicism on marriage, she never converted to nationalism. His uncle General John Patrick Redmond, who had inherited the family estate, was created CB for his role during the Indian mutiny; he disapproved of his nephew's involvement in agrarian agitation of the 1880s. John Redmond boasted of his family involvement in the 1798 Wexford Rebellion; a "Miss Redmond" had ridden in support of the rebels, a Father Redmond was hanged by the yeomanry, as was a maternal ancestor, William Kearney.
Education and early career
As a student, young John exhibited the seriousness that many would soon come to associate with him. Educated by the Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College, he was primarily interested in poetry and literature, played the lead in school theatricals and was regarded as the best speaker in the school's debating society. After finishing at Clongowes, Redmond attended Trinity College Dublin to study law, but his father's ill health led him to abandon his studies before taking a degree. In 1876 he left to live with his father in London, acting as his assistant in Westminster, where he developed more fascination for politics than for law. He first came into contact with Michael Davitt on the occasion of a reception held in London to celebrate the release of the famous Fenian prisoner. As a clerk in the House of Commons, he increasingly identified himself with the fortunes of Charles Stewart Parnell, one of the founders of the Irish Land League and a noted obstructionist in the Commons.Political profession and marriage
Redmond first attended political meetings with Parnell in 1879. Upon his father's death later in 1880, he wrote to Parnell asking for adoption as the Nationalist Party candidate in the by-election to fill the open seat, but was disappointed to learn that Parnell had already promised the next vacancy to his secretary Tim Healy. Nevertheless, Redmond supported Healy as the nominee, and when another vacancy arose, this time in New Ross, he won the election unopposed as the Parnellite candidate for the seat. On election, he rushed to the House of Commons, made his maiden speech the next day amid stormy scenes following the arrest of Michael Davitt, then a Land League leader, and was ejected from the Commons all on the same evening. He served as MP for New Ross from 1881 to 1885, for North Wexford from 1885 to 1891 and for Waterford City from 1891 until his death in 1918.By the time of Redmond's election, the Land League conflict was by now at a turbulent stage. Early in 1882, he and his brother Willie were sent to Australia on a fundraising mission which was a success in both political and personal terms; in 1883 he and his brother married into the prosperous Irish-Australian Dalton family, and became friends with James Dalton and whom he spent much of his time with. His marriage was short-lived but happy: his wife Johanna died early in 1889 after bearing him three children. He also travelled in 1884, 1886 and 1904 to the US, where he was to use more extreme language but found his contact with Irish-American extremism daunting. His Australian experience, on the other hand, had a strong influence on his political outlook, causing him to embrace an Irish version of Liberal Imperialism and to remain anxious to retain Irish representation and Ireland's voice at Westminster even after the implementation of home rule. During the debate which followed Gladstone's conversion to Home Rule in 1886, he declared:
"As a Nationalist, I do not regard as entirely palatable the idea that forever and a day Ireland's voice should be excluded from the councils of an empire which the genius and valour of her sons have done so much to build up and of which she is to remain".
In 1899 Redmond married his second wife, Ada Beesley, an English Protestant who, after his death, converted to Catholicism.
Leader of the Parnellite party
Having belatedly become a barrister by completing his terms at the King's Inns, Dublin, being called to the Irish bar in 1887, Redmond busied himself with agrarian cases during the Plan of Campaign. In 1888, following a strong and conceivably intimidatory speech, he received five weeks' imprisonment with hard labour. A loyal supporter of Parnell, Redmond—like Davitt—was deeply opposed to the use of physical force and was committed to political change by constitutional means, campaigning constitutionally for Home Rule as an interim form of All-Ireland self-government within the United Kingdom.In November 1890 the Irish Parliamentary Party split over Parnell's leadership when his long-standing adultery with Katharine O'Shea was revealed in a spectacular divorce case. Redmond stood by Parnell and worked to keep the minority faction active. When Parnell died in 1891, Redmond became MP for Waterford and took over leadership of the Parnellite faction of the split party. Redmond lacked Parnell's oratory and charisma but did demonstrate both his organisational ability and his considerable rhetorical skills. He raised funds for the Parnell Monument in Dublin.
The larger anti-Parnellite group formed the Irish National Federation under John Dillon. After 1895 the Conservatives and Liberal Unionists, who were opposed to Home Rule, controlled Parliament. Redmond supported the Unionist Irish Secretary Gerald Balfour programme of Constructive Unionism, while advising the Tory Government that its self-declared policy of "killing Home Rule with kindness" would not achieve its objective. The Unionists bought out most of the Protestant landowners, thereby reducing rural unrest in Ireland. Redmond dropped all interest in agrarian radicalism and, unlike the mainstream nationalists, worked constructively alongside Unionists, such as Horace Plunkett, in the Recess Committee of 1895. It led to the establishment of a department of agriculture in 1899. He further argued that the land reforms and democratisation of elected local government under the Local Government Act 1898 would in fact stimulate demands for Home Rule rather than dampen them, as was the case.
Home Rule and the Liberals
When on 6 February 1900, through the initiative of William O'Brien and his United Irish League, the INL and the INF re-united again within the Irish Parliamentary Party, Redmond was elected its chairman, a position he held until his death in 1918—a longer period than any other nationalist leader, except Éamon de Valera and Daniel O'Connell. However, Redmond, a Parnellite, was chosen as a compromise due to the personal rivalries between the anti-Parnellite Home Rule leaders. Therefore, he never had as much control over the party as his predecessor, his authority and leadership a balancing act having to contend with such powerful colleagues as John Dillon, William O'Brien, Timothy Healy and Joseph Devlin. He nevertheless led the Party successfully through the September 1900 general election.Then followed William O'Brien's amicable and conciliatory Land Conference of 1902 involving leading landlords under Lord Dunraven and tenant representatives O'Brien, Redmond, Timothy Harrington and T. W. Russell for the Ulster tenants. It resulted in the enactment of the unprecedented Land Purchase Act 1903. Redmond first sided with O'Brien's new strategy of "conciliation plus business", but refused O'Brien's demand to rebuke Dillon for his criticism of the Act, leading to O'Brien's resignation from the party in November 1903. Redmond approved of the unsuccessful 1904 devolution proposals of the Irish Reform Association. Despite their differences, Redmond and Dillon made a good team: Redmond, who was a fine speaker and liked the House of Commons, dealt with the British politicians, while Dillon, who disliked London, the Commons and their influence on Irish politicians, stayed in Ireland and kept Redmond in touch with national feelings.
Though government had been dominated by the Conservative Party for more than a decade, the new century saw much favourable legislation enacted in Ireland's interest. An electoral swing to the Liberal Party in the 1906 general election renewed Redmond's opportunities for working with government policy. The Liberals, however, did not yet back his party's demands for full Home Rule, which contributed to a renewal of agrarian radicalism in the ranch wars of 1906–1910. Redmond's low-key and conciliatory style of leadership gave the impression of weakness but reflected the problem of keeping together a factionalised party. He grew in stature after 1906 and especially after 1910. As far as Redmond was concerned, the Home Rule movement was interested in promoting Irish nationality within the British Empire, but it was also a movement with a visceral antipathy to the English and their colonies.
Redmond initially supported the introduction of the Liberals' 1907 Irish Council Bill, which was also supported by O'Brien and IPP members who initially voted for the first reading. Redmond said, "if this measure fulfilled certain conditions I laid down we should consider it an aid to Home Rule". When this was rejected by Dillon and the UIL, Redmond, fearing another Party split, quietly endured Dillon's dictate of distancing the Irish Party from any understanding with the landlord class.
The first election of January 1910 changed everything to Redmond's advantage, returning a hung parliament in which his parliamentary party held the balance of power at Westminster; this marked a high point in his political career. The previous year, the Lords had blocked the budget of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George. Redmond's party supported the Liberals in introducing a bill to curb the power of the House of Lords, which, after a second election in December 1910 had generated an almost identical result to the one in January, became the Parliament Act 1911. Irish Home Rule now became a realistic possibility. Redmond used his leverage to persuade the Liberal government of H. H. Asquith to introduce the Third Home Rule Bill in April 1912, to grant Ireland national self-government. The Lords no longer had the power to block such a bill, only to delay its enactment for two years. Home Rule had reached the pinnacle of its success and Redmond had gone much further than any of his predecessors in shaping British politics to the needs of the Irish.
Redmond was an opponent of votes for women and had abstained on votes regarding the topic. On 1 April 1912 he informed a delegation of the Irish Women's Franchise League that he would not support giving women the vote if home rule was granted. Redmond's opposition to female suffrage drew the ire of the suffragettes leading to the defacing of a statue of Redmond in 1913 by a suffragette protestor.
For all its reservations, the Home Rule Bill was for Redmond the fulfilment of a lifelong dream. "If I may say so reverently", he told the House of Commons, "I personally thank God that I have lived to see this day". But Asquith did not incorporate into the bill any significant concessions to Ulster Unionists, who then campaigned relentlessly against it. Nonetheless, by 1914 Redmond had become a nationalist hero of Parnellite stature and could have had every expectation of becoming head of a new Irish government in Dublin.