Redmond, John E.

Redmond, John E. (1856–1918), Catholic gentleman of a political family, barrister, and leader of the Nationalist Party 1900–18, MP for New Ross 1880–5, North Wexford 1885–91, and Waterford City 1891–1918. Like his father, he was educated by Jesuits and at Trinity College, Dublin; his mother was a Protestant, his first wife (d. 1889) an Irish‐Australian, and his second (m. 1900) an Englishwoman. A gifted orator and lifelong parliamentarian, he made his maiden speech and was ejected from the House of Commons within 24 hours of taking his seat. In 1888 he was briefly imprisoned for incitement.

Despite his relative closeness to Parnell, Redmond was not one of the more prominent lieutenants of the Parnell era. Reserved and prone to indolence, his aloofness as leader of the Parnellite rump helped distance him from the squabbles of the 1890s. Dillon was clear that only Redmond could lead the reunited party. Although inclined to welcome the Land Act of 1903, Redmond decided to stay with Dillon and the critics of the act, rather than resist their influence alongside William O'Brien. This set the pattern for the rest of his career: O'Brien was marginalized, and the Redmond–Dillon axis, though not based on personal closeness, was rock solid until 1914, characterized by long, urgent letters from Dillon and stiff, formal replies from Redmond.

From 1909 until 1913 Redmond, as the well‐funded ‘dollar dictator’, played a strong hand well in negotiating the parliamentary path to the third home rule bill. But once Ulster Unionist resistance became the key issue, his strategy was less robust, offering the government ‘good behaviour’ in contrast to the near‐rebellion of the Ulstermen. His war policy followed from this: unlike Dillon, he believed that common sacrifice for the British war effort would create a new basis for Irish unity. The outcome was personally and politically disastrous. He encouraged recruiting, but his son was slighted in his first bid for a commission; his brother was killed at the front in 1917; and his policy of imperial loyalty brought not home rule but the rising of 1916, reluctant acceptance of the principle of six‐county partition, the collapse of his movement, and his own early death.

Bibliography

Bew, Paul , John Redmond (1996)
Gwynn, D. , The Life of John Redmond (1932)

A. C. Hepburn