57 Facts About John Redmond

John Edward Redmond was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, and MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

John Redmond was best known as leader of the moderate Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 until his death in 1918.

John Redmond was leader of the paramilitary organisation the Irish National Volunteers.

John Redmond was born to an old prominent Catholic family in rural Ireland; several relatives were politicians.

John Redmond took over control of the minority IPP faction loyal to Charles Stewart Parnell when that leader died in 1891.

John 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 ensure the implementation of Home Rule after a war that was expected to be of short duration.

John Edward Redmond was born at Ballytrent House, Kilrane, County Wexford, his grandfather's old family mansion.

John Redmond 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.

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.

John Redmond was the brother of Willie Redmond, MP for Wexford and East Clare, and the father of William Redmond, whose wife was Bridget Redmond.

John Redmond's mother came from a Protestant and unionist family; although she had converted to Catholicism on marriage, she never converted to nationalism.

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.

John Redmond 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.

Nevertheless, John Redmond supported Healy as the nominee, and when another vacancy arose, this time in New Ross, he won election unopposed as the Parnellite candidate for the seat.

John Redmond served as MP for New Ross from 1881 to 1885, for North Wexford from 1885 to 1891 and finally for Waterford City from 1891 until his death in 1918.

John Redmond's marriage was short-lived but happy: his wife Johanna died early in 1889 after bearing him three children.

John Redmond 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.

In 1899 John Redmond married his second wife, Ada Beesley, an English Protestant who, after his death, converted to Catholicism.

John Redmond stood by Parnell and worked to keep the minority faction active.

When Parnell died in 1891, John Redmond became MP for Waterford and took over leadership of the Parnellite faction of the split party.

John Redmond lacked Parnell's oratory and charisma but did demonstrate both his organisational ability and his considerable rhetorical skills.

John Redmond raised funds for the Parnell Monument in Dublin.

John 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.

John 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.

John Redmond 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.

John Redmond nevertheless led the Party successfully through the September 1900 general election.

John 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.

John Redmond approved of the unsuccessful 1904 devolution proposals of the Irish Reform Association.

John Redmond grew in stature after 1906 and especially after 1910.

John Redmond initially supported the introduction of the Liberals' 1907 Irish Council Bill, which was favoured by O'Brien and IPP members who initially voted for the first reading.

John 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, John 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 John 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.

John 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.

Home Rule had reached the pinnacle of its success and John Redmond had gone much further than any of his predecessors in shaping British politics to the needs of the Irish.

Nonetheless, by 1914 John 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.

John Redmond had persuaded British public and political opinion of all hues of its merits.

John Redmond grudgingly acquiesced to this as "the price of peace".

John Redmond desperately wanted and needed a rapid enactment of the Home Rule Act, and undoubtedly his words were a means to that end.

John Redmond called on the country to support the Allied and British war effort and Britain's commitment under the Triple Entente; this was a calculated response to the situation principally in the belief that the attained measure of self-government would be granted in full after the war and to be in a stronger position to stave off a final partition of Northern Ireland.

John Redmond's added hope was that the common sacrifice by Irish nationalists and Unionists would bring them closer together, but above all that nationalists could not afford to allow Ulster Unionists to reap the benefit of being the only Irish to support the war effort, when they spontaneously enlisted in their 36th Division.

John Redmond argued that "No people can be said to have rightly proved their nationhood and their power to maintain it until they have demonstrated their military prowess".

John Redmond believed that Imperial Germany's hegemony and military expansion threatened the freedom of Europe and that it was Ireland's duty, having achieved future self-government:.

John Redmond requested the War Office to allow the formation of a separate 'Irish Brigade' as had been done for the Ulster Volunteers, but Britain was suspicious of John Redmond.

John Redmond's plan was that post-war the 'Irish Brigade' and National Volunteers would provide the basis for an Irish Army, capable of enforcing Home Rule on reluctant Ulster Unionists.

John Redmond was and is still criticised for having encouraged so many Irish to fight in the Great War.

John Redmond was supported by continued by-election successes of the IPP, and felt strong enough to turn down the offer of a cabinet seat, which would have offset Carson's appointment to the cabinet but would have been unpopular in Ireland.

John Redmond did not expect the 1916 Easter Rising, which was staged by the remaining Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army, led by a number of influential republicans, under Patrick Pearse.

John Redmond later acknowledged that the Rising was a shattering blow to his lifelong policy of constitutional action.

John Redmond's tactic was to see that neither side would find out before a compromise was implemented.

Just at this time John Redmond made a desperate effort to broker a new compromise with Irish unionists, when he accepted Lloyd George's proposal for a national convention to resolve the problem of Home Rule and draft a constitution for Ireland.

Up until December 1917 John Redmond used his influence to have a plan which had been put forward by the Southern Unionist leader Lord Midleton, accepted.

Already ailing while attending the convention, his health permanently affected by an accident in 1912, John Redmond suffered assault on the street in Dublin by a crowd of young Sinn Fein supporters on his way to the convention, which included Todd Andrews.

John Redmond ended his participation by saying that under the circumstances he felt he could be of no further use to the Convention in the matter.

John Redmond left Dublin for London knowing that a settlement from the convention was impossible.

John Redmond died a few hours later at a London nursing home on 6 March 1918.

John Redmond had above all a conciliatory agenda; in his final words in parliament he expressed "a plea for concord between the two races that providence has designed should work as neighbours together".