28 Facts About Willie Redmond

Willie Redmond came from a Catholic gentry family of Norman descent long associated with County Wexford for seven centuries.

Willie Redmond's father, William Redmond, was a Home Rule Party MP for Wexford Borough from 1872 to 1880 and was the nephew of the elder John Edward Redmond who is commemorated in Redmond Square near Wexford railway station.

Willie Redmond grew up at Ballytrent, County Wexford, the second son of William Archer Willie Redmond and his wife Mary, nee Hoey of Protestant stock from County Wicklow.

Willie Redmond immediately joined Charles Stewart Parnell in the Irish National Land League agitation.

Willie Redmond never wavered in his loyalty to Parnell even after the latter's fall.

Willie Redmond went to the United States in June 1882 with Michael Davitt to collect funds for the Land League.

Willie Redmond became overly enthusiastic about reconciling Protestants to home rule, and his hopes for Protestant and catholic amity, which later emanated in his expectations of seeing Irish unity forged in the trenches on the western front,.

Willie Redmond's father supported the Home Rule Movement and in his election address in 1874, he declared "Home Rule is absolutely essential to the good government of the country".

Willie Redmond was an ardent, extrovert parliamentarian and like other Irish members "hated British rule in Ireland with fierce intensity".

Willie Redmond was during the eighties and nineties, the enfant terrible of Irish politics.

Willie Redmond was ejected several times from the House of Commons for his verbal excesses and involved in several violent confrontations with Unionist MPs, but nevertheless remained popular even with his political opponents.

Willie Redmond was called to the Irish Law bar as a barrister in 1891, but never practised.

Willie Redmond was volatile, spontaneous, open-hearted and more radical on many social issues, such as female suffrage, which he supported.

Willie Redmond was unhappy at the renewed Party split with O'Brien in 1903 after O'Brien achieved the Land Purchase Act 1903.

Willie Redmond was by nature always a soldier, its spirit of comradeship and discipline appealed to him.

Willie Redmond addressed vast gatherings of Volunteers, Hibernians and the UIL, encouraging voluntary enlistment in support of the British and Allied war cause.

Willie Redmond was commissioned as a captain in the 6th Royal Irish Regiment in February 1915 at the age of 53, with whom he previously had served 33 years before.

Willie Redmond was convinced that the shared experience of the trenches was bringing Protestant and Catholic Irishmen together and overcoming the differences between Unionists and Nationalists.

Willie Redmond knew that it would destroy all his high hopes and would ensure the ultimate division of Ireland and Irishmen.

Willie Redmond was promoted to Major on 15 July 1916, but a breakdown in health took him away from front-line action, much to his displeasure.

Willie Redmond petitioned that the British Government immediately introduce the suspended Home Rule Act, and presented the war as a chance to bring the two peoples in the island of Ireland together.

Willie Redmond believed that by serving together in the trenches the different populations in Ireland could be reconciled, and hoped that Ireland's Protestants would thereby come to accept Home Rule.

On going over the top Willie Redmond, leading his men, was one of the first out of the trenches.

Willie Redmond was hit by German defensive fire almost immediately in the wrist, and then further on in the leg; falling to the ground, he urged his men on as they flowed forward about him towards the German lines.

Willie Redmond's body was buried in a detached grave in the convent's garden outside the Locre Hospice Cemetery, on the 8 June 1917, near to where the bodies of men from his Brigade who fell in action that day are buried.

Willie Redmond is commemorated on Panel 8 of the Parliamentary War Memorial in Westminster Hall, one of 22 MPs that died during World War I to be named on that memorial.

Willie Redmond is one of 19 MPs who fell in the war who are commemorated by heraldic shields in the Commons Chamber.

Willie Redmond added truly that if Ireland was "the lamentable exception" to Imperial unity it was one concerning which English politicians "must all search their hearts".