The 6th March 2018 is the centenary of the death of MP, who was the Leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to his death.

He was instrumental in healing the damaging split between Parnellites and anti Parnellites.

He succeeded, on 18 September1914, in getting the British Parliament to enact Home Rule for Ireland, something which previous Leaders of Irish Nationalism, O Connell, Butt and Parnell had not been able to do.

He overcame the veto of the House of Lords. This was possible because he had won the trust of his opponents as well as his friends, and because he used the pivotal votes of his Party in the House of Commons skilfully.

In addition to this, he, and his Party, transformed the system of agricultural land holding in Ireland and ended landlordism of the kind which had existed for most of the Nineteenth Century.

They also helped establish the National University of Ireland, enact Old Age Pensions and National Insurance, and, through the Labourers Acts, make provision for the first ever programme of public housing in Ireland.

All this was done without taking anyone’s life.

It is true that Redmond did not prevent partition, but the campaign of violence that followed the defeat of his Party in the 1918 Election, did not prevent partition either. In fact, it entrenched it.

Events to mark the centenary of Redmond’s death, which I hope to attend, include

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WEXFORD ON 4 MARCH;

A seminar on Redmond, and the laying of a wreath onJohn Redmond’s grave in John Street graveyard in Wexford town.

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DUBLIN ON 6 MARCH;

A symposium in the Royal Irish Academy on the Irish Parliamentary Party

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WATERFORD CITY ON 10 MARCH;

A seminar on the Redmondite tradition in Waterford.

This will cover the work of John Redmond himself.  It will also cover the careers of his son William and his daughter in law, Bridget.

John Redmond was  first elected to represent Waterford in the House of Commons on 7 July 1892 and continued to represent it there until his death in March 1918

William represented Waterford in Westminster from 1918 to 1921, and in Dail Eireann between 1923 and his death in 1933.

Mrs. Bridget Redmond, William’s widow, represented Waterford in Dail Eireann from 1933 until her death in 1952.

 

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