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CHAPTER 1

The Young Wexford MP, 1880–1890

John Edward Redmond entered public life at the age of 23 after the death of his father William Archer Redmond (1825–1880). Redmond senior had been elected MP for Wexford Borough in 1872 on the platform of Isaac Butt’s Home Government Association and, after the general election of 1874, was one of 59 Irish Home Rule MPs in the Westminster Parliament under Butt’s leadership. After leaving Trinity College Dublin in 1876 without taking a degree, John Redmond lived in London and served a political apprenticeship with his father at the House of Commons. His political sponsor was Rev. Patrick M. Furlong (1844–1914), born in Carne, Co. Wexford, who became a curate of New Ross Roman Catholic parish in 1871 and was parish priest by 1879, finding a secular outlet for his considerable abilities in the newly founded Land League. Furlong and Redmond would remain lifelong friends, despite a period of political estrangement during the Parnell split.

TO MARY J. REDMOND [MOTHER]

73 South Mall, Cork, Telegram

2 November 1880:

Father is in Heaven died in my arms yesterday funeral tomorrow Wexford High Mass Howe St. will write back soon1

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

40 Charlewood St., London S.W.,

22 December 1880:

Allow me in the first place to thank you for the high opinion you express as to my qualifications. So far as that opinion relates to the fact of my being heart and soul with the people at the present crisis, it is a truthful one.

In reply to your letter, I beg to say my great desire would have been to succeed my father in Wexford [Borough], and it was only after a tough struggle with my feelings that I was able to withdraw in favour of Healy. My desire still would be, at the very first opportunity to ask the electors of Wexford for their votes, and in the event of a dissolution of Parliament, Mr. Healy has been good enough to say he would go elsewhere, if the people still desired me to represent them.

I would be very proud to stand for [New] Ross if adopted by the popular party, and if elected the opportunity might still arise when I would be able to gratify my sentiment of representing Wexford, as when the general election comes, Mr. Healy and I might, if the electors were willing, change places …

I have no doubt I would have Mr. Parnell’s support and of course, I would not dream of standing unless adopted by the popular party in Ross. In the event of a contest, I suppose the popular party are certain to succeed.

I should be glad to hear from you again and to know when there is a probability of Mr. Foley [Home Rule MP for New Ross since the 1880 general election] actually resigning. I presume matters will be so arranged that his resignation and the name of the popular candidate will be announced simultaneously.

It is unnecessary for me to go into my political opinions in writing for you know they coincide exactly with your own.2

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

40 Charlewood St., London S.W.,

29 December 1880:

… I shall not make any move whatever until I hear from you again. In fact, I place myself entirely in your hands and will go over whenever you think it best. I see my name has got into the papers and the paragraphs are, as usual, incorrect …

I presume the expense of a contest would be much the same as in Wexford – if it were likely to be very much more it might cause me some inconvenience unless I had timely notice.

In Wexford at the general election I did everything for my poor father and we dispensed with the services of a solicitor as a conducting agent. I suppose we could do the same in Ross, in which case the expenses must of necessity be small.

I suppose the only chance of opposition is from [Lieut.-Col. Charles] Tottenham [three times elected Conservative MP for New Ross, whose family owned most of the town].

Trusting to have the pleasure of seeing you before long …3

***

Redmond was elected unopposed for New Ross Borough on 1 February 1881. His initiation as Member of Parliament took place in turbulent circumstances. He was sworn in on the evening of 2 February. The following day, he was one of 27 Irish MPs ejected from the House of Commons after news of the arrest of Land League founder Michael Davitt had ignited an Irish Party protest, during which Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone had moved the suspension of its leader Charles Stewart Parnell.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

40 Charlewood St., London S.W., ‘Wednesday’

[2 February] 1881:

On arriving at the House this morning I found the fight had been suddenly stopped by a ruling of the Speaker of which I fancy we are destined to hear a good deal.

I expected to be able to take my seat at twelve, but a motion for adjournment unexpectedly made by A.M. S[ullivan] on a question, has given rise to a debate which will probably last all the sitting.

In that case, I cannot take the oath until tomorrow. Our ‘chaps’ are full of fight but, I fear, if the rulings of the Speaker are maintained it will be difficult to make a successful stand.

P.S. There is a rumour that the Government intend to suspend Habeas Corpus at once by proclamation of the Queen, which they can do if they choose.4

***

Joseph Biggar MP, Frank Hugh O’Donnell MP and James Lysaght Finegan MP were three of a group of Irish members, including Parnell, elected in the 1870s who favoured the ‘active policy’ of parliamentary obstruction to speed the cause of Home Rule.

During February, Parnell went to Paris to meet with prominent French political figures including the writer Victor Hugo and the Communard Henri Rochefort.

Redmond spoke powerfully in the debates on the Coercion Bill, which passed the House of Commons on 28 February 1881.

William ‘Buckshot’ Forster MP was Chief Secretary for Ireland in 1881.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons,

26 February 1881:

… What is thought of the fight made against the Coercion Bill? I think the great error was allowing ourselves to be suspended while the New Rules were passed. Only for that incident it would have taken some time to pass them and they would probably have been modified. On the whole I think we did as well as could be expected – Parnell’s absence was and is a great injury to effective action by the Party and I am most anxious for him to return[,] the more so as I don’t anticipate much practical result from his work in Paris … I would employ any means against the English Government but I don’t think Rochfort [sic] and that lot can do anything for us and I think Parnell is wasting his time.

I have already tasted something of the anger of the House ... I must say it is not nearly so unpleasant a sensation as I fancied. I had got up quite without preparation and the only effect the shouts had was to inspire me with plenty to say. Tim Healy, however, bears off the palm – I think if English members could they would flay him alive. He is able to rile them more than Biggar, O’Donnell and Finegan rolled into one.

Did you see our invasion of Forster’s constituency – Bradford? It was rather cheeky for the two youngest members of the Irish Party to beard the lion in his den …5

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons, 25 April 1881:

… I have been making a ‘provincial tour’ and have addressed some fine meetings in the north of England during last week. This evening I am off again in company with Finegan to Darlington and Hartlepool …

I read with interest your speech at New Ross L.L. and am glad to find our opinions are identical …6

***

On 7 April Gladstone introduced his historic Land Bill that provided for the judicial review and fixing of rents, effectively establishing dual ownership of land holdings in Ireland. While recognising the value of the Bill, Parnell, for tactical reasons, moved a party resolution to abstain on its Second Reading.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons, 9 May 1881:

… I never felt so uncertain about any vote but I think my reasons were sound. I was not influenced by Dillon’s arrest and in my speech at the meeting I protested against connecting it with our action.

I am in favour of abstaining from voting on the Second Reading [of Gladstone’s Land Bill] on its own merits for these reasons. It will not in any way imperil the passing of the Bill and will I think make the Government all the more willing to make concessions to us in Committee so as to secure our support on the Third Reading when the really important division will be taken …7

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons, 10 May 1881:

Since I last wrote I have shown your telegram to Parnell and he has specially asked me to write to you …

He is most anxious for the country to support our action, more especially as I cannot see how we can change our front even if it seemed wise to do so ...

We are all in a most difficult and painful position, and it will be deplorable if we have a further secession from the Party.

What is the general idea among those with whom you have spoken? 8

***

On 19 May the Irish Party abstained on the Second Reading of the Land Bill. Fourteen members of the Party disobeyed the Party whip and joined with twelve previous ‘seceders’ in voting for the Second Reading. The name ‘Fenians’ here refers to members of the secret physical-force movement, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), who, in the light of the failure of its 1867 uprising, were split on the question of support for the constitutional methods of Parnell.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons, ‘Monday’

[23 May] 1881:

… I am sure you were pleased and relieved to find how loyally most of our men acted. The few who voted for the Bill I think made a great mistake but happily they are too few to make a ‘split’ …

Did you see how the Fenians treated Dr. Cummins and myself at Blackburn? All through the north of England they are bitterly opposed to the Land League and have formed a gang to break up our meetings. Of course a little organisation on our side will prevent this. It is a great pity. They are decent fellows most of them, but very foolish …9

***

By August 1881, the Land Act had passed all stages and awaited the Royal Assent. However, clashes between the Irish Party and the Liberal Government over the operation of the Coercion Acts led to increased pressure within the Party and from Irish Americans to reject the Land Act. The Party agreed to adopt a compromise scheme of ‘testing the Act’, i.e. submitting only selected cases to the new land courts. Increasingly militant rhetoric from Parnell, with support from Redmond among other MPs, reflected the quasi-revolutionary atmosphere in Ireland. In October Parnell and his chief ‘lieutenants’ John Dillon and William O’Brien were arrested and lodged in Kilmainham Jail. In response, they published the No Rent Manifesto, aimed at securing the withdrawal of coercion. The Manifesto was condemned by respectable society and failed to win mass support among tenant farmers, who were eager to avail of the Act.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

Union Club, Wexford,

5 November 1881:

I am sorry to learn from your letter that you don’t approve of the No Rent Manifesto. I feel quite convinced that, if supported, it would be the proper way and indeed the only possible way of hitting our enemies.

The fact, which I am beginning to realize, that it will not be supported generally, makes me feel very despondent. I fear the people are not equal to the sacrifice demanded from them. They are doubtful, they fear the risk, they see the Land Act working favourably and they take grave note of the words of Dr. Croke [Archbishop of Cashel] and of the silence of men like Fr. Tom, yourself and others. The result is they are divided. I think just for the present a large number will refuse rent, but in the end they will be made pay, and the ‘strike’ will I fear be a failure. What then? I confess I feel greatly disheartened …10

***

The ‘Phoenix Park murders’ – the stabbing to death outside the Viceregal Lodge of the incoming Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and Under Secretary T.H. Burke by the ‘Invincibles’, a breakaway Fenian group – aroused revulsion throughout Britain and Ireland.

TO THE EDITOR, THE TIMES

9 May 1882:

Sir – Some attention has been called to the fact that in my speech on Sunday at Manchester I made no allusion to the deplorable murder of Mr. Burke and confined myself entirely to denouncing the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish.

Will you allow me to say that the simple reason for that omission is to be found in the fact that I was not aware that Mr. Burke had shared the sad fate of his chief until some hours after the meeting when I received a telegram from Dublin giving me details of the outrage.

***

In 1882 the Land League was replaced by the National League. In 1883 Redmond, accompanied by his brother Willie, spent ten months in Australia and New Zealand on a speaking and fundraising mission for the new League. In Sydney, he met and married Johanna Dalton, of an Irish family; Willie also met his future wife Eleanor. The mission raised £15,000 for the League. The brothers and Johanna travelled home via the US, where they addressed meetings across the continent.

FROM CHARLES STEWART PARNELL, MP CORK CITY

1 December 1882:

On behalf of the Irish National League we request you to proceed to Australia and New Zealand for the purpose of placing – in conjunction with Mr. John W. Walshe – before our friends the present deplorable state of things in Ireland and soliciting their sympathy and support in the great struggle which our people are making for the attainment of their national rights.

Signed –

C.S. Parnell, chairman Organising Committee, I.N.L.,

T.M. Healy and T. Harrington, Hon. Secs., I.N.L.,

Patrick Egan, Ex-Treasurer, Land League. 11

***

After his return from Australia in early 1884, Redmond took a less prominent role in political affairs while studying for the English Bar. In June Johanna gave birth to their first child, Esther. In 1885, he began to prepare for the coming general election; the borough constituencies of Wexford and New Ross were to be abolished and Wexford county to be divided into North and South. In the general election of December 1885, Redmond was elected as MP for Wexford North.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

7 June 1884:

On yesterday my wife presented me with a little daughter. This must be my excuse for the delay in answering your letter and in fixing a day for Ross …

Both my wife and the little one are doing well.12

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons,

5 May 1885:

… Of course my highest delight would be, to be one of the Members for the County [Wexford], but I will hold myself unreservedly at the disposal of Parnell and go wherever I am sent.

If however [John F.] Small [MP for Wexford county since 1883] goes North I hope I will be allowed to remain in Wexford if the Club are satisfied with such an arrangement. With best regards and hoping to meet you at Westminster.13

FROM T.M. HEALY, MP LONGFORD NORTH

50 Great Charles St., Dublin,

1 October 1885:

… I saw Small who complained that we had made the arrangement behind his back without giving him notice, but said he was agreeable to do whatever the Party decided so long as it was arranged that it did not appear he was being ejected from the County …

Personally I am in a fix between you both, considering how you retired for me in ’80 …

On the other hand I heard from another source that most of the priests were in your favour, but it would be deplorable if such a matter were to be made an issue in the County and I feel sure all will be arranged satisfactorily …14

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

9 October 1885:

… My examinations will be over by the 21st and I will then at once go across.

I am glad to hear from you that many do not share Cardiff’s ideas. The fact is for the last year I have been making up for lost time at my legal work and have been cramming into that 12 months the work of 3 years. I am now happily at the end.15

***

In March 1886, the introduction of the First Home Rule Bill was imminent. Its presentation to the Cabinet on 26 March by Prime Minister Gladstone triggered the immediate resignation of the powerful ministers Joseph Chamberlain and George Trevelyan and a split in the Liberal Party. On 13 May, during the Bill’s Second Reading, Redmond made a powerfully eloquent defence of it.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons,

22 March 1886:

… I can’t describe to you the anxiety of us all here about the situation. Every hour new rumours are floated and no one knows what to believe. One thing seems certain – Gladstone is going to propose a thoroughgoing scheme and will not give way an inch until he is beaten at the polls, if such a disaster should occur. All the great English Radical provincial papers are standing to Gladstone and this gives us great hopes that Chamberlain’s defection will not be so fatal as was supposed …

The reaction in Ireland must inevitably be so terrible if things go wrong now, that I can’t conceive the country, when it understands how things stand, as it will before Gladstone is done with it, taking the awful responsibility of destroying the present chance of reconciliation …

I am absolutely afraid to contemplate the possibility of failure now.16

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons,

13 May 1886:

… I fear the Bill is doomed. Chamberlain wants to humiliate Ireland by making the proposed assembly in Dublin simply a vestry and to give Ulster one to itself.

Better the Bill to be lost than for Gladstone to concede this. Time is on our side and I don’t think we need fear a short delay – as success in the near future is assured.17

***

On 7 June, the Second Reading of the Bill was defeated in the House of Commons by 30 votes. After the general election of July, with the Tories returned to power, Redmond (re-elected unopposed for Wexford North) took part in a new phase of agrarian agitation, the Plan of Campaign. Having been called to the Bar, he used his legal skills in defence of prosecuted tenants. A speech of his own in Co. Wexford brought him a conviction and jail sentence.

From The Irish Times, 26 November 1888:

PROSECUTION: THE QUEEN VERSUS REDMOND AND WALSH

26 September 1888:

Defendants were prosecuted, the former [Redmond] at the Crimes Court held at Wexford on the 26th September 1888 and the latter at same place on the 28–29th November 1888, on the charge of wrongfully and without legal authority using intimidation towards one Thomas J. Walker in consequence of his having done an act which he had a legal right to do, viz. evict one James Clinch from the possession and tenancy of a certain farm. They were convicted and sentenced to five weeks imprisonment each without hard labour, from which sentence they did not appeal.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

15 Upr. Fitzwilliam St., Dublin,

15 November 1888:

Your letter has only now been forwarded to me from London. I have been taking the world very easy since my release – doing little more than eating and sleeping. I am all right again now – my only reminder of Tullamore [Jail] is a pain in my back which I get every afternoon and which no doubt is the effect of the plank bed. I never had a night in a bed during my five weeks.

I am afraid Willy is greatly shaken. He has gone to England. I cross next week but I don’t feel inclined for much work yet.18

***

The Special Commission was set up by the Government to investigate allegations of complicity in murder and outrage made against Parnell and members of the Irish Party in a series of articles published in The Times in March 1887 under the title ‘Parnellism and Crime’. The Commission sat for 128 days between September 1888 and November 1889. It exonerated Parnell but also accumulated evidence that some Home Rule MPs, including Redmond, had incited or condoned violence in the course of agrarian agitation.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

House of Commons,

16 May 1889:

I had a long talk with Parnell the other night about the [Special] Commission and his present intuition is to call evidence from Wexford and some other counties where the League was strong and outrages and evictions few. He mentioned your name as one of those he would like to get into the box ...

I think the general effect of our evidence will be bad and it certainly is a most humiliating ordeal to go through.19

T.P. GILL, MP LOUTH SOUTH, TO EDWARD KAVANAGH

22 June 1889:

… If the landlords ask for arbitration, of course the tenants, in this as in every other case under the Plan of Campaign, are willing to submit their dispute to a fair arbitration.

I agree with you that Mr. John Redmond would make an excellent representative of the tenants in such proceedings, and I will endeavour to get him to act in that capacity if the arbitration is to go on … The formulation of the tenants’ demand in such arbitration should be left to the gentleman chosen to act as the tenants’ representative.20

FROM GEORGE W. WARREN, BARRISTER

27 September 1889:

Wm. Sinnott Esq. Landlord.

Sundry Tenants (Evicted).

Lands Garrynisk, Co. Wexford.

Settlement by arbitration agreed upon.

Dear Sir,

I beg to say that I have been appointed to act for the landlord in this case and I understand you have consented to act on behalf of the tenants. Kindly let me know when it would be convenient for you to meet me on the lands after 10th proximo (up to which time I have engagements).21

FROM M.J. HORGAN, SOLICITORS

Cork, 20 November 1889:

I think it only fair you should have the privilege of acting as Mr. Healy has done, namely retained the cheque which included 50 guineas (special fee) in excess of yours and out of it sent £100 to the Tenants’ Defence Association.

Therefore I return your cheque [for] £115.11.0 in order that you may act similarly if so disposed. I don’t see why your generosity should not be known as well as Mr. Healy’s.22

TO M.J. HORGAN

15 Upr. Fitzwilliam St.,

21 November 1889:

I am much obliged for your letter but I feel bound to return you the cheque again. I assure you I don’t consider this at all an act of generosity and my only doubt is whether I am justified in taking even the fees which I have retained.23

***

Johanna gave birth to two further children, William Archer in 1886 and Johanna in 1887. On 12 December 1889 in Dublin, she died having given birth to a stillborn child.

TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS

82 Warwick Gardens, Kensington,

2 January 1890:

I can’t do more than send you a line to thank you for kind letter and to beg of you to remember my darling wife in your prayers.24