John Redmond

John Redmond, 1917

John Edward Redmond (born September 1, 1856 in Ballytrent , County Wexford , † March 6, 1918 in Dublin ) was the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918 .

First political steps

John Redmond was born in County Wexford, Ireland in 1856 . He was born into a nationalist family. His father, William Archer Redmond (1825-1880), was a nationalist member of parliament. He received his education from the Jesuits at Clongowes Wood College and Trinity College in Dublin . Redmond then studied at the King's Inns in Dublin and became a lawyer. Like his father, he went into politics at an early age. As early as 1880 he was elected as a member of the Nationalist Party (known since 1882 as the Irish Parliamentary Party) in the New Ross constituency. He was an MP for New Ross from 1880 to 1885, for North Wexford from 1885 to 1891, and finally for the City of Waterford from 1891 until his death in 1918.

As a follower of Parnell , Redmond was a passionate opponent of violent nationalism. He advocated Home Rule , a limited form of Irish self-government within the UK. When the Irish Parliamentary Party broke up over Parnell's relationship with Katharine O'Shea , the wife of a MP for the party he later married, Redmond was on Parnell's side. He led the Pro-Parnell party from his death in 1891 until the reunification of the party in 1900. At the union he was elected chairman of the entire party.

The fight for home rule

The 1909 budget crisis restricted the power of the House of Lords , which had previously blocked the budget. After the Lords lost their veto two years later, Home Rule became a realistic option for Ireland again. In 1894 the Lords had prevented this. The prospects were enhanced by the outcome of the 1910 election, which gave the Irish Parliamentary Party a vital role in forming a government. In 1912, the Herbert Asquith government introduced the third Home Rule bill. As expected, the Lords blocked this proposal. However, through the Parliament Act of 1911, the veto only had a suspensive effect for two years.

The Home Rule Act met with fierce opposition from many Irish Protestants and the Orange Order in Ulster . They feared being marginalized in a Catholic-dominated state. The unionists also feared economic problems. Their concern was that predominantly agricultural Ireland would impose tariffs on British goods and that Britain would respond with import restrictions on industrial products in return. This would have hit the relatively heavily industrialized Ulster the hardest. Many unionist leaders threatened to use force to prevent Home Rule. They were supported by the British Conservative Party. After the so-called Curragh Mutiny , the country was threateningly close to civil war. Asquith gave in to the Lords' request and changed the Home Rule Act 1914. This change stipulated that six counties (what is now Northern Ireland ) should be ruled for a period from London rather than Dublin. Although Redmond and his party were strongly against partitioning Ireland, they eventually reluctantly agreed. They assumed a temporary division. The amended Home Rule Act was passed in September 1914. However, with the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, the law could not come into force. Since the war was expected to be brief, it was to come into force after the war was over.

The failure of his policy

So Redmond could expect to be the head of the new Irish government after the war was over and Home Rule came into effect. In return for the Home Rule promise, he offered the British government full support for Ireland's war effort. He feared that German expansion would threaten the freedom of all peace-loving people in Europe. So it was Ireland's duty to do everything possible to defend the freedom of the small nations. He also hoped that this good behavior of the Irish could still avert a division. Redmond asked the War Department to be allowed to set up its own Irish brigade, similar to the Ulster Volunteer Force . The British were suspicious of Redmond's intentions. They did not want an Irish brigade commanded by Irish officers. In the end, only one Irish division with English officers was set up.

The 1916 Easter Rising , initiated by sections of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army , was a severe blow to his moderate, non-violence-based policies. The execution of the leaders of the uprising as traitors and the attempt in the spring of 1918 to introduce conscription in Ireland also strengthened the radical Republicans who were not satisfied with Home Rule. The Irish Party withdrew from Parliament in Westminster to protest the introduction of conscription , but the mood in Ireland had long since tipped in favor of Sinn Féin , under the leadership of Eamon de Valera . Nevertheless, Redmond tried again in 1917 to get all Irish parties to the conflict around one table in order to promote a constitutional solution to the issues. In July 1917 an assembly called the Irish Convention actually met. But since it was boycotted by Sinn Féin and the unionists showed no willingness to compromise, it was doomed to failure.

Redmond's goals were no longer up-to-date and meanwhile also met with rejection from most Irish. Redmond did not have to see the devastating election defeat of his party in December 1918. He died in March 1918, at the age of 61, during routine surgery.

Web links

Commons : John Redmond  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

• Alvin Jackson, Home Rule - An Irish History 1800–2000 Phoenix, London 2004. ( ISBN 0753817675 )
• Sil-Vara : English statesmen . Berlin: Ullstein, 1916, pp. 207-219

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The small encyclopedia , Encyclios-Verlag, Zurich, 1950, volume 2, page 437