In June 1917 Major Willie Redmond took a bullet at the Battle of Messines in Belgium. He dies from his injuries. The following year his brother John Edward Redmond MP died.


A just released book, 'Judging Redmond & Carson' by Prof Alvin Jackson, compares the approach of John Redmond with that of Unionist leader Edward Carson. According to Jackson Redmond was so committed to securing Home Rule that he was prepared to sacrifice his own self-dignity in his dealings with the government of the day. Carson, on the other hand, was more bullish in his dealings and gave as good as he got.

One wonders how it would have been for Redmond, and Ireland, had he stared Lloyd George down, and, in the process, upstaged the Republicans, by playing the dissent and rebellion wild card? Even the threat of it might have gotten Home Rule over the line before the War offered the government an opportunity to further fudge the issue. So much for speculation and supposition. 1916 happened and, thenceforth, everything that Redmond and the Irish Parliamentary Party stood for was deemed irrelevant. With the passing of time the contribution of the Redmonds has been reappraised. While the Easter Rising, or rather the way in which the main protagonists were dispatched, was the catalyst for what followed, John Redmond and the IPP played their part.

The re-scheduled ceremony of remembrance and wreathlaying to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of John Edward Redmond MP takes place at John's Street Graveyard on Sun, 15th April at 3pm.