DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "John Redmond's Last Years" by Stephen Lucius Gwynn. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Irish nationalist leader John Redmond left no diaries or memoirs, but was a prolific letter-writer. In John Redmond: Selected Letters and Memoranda, 1880–1918, Dermot Meleady skilfully edits Redmond’s correspondence to offer new and first-hand perspectives on key moments in Ireland’s history via the many-faceted postbag of one of its most able political figures. Spanning four decades, these letters to and from key figures such as John Dillon, William O’Brien, David Lloyd George and Herbert Asquith trace Parnell’s downfall, the reunification of the Irish Parliamentary Party, Irish participation in the First World War and the destruction of Redmond’s lifelong dream of Home Rule in the aftermath of the Easter 1916 rebellion. Redmond’s untimely death in 1918, after a wave of shocks and disappointments, marked a sadly premature end to an immense personality as well as the end of an era, but this book brings to life many of the episodes of the vibrant politics of his period. Above all, it gives Redmond back his own voice, allowing him to speak directly to us from a century ago and to correct some of the caricature to which he has sometimes been reduced in the popular memory and academic discourse.
In his treatment of Redmond, Joseph P. Finnan demonstrates the multiple identities of the Irish Parliamentary Party as nationalist, liberal, and Catholic. He looks at Home Rule as part of a federal solution to the Irish question within the United Kingdom, the reasons for the failure of Redmond's war policies, and the collapse of the Irish Parliamentary Party as part of the wider phenomenon of the decline of liberalism during the Great War. As he looks at Irish nationalism in its worldwide context, Finnan also shows how Redmond's handling of organizational problems in America sets the pattern for his later handling of similar problems in Ireland.
Dramatic and immersive, Redmond is a provocative reassessment of John Redmond, Home Rule campaigner and one of Ireland's most brilliant political minds.'A vivid portrayal of one of the great political campaigns in Irish history.' Stephen Collins, Political Editor, The Irish TimesRedmond brings to life seven pivotal years in Irish history, when the campaign for Home Rule seized the imagination of a nation and brought Ireland to the brink of a negotiated settlement with Britain. The architect of this campaign was John Redmond, the shrewd and assured leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.Opening with euphoric scenes on Dublin's O'Connell St when tens of thousands assembled in support of Home Rule, Redmond charts the Irish Party leader's path from power broker in the British parliament in 1910, when Home Rule for Ireland seemed a fait accompli, to public enemy by 1917, when, in the wake of World War I, Irish nationalist politics migrated from the parliamentary chamber to the barricade.Redmond succeeds in weaving a complex portrait of a forgotten hero of Irish politics and the personalities – from Churchill to Carson, de Valera to Lloyd George – who aided and, ultimately, frustrated his life's work.'At last, a biography that recognises the role played by Redmond in the creation of modern Ireland. Chris Dooley brings the man and his times vividly to life in this excellent account. Full of intelligence and sympathy, it is a book that deserves to be read by anyone who wants to understand how our country came into being.'Fergal Keane, BBC'A gripping story which skilfully weaves considerable research and telling details to illuminate the story of Redmond and Home Rule.'David McCullagh, RTÉ
