Life
1861-1917 [William Hoey Kearney; var. Huey; ‘Willie’, occas.
‘Willy’]; b. Ballytrent, Co. Wexford, ed. Clongowes; succeeded
father as MP for Wexford in 1883; A Shooting Trip in the Australian
Bush (1898); Through the New Commonwealth (1906); influenced
by John Mitchel and imprisoned three times during Land War; said in America
in 1884, noted for frequent use of violent language at the hustings; addressing
an audience in Chicago, 1844, ‘There is not a supporter of Parnell
in Ireland, or on America, or in Australia, who, if a reasonable opportunity
should arise for hastening the liberty of Ireland by force, would not
fly to it with the energy of hope and the frenzy of revenge ...’;
MP North Fermanagh, 1885; MP East Clare, 1891-1917; supported Volunteers
at their inception, writing to the organising committee that ‘Orange
arms have been supplied from the large purses of aristocratic and titled
sympathisers in England’; travelled to Belgium and bought 500,000
rounds of ammunition, which were detained in Hamburg at the outbreak of
war; joined Royal Irish Regt., aetat. 53, taking rank of Major; insisted
on joining his men in firing line; attempted to reunited Northern and
Southern Irishmen in trenches, praying for the consummation of peace between
them; made impassioned final plea in Westminster for self-govt. within
the empire, appealing on behalf of ‘we who are about to die’;
d. battle of Messines Ridge, 7 June 1917; having his death vacating the
seat won by Eamon de Valera; Trench Pictures from France, posthum.
(1917); there is a bust by Oliver Sheppard (1930). ODNB DIB DIH FDA
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Criticism
Terence Denman, ‘A Lonely Grave’, The Life and Death of William
Redmond (IAP 1995), 224pp.
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Commentary
Stephen Gwynn Highways and By-ways ... (1903) includes an
account of the bringing-back of the body of Willie Redmond - ironically
by an Ulster regiment - in Flanders.
Peter Costello, Clongowes Wood (1991), William Redmond, br. of John ‘made a special journey through the Empire which he wrote about in 1892 ... Irish nationalism had its imperial aspects, which are all too often overlooked by a narrowing view of mere events in Ireland. Redmond spoke for many of his outlook ... shared by many who sent their sons to Clongowes. (Costello, p. 66)
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Quotations
‘I am a rebel against British rule in Ireland … I want to go
to the house of commons where Parnell and Redmond went to fight British
rule in Ireland. I want to rebel there in the only place where it is practicable
to have a rebellion.’ (Speech in Waterford, 1918; cited in D. George
Boyce, Nationalism in Ireland, London: Routledge 1982, p.290.
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References
Dictionary of National Biography, ‘violent Parnellite,’
br. of John Edward, killed in Flanders.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, p.537n; MP for East Clare whose seat de Valera won on his death at the Somme.
Belfast Public Library holds A Shooting Trip in the Australian Bush (1898); Through the New Commonwealth (1906); Trench Pictures from France (1917).
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Notes
Col. Moore: Terence Denman, ‘A Lonely Grave’, The
Life and Death of William Redmond (IAP 1995), cites obituary remarks
by Col. Maurice Moore [br. of George Moore]: ‘Ireland will grieve
over his loss as sorrowfully as she does over Pearse and O’Rahilly’;
Col. Moore further remarked that Ireland did, and does, nothing of the
sort’ (See review, Irish Times, 29, June 1995.)
Belfast Young Ireland Society: William Redmond was a one-time president of that organisation (see W. P. Ryan, The Irish Literary Revival, 1894, p.158).
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