JOHN REDMOND'S PARTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 100, 1 May 1933, Page 11

JOHN REDMOND'S PARTY.

Your correspondent "Justitia" takes Mrs. E. Gibson to task for stating tliat "the leaders after the rising in Easter week were being shot in relays every morning, John Redmond and his 80 followers sat dumb in the House of Commons." One would prefer to let a subject of this kind rest, but for the sake , of historical accuracy it is a duty to state facts. The announcement of the execution of Pearse, McDonagh and Tom • Clark was received in the House of Commons with cheers—it is asserted on the : authority of Mr. Laurence Ginnell, M.P., that Mr. Redmond's party also cheered, but this has been denied, and for the credit of Ireland let us hope the denial ' is sustainable. After this announcement . Mr. Redmond said: "This outbreak happily seems to be over. It has been dealt with by firmness. That was not ' only right, but the duty of the Government." On another occasion during ; Easter week the Prime Minister (Mr. Afiquith), having announced the day's 1 news from Dublin about the progress ■ of the suppression of the rebellion, Sir • Edward Carson rose to eay: "I will ! gladly join with the hon. and "learned i member for Waterford (Mr. Redmond) ■ in everything that can be done to de- ■ nounce and put down those rebels now i and for ever more." Who but Mr. Red- ' mond would have tolerated Sir Edward • Garson complaining of sedition at. such : an hour? Mr. Redmond immediately rose i and, speaking in an atmosphere quiver- ! ing with prejudice and passion, made ; this response: "Will the House allow ' me to say just one sentence? I really think it is scarcely necessary to give expression on behalf of all my colleagues of the Nationalist party to the feeling of detestation and horror with which we have regarded these proceedings, and I join most cordially with the hon. and learned gentleman the member for the Dublin University (Sir Edward Carson)." Mr. Redmond, in making common cause with the leader of the Unconstitutional Provisional Government of Ulster (who had organised an army to resist a milk-and-water form of self-government _ for the whole of Ireland), in trampling into the mire the young idealists (who had only copied Carson's example), showed L a strange judgment, a disregard of the , spiritual pleading of the Irish soul, ( which once for all made impossible Mr. . Redmond as a national leader. Were it , not for the reasons of space I could | give extracts from Mr. Redmond's l speeches delivered at the time in the House of Commons, where he expressly ' suggested to the British Government that ' severe treatment be meted out to the 1 "instigators and promoters" of the re- ; bellion. Mr. Redmond was a great Imperialist and spoke as such, and from all people who think that way he would ' always get credit for his Imperial views and utterances at that time. _ On the 1 subject out of which all this arose, ! there must be in all parts of the Empire ' strong views from different angles, but, as a great non-Irish writer has observed, ' in a governmentally-civilised country the leaders would have found another ideal. They would have been thinking • or writing on something bey.ond or outside a national plane, but in Ireland they had to choose between a subtle | colonial subservience and a strange I nationalism. They found they could not I choose the nationalism. Yeats, Hyde ! and George Russell set them a certain ! example, as they could function in spite r of the peculiar national position. Pearse, [ McDonagh and Plunkett were close to ' the tradition of the people. This iden- [ tilled these aspiring youths with a merci- ; lessly unremitting nationalism. It forced them, proud and isolated, to dwell I with burning zeal on a history tragically • their own, and they were at all times T regarded by Mr. Redmond as opponents ' of his political views and outlook. His I attitude in the House of Commons was t therefore natural. DIARMUID BEARA.