January 1899:
I wish to convey my thanks for your manly and straightforward letter [of condolence]. My father always had a warm spot in his heart for his Roman Catholic fellow countrymen.18
***
In November 1896, Redmond made his fourth visit to the US, where he lectured on his fifteen years in the British Parliament and on non-political topics. At his last venue, in New York on 2 February 1897, he addressed a massive amnesty meeting at which he met the Clan-na-Gael (American branch of the IRB) leader John Devoy. Mediated by the Fenian F.J. Allan, manager of the Irish Independent Company, relations between Redmond and Devoy remained relatively warm until the former turned his attention to moves for the reunification of the Party.
FROM F.J. ALLAN
Dublin, undated [February 1897]:
I am suffering from a bad throat tonight and am afraid to venture down to Kingsbridge but I am sure I need hardly say that I join very warmly in the welcome home to you.
I had a letter from John Devoy on Saturday in which he says that the New York [Amnesty] meeting was one of the grandest he has ever seen – having regard to its representative character as well as to its size. It is almost a pity that you could not have spent more time there for these great meetings must do much good.19
FROM F.J. ALLAN
2 March 1897:
I had a quiet talk with John O’Leary and some other members of the ’98 provisional committee last evening, and it was decided that for the present it would be more judicious to stick to the original arrangement of not inviting any members of Parliament to join the committee …
We have nearly a 3/4ths majority of the provisional committee now and so long as the other side don’t suspect us, we can get the control of the executive, but if after refusing several of their members we elected you, they would probably go back to their original claim of an executive composed of half anti-Parnellites and half Parnellites, which would spoil us …20
F.J. ALLAN TO JOHN DEVOY, NEW YORK
29 December 1897:
As Mr. John Redmond [MP] is leaving for New York in the morning, I think it only right to let you know for the information of our friends that the articles in the Irish Republic about the lecture on ’98 which Redmond delivered in Dublin are disgraceful lies. There was not a single word in Redmond’s whole lecture that could offend the most extreme man …21
***
ENDING THE SPLIT
Although unity moves initiated by the Parnellite T.C. Harrington MP in 1897 were not at first well received by his colleagues, the centenary commemorations of the 1798 insurrection increased public pressure for an end to the Split and for Party reconciliation. Redmond was impelled in the same direction by his own lack of electoral progress and the general stagnation of the Home Rule cause.
TO T.C. HARRINGTON, MP DUBLIN HARBOUR
7 Belvidere Place, 26 April 1897:
We are all (Clancy, Kenny, Carew, Pat O’Brien et al.) very unhappy at the turn things have taken and at the apparent estrangement which has arisen between us. We are all anxious to have a chat with you … I have to go to London tomorrow night about the pigbuyers’ business – can we meet anywhere tomorrow?22
FROM JOHN DILLON, MP MAYO EAST
2 North Gt. George’s St., Dublin, 3 February 1898:
Enclosed is a copy of a series of resolutions passed by the Irish Parliamentary Party on the 18th January last. You will see that by one of the resolutions I am requested to communicate with you with a view to concerted action in Parliament on all or any of the matters dealt with in the resolutions.
I trust that it may be found possible for all the Nationalist members to act in concert on such questions as
(1) the distress in the West of Ireland
(2) the Local Government Bill
(3) the Catholic University question
(4) Amnesty
(5) the position of the Evicted Tenants
(6) the Land question.
And that on the questions of
(1) Overtaxation
(2) The arrears due to Ireland in respect of the [subvention?] to the British agricultural interest, it may be found possible to arrange for a plan of action which will command the support of some of the Unionist members for Ireland …23
TO JOHN DILLON MP
7 Belvidere Place, Dublin, 4 February 1898:
I have received your letter of 3rd inst. As you are aware I have always been in favour of united action in the House of Commons on any questions upon which they [sic] may be in substantial agreement. I have therefore no hesitation in saying I will be glad to confer as to the questions mentioned by you. I will be in the House of Commons early in the forenoon of Tuesday.24
FROM T.C. HARRINGTON MP
Rutland Square, Dublin, 5 April 1899:
As Chairman of the Conference of Irish Nationalist Members of Parliament held in the Oak Room of the Mansion House yesterday it becomes my duty to forward you a copy of the resolutions adopted there as constituting a basis for re-union among all sections of the Irish Nationalist representation …25
T.M. HEALY, MP LOUTH NORTH, TO MORETON FREWEN
10 May 1899:
I recognize the importance of the suggestion R. makes, and although I have to write hurriedly, I should see no difficulty in accepting a settlement on G. Duffy’s lines … Most of my friends would prefer Redmond to Dillon but the priests would not easily reconcile themselves, if he were selected by the tribunal suggested. For myself however I never thought his anti-clericalism more than skin-deep and possibly if the arbitrators resolved the question in that way there would be such general satisfaction at any kind of solution, that after a single session of united and cheerful co-ordination, even the strongest anti-Parnellite would become reconciled … no one would envy whoever is selected for the task of trying to restore the shattered ranks and prestige of the Party.26
TO JOHN DILLON MP & T.M. HEALY MP
24 July 1899:
Gentlemen … I shd. be glad to know if you wd. be willing to get your Whips to convene a meeting of your Party for the purpose of appointing a small number of representative men to confer with a few of my friends to discuss the basis on wh. a reunion cd. be brought about …27
FROM T.M. HEALY MP
House of Commons, 24 July 1899:
I am this evening in receipt of your letter and hasten to reply to it, as the first communication of the kind received by me since the Split, from any member of your Party ...
Your wish for a Conference ‘to discuss the basis on which a reunion could be brought about’ has a practical ring about it
