to Darlington and Hartlepool …
I read with interest your speech at New Ross L.L. and am glad to find our opinions are identical …6
***
On 7 April Gladstone introduced his historic Land Bill that provided for the judicial review and fixing of rents, effectively establishing dual ownership of land holdings in Ireland. While recognising the value of the Bill, Parnell, for tactical reasons, moved a party resolution to abstain on its Second Reading.
TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS
House of Commons, 9 May 1881:
… I never felt so uncertain about any vote but I think my reasons were sound. I was not influenced by Dillon’s arrest and in my speech at the meeting I protested against connecting it with our action.
I am in favour of abstaining from voting on the Second Reading [of Gladstone’s Land Bill] on its own merits for these reasons. It will not in any way imperil the passing of the Bill and will I think make the Government all the more willing to make concessions to us in Committee so as to secure our support on the Third Reading when the really important division will be taken …7
TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS
House of Commons, 10 May 1881:
Since I last wrote I have shown your telegram to Parnell and he has specially asked me to write to you …
He is most anxious for the country to support our action, more especially as I cannot see how we can change our front even if it seemed wise to do so ...
We are all in a most difficult and painful position, and it will be deplorable if we have a further secession from the Party.
What is the general idea among those with whom you have spoken? 8
***
On 19 May the Irish Party abstained on the Second Reading of the Land Bill. Fourteen members of the Party disobeyed the Party whip and joined with twelve previous ‘seceders’ in voting for the Second Reading. The name ‘Fenians’ here refers to members of the secret physical-force movement, the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB), who, in the light of the failure of its 1867 uprising, were split on the question of support for the constitutional methods of Parnell.
TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS
House of Commons, ‘Monday’
[23 May] 1881:
… I am sure you were pleased and relieved to find how loyally most of our men acted. The few who voted for the Bill I think made a great mistake but happily they are too few to make a ‘split’ …
Did you see how the Fenians treated Dr. Cummins and myself at Blackburn? All through the north of England they are bitterly opposed to the Land League and have formed a gang to break up our meetings. Of course a little organisation on our side will prevent this. It is a great pity. They are decent fellows most of them, but very foolish …9
***
By August 1881, the Land Act had passed all stages and awaited the Royal Assent. However, clashes between the Irish Party and the Liberal Government over the operation of the Coercion Acts led to increased pressure within the Party and from Irish Americans to reject the Land Act. The Party agreed to adopt a compromise scheme of ‘testing the Act’, i.e. submitting only selected cases to the new land courts. Increasingly militant rhetoric from Parnell, with support from Redmond among other MPs, reflected the quasi-revolutionary atmosphere in Ireland. In October Parnell and his chief ‘lieutenants’ John Dillon and William O’Brien were arrested and lodged in Kilmainham Jail. In response, they published the No Rent Manifesto, aimed at securing the withdrawal of coercion. The Manifesto was condemned by respectable society and failed to win mass support among tenant farmers, who were eager to avail of the Act.
TO FR. PATRICK FURLONG, PP NEW ROSS
Union Club, Wexford,
5 November 1881:
I am sorry to learn from your letter that you don’t approve of the No Rent Manifesto. I feel quite convinced that, if supported, it would be the proper way and indeed the only possible way of hitting our enemies.
The fact, which I am beginning to realize, that it will not be supported generally, makes me feel very despondent. I fear the people are not equal to the sacrifice demanded from them. They are doubtful, they fear the risk, they see the Land Act working favourably and they take grave note of the words of Dr. Croke [Archbishop of Cashel] and of the silence of men like Fr. Tom, yourself and others. The result is they are divided. I think just for the present a large number will refuse rent, but in the end they will be made pay, and the ‘strike’ will I fear be a failure. What then? I confess I feel greatly disheartened …10
***
The ‘Phoenix Park murders’ – the stabbing to death outside the Viceregal Lodge of the incoming Chief Secretary Lord Frederick Cavendish and Under Secretary T.H. Burke by the ‘Invincibles’, a breakaway Fenian group – aroused revulsion throughout Britain and Ireland.
TO THE EDITOR, THE TIMES
9 May 1882:
Sir – Some attention has been called to the fact that in my speech on Sunday at Manchester I made no allusion to the deplorable murder of Mr. Burke and confined myself entirely to denouncing the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish.
Will you allow me to say that the simple reason for that omission is to be found in the fact that I was not aware that Mr. Burke had shared the sad fate of his chief until some hours after the meeting when I received a telegram from Dublin giving me details of the outrage.
***
In 1882 the Land League was replaced by the National League. In 1883 Redmond, accompanied by his brother Willie, spent ten months in Australia and New Zealand on a speaking and fundraising mission for the new League. In Sydney, he met and married Johanna Dalton, of an Irish family; Willie also met his future wife Eleanor. The mission raised £15,000 for the League. The brothers and Johanna travelled home via the US, where they addressed meetings across the continent.
FROM CHARLES STEWART PARNELL, MP CORK CITY
1 December 1882:
On behalf of the Irish National League we request you to proceed to Australia and New Zealand for the purpose of placing – in conjunction with Mr. John W. Walshe – before our friends the present deplorable state of things in Ireland and soliciting their sympathy and support in the great struggle which our people are making for the attainment of their national rights.
Signed –
C.S. Parnell, chairman Organising Committee, I.N.L.,
T.M. Healy and T. Harrington, Hon. Secs., I.N.L.,
Patrick Egan, Ex-Treasurer, Land League. 11
***
After his return from Australia in early 1884, Redmond took a less prominent role in political affairs while studying for the English Bar. In June Johanna gave birth to their first child, Esther. In 1885, he began to prepare for the coming general election; the borough constituencies of Wexford and New Ross were to be
