appreciate their liberties, and prudence to use them wisely, in light to understand those of others, and to recognise them generally, in the consciousness of their power as the makers and administrators of the law, and a corresponding sense of their responsibility as citizens of the state and the custodians of its destinies … Self-discipline and social betterment would carry us a long way further at this moment than the world had yet advanced, and make the new citizenship the chief and primal sanction of a reformed international system and of the capital institutions of every free land.
The same newspaper reported that the vote of thanks was proposed by the Lord Chief Justice, who complimented Hearne on his address and ‘predicted for him a great career at the Bar’. Seconding the motion, Timothy Healy, KC, a future Governor-General of the Irish Free State, joined the Lord Chief Justice in prophesying for the auditor ‘a high place’ in the profession.65
Hearne was to practise law on the Leinster Circuit, which included Waterford, until 1922. However, before he began his legal career, his oratorical skills were to be employed in the political bear-pit of local and national politics.
Politics
On 6 March 1918, John Redmond, MP for Waterford City, died and a by-election was called for 22 March. His son, Captain William Archer Redmond, was selected to contest the seat by the local United Ireland League; his opponent was Dr Vincent White, representing Sinn Féin. This political contest, an important one locally and nationally, was bitterly fought. Prominent in their support of Captain Redmond were the Hearnes, John and his father, Richard. For the younger Hearne, it was to be his first public engagement in electoral politics and, by his involvement, he revealed the extent of his commitment to the Home Rule cause and the Redmondite tradition.
For the two parties the election had a practical and symbolic significance. Sinn Féin had won four by-elections in 1917, though it had suffered a defeat in Armagh South in February 1918.66 In practical terms, a victory in Waterford would represent a continuation of successful progress in its determination to supplant the Irish Parliamentary Party as the dominant force in Irish politics. There was also a deep symbolic significance attached to a win. The election was for John Redmond’s old seat and the opposing candidate was his son. His nomination was regarded by Sinn Féin as ‘the last kick of the dying “home rule upon the statute book” Irish Parliamentary Party’.67 Defeat for Redmond would deliver a political coup de grace, sending his party into a spiral of irreversible decline. Therefore, there was no doubt that Sinn Féin understood the importance, even the necessity, of victory. Its local director of elections, Nicholas Whittle, recorded the fact that:
all members of the executive … participated in the election in Waterford City and canvassed the city daily … The republican movement in Ireland threw everything it had in to the by-election. Sean Milroy, general director of elections, wrote daily letters to prominent republicans throughout the whole country to come to Waterford and lend a hand.68
For the Irish Parliamentary Party the stakes were even higher. It appeared to be in decline following a series of election defeats. On a practical level, a victory would halt the progress of Sinn Féin; it might even reverse it and herald a restoration of the Party’s fortunes. The contest was also charged with a deep emotional symbolism – the memory of John Redmond cast a shadow over his supporters in Waterford. He was viewed by them as a martyr for the Home Rule cause just as Patrick Pearse had come to represent martyrdom for the republican one. They were seeking to vindicate and protect Redmond’s political legacy and to use his memory as an inspiration for party renewal and revival against the Sinn Féin onslaught.
For supporters of Home Rule, even more fundamental than these practical and symbolic considerations was their revulsion at the direction politics was taking. The restoration of constitutionalism was of paramount urgency in the face of what was regarded as the dangerous revolutionism of Sinn Féin. The mayor, David McDonald, asserted that the country could get what it required ‘by constitutional means … Was it worth spilling untold quantities of Irish blood? … For eighteen months these marauders have gambled with the destinies of Ireland … Waterford can finish the humbug that has been going on for the past eighteen months’.69
Given the importance of the election for both parties, it was a very hard-fought contest. Arthur Griffith was to comment to Whittle: ‘Do you know this has been the roughest election in Irish history, not excepting the famous Galway election?’70 Notwithstanding Sinn Féin’s election successes in 1917, the Waterford contest presented a real and serious challenge, as it had to contend with the formidable Redmondite political machine in the city. John Redmond had first been elected in a by-election in 1891, defeating Michael Davitt, of Land League fame.71 He retained his seat in all six subsequent general elections, in four of which he was returned unopposed.72
Central to his victories was the support he enjoyed from the Pig Buyers’ Association, located in Ballybricken, in the heart of the city. Of this body Egan observed that ‘in every movement, social, political and commercial, the men of Ballybricken, owing to their high position and influence as traders in the city, play an important part’.73 On the basis of their support, Redmond built a powerful constituency organisation74 which ‘permeated and suffocated local politics’.75 The Irish Parliamentary Party became the near monopoly leader of local nationalism and had the ‘copyright’ of the national movement and its machine.76 William Redmond could count on this organisation and machine in March 1918.
A spectre of violence, actual and threatened, hung over the election campaign. When Griffith’s newspaper, Nationality, complained that ‘constitutionalism was upheld by “constitutional” stones and bludgeons’, it was telling the essential truth.77 Much of the violence and disorder which characterised the contest was instigated by Redmond’s supporters, who outnumbered and were more organised than Sinn Féin’s.78 The former could rely on the pig buyers, former soldiers and wives of serving soldiers. The women interrupted Sinn Féin meetings with singing and heckling. De Valera was attacked and his party’s candidate spent a week in hospital after an assault.79 Sinn Féin responded by bringing in Volunteer units from outside Waterford to protect its election workers.80
Clearly, the March by-election was one fought with intensity and ferocity and all participants appreciated this fact. The Hearnes, father and son, played a central role in it. On 8 March, Richard Hearne, in his capacity as president of the city branch of the United Ireland League, was on the platform at a meeting in the City Hall to express sympathy to the Redmond family on its bereavement.81 He attended the opening meeting of Captain William Redmond’s campaign on 12 March.82 Three days later he presided at a meeting in Ferrybank, regarded as a Sinn Féin stronghold, introducing Redmond to the crowd.83 On St Patrick’s Day he played a prominent part in Redmond’s last election rally at Ballybricken, again introducing him to the gathering.84
On 12 March, at the opening meeting of Redmond’s campaign, John Hearne delivered what was probably his first speech in his native city; it might, in fact, have been his first ever speech delivered at an election meeting. In this address, he articulated the views and concerns informing the attitudes and aspirations of Home Rule supporters. He began by acknowledging the emotions and symbolism of the occasion, declaring that it was fitting that it was in Redmond’s adopted city that ‘the first staggering blow should be struck for Redmondism and reason, when John Redmond himself, the living embodiment of political sound sense, is no more’. He announced the intention of his supporters not to cede political ground to any other party: ‘We are to be here this time, next time and all the time.’ In fact, they were resolved to ‘smash Sinn Féin’ and he asserted that ‘Waterford was safe for political sanity.’
He then sought to motivate his audience by appealing to their sense of history: ‘Daniel O’Connell told Isaac Butt that it was not the Clare election that won [Catholic] emancipation; he said that it was the Waterford election [1826] that turned the tide finally for religious freedom. It was the Waterford election of 1891 which gave us John Redmond for our member, and gave him to Ireland as the “Chief”.’ Hearne was
