In 1918, on this day the Lord Chancellor of Ireland John Edward Redmond (pictured) died from heart failure hours after undergoing an operation to remove an intestinal obstruction. A moderate, constitutional and conciliatory politician he attained the twin dominant objectives of his political life, party unity and the granting of an interim form of self-government to Ireland.

Irish Home Rule in 1914: Part #3He served in the Imperial Parliament for eighteen years being chosen as John Stuart Parnell's ultimate successor in order to lead the re-unified Irish Parliamentary Party. In the second election of December 1910 this parliamentary party held the balance of power at Westminster, which marked a high point in Redmond's political career. His deal over the budget crisis of 1909 led to the curbing of the power of the House of Lords. With the Lords' veto abolished under the Parliament Act 1911, Irish Home Rule (which the Lords blocked in 1894) became a reality. Redmond used his leverage to persuade the Liberal government of H. H. Asquith to introduced the Third Home Rule Bill in April 1912, to grant Ireland national self-government. This could no longer be blocked by the Lords, its enactment merely delayed for two years. Home Rule had reached the pinnacle of its success and Redmond had gone much further than any of his predecessors in shaping British politics to the needs of the Irish.

For all its reservations, the Bill was for Redmond the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. "If I may say so reverently", he told the House of Commons, "I personally thank God that I have lived to see this day". Unfortunately, Asquith missed a magnificent opportunity by failing to incorporate into the Bill any significant concessions to Ulster Unionists, who then campaigned relentlessly against it. Nonetheless by 1914 Redmond had become a nationalist hero of Parnellite stature and could have had every expectation of becoming head of a new Irish government in Dublin.

But by the time that Redmond transferred to the Irish Bicameral Parliament, "the troubles" had begun in earnest and the Great Powers excluding Britain were locked in a general conflict. Denied British support, the French Armies were hammered into early defeat and during the de-mobilization that followed, many of their weapons were secretly transported to Ireland.
This article is a post from the Irish Home Rule 1914 collaborative thread.