The Volunteer leader whose name has been invoked in support of other’s prejudices

JUST over 99 years ago, on September 4, 1907, John Redmond declared in a speech at the Mansion House in Dublin:

“Resistance to the Act of Union will always remain for us... a sacred duty. And the methods of resistance will remain for us merely a question of expediency. There are men today, perfectly honourable and honest men, for whose convictions I have the utmost respect, who think that the method we ought to adopt is force of arms. Such resistance ... would be perfectly justifiable if it were possible”.

Those who conjure up Redmond often do so in a simplistic and unhistorical fashion, disregarding what he actually said and did and imposing their own political prejudices on the real man.