MUCH TRAGEDY
tain James Dalton. Romance blossomed between his half-sister, Johanna Mary, and John Redmond and they were married in Sydney on September 4th, 1883. Together they had a son and two daughters, but Johanna Mary died in 1889.
Willie Redmond married James Dalton’s daughter, Eleanor Mary, in London in 1886. Their only child, a son, died in 1899.
Despite Parnell’s personal problems John Redmond remained loyal to him to the end but at some political cost to himself. Eventually his loyalty and integrity were rewarded when he was elected leader of a United Irish party at Westminster in 1900. He succeeded in getting a Home Rule bill for Ireland through Westminster in 1912, but it would not be enacted until 1914 because of House of Lords’ objections. The first World War had started by then, so enactment, with an amendment that Ulster could opt out if they wished, was delayed until after the war.
Redmond encouraged young Irishmen to join in the war effort on the side of small nations such as Catholic Belgium. His motivation was the belief that southern Catholics and Ulster Protestants fighting together for a common cause would lead to reconciliation and trust and ultimately, result in a thirty two county Irish parliament. His brother Willie enlisted in the Irish Guards at the age of 53. He had been an MP for Clare since 1891. When Clare won the AllIreland hurling championship in 1914, he paid for the team’s stay in Barry’s hotel. To this day there are housing estates in Clare named after him.
The Redmond’s were now at the height of their powers, but over the next eight years the family had to deal with unbelievable tragedy. John’s daughter, Esther, died in New York in 1915 leaving four small children. The news from the war was not good as many young Irishmen were being killed. They included John Long from Glanworth, who was killed in the Dardanelles, Egypt in 1915 at the age of 25. Willie Redmond was killed at the front in Belgium in 1917 and Eamon de Valera succeeded him as MP for Clare and was to hold public office for the next 56 years.
John Redmond died of a heart attack in March 1918. His son, Billy successfully contested the bye-election in Waterford, clad in British army uniform. He had joined the cadets in Fermoy in 1915. According to Tom Barry (boreen) a number of Volunteers from Glanworth travelled at their own expense by train to Waterford to canvas for Sinn Fein at that election. They encountered a number of disturbances but their main opposition came from the wives and women folk of men serving in the war. Tom Barry would describe the Redmonds and the Greenes as, “imperialists”, a derogatory term extended by Republicans even to Fine Gael supporters in the 1930s and 1940s.
Further tragedy followed in March 1922 when Max Sullivan Greene was shot dead by a robber after an IRA bank raid in St Stephen’s Green in Dublin. He had been chairman of the Prison Board since 1912 and was blamed by Sinn Féin for, amongst other things, the death of Thomas Ashe in 1917 who was forced fed while on hunger strike. Greene’s wife, Johanna, died in December 1922 leaving twin sons, Max and Redmond, orphans at the age of nine. They were fostered and reared by their aunts at Airhill, Glanworth and were educated at Stonyhurst private school in England.
A HAVEN FOR MEETINGS
Much of the Green’s estate was divided among local farmers after the 1923 Land Act. The parish and community benefited by getting land for the school and GAA pitch. The twins’ uncle, Billy Redmond, was elected a TD for Waterford in 1923 and joined Cumann na nGael in 1931. He successfully contested the 1932 General Election but died of a heart attack shortly afterwards at the age of 45.
His wife Bridget held the seat for Fine Gael for the next twenty years. His nephew Redmond became quite a celebrity in the Glanworth area in the ‘30’s and ‘40’s. The big house at Airhill with its well laid out tennis courts was a haven for Blueshirts for meetings, fundraisers and socialising. It was certainly not the place to shout “Up Dev” while playing tennis!
Redmond Greene and his family left the area in 1949 when the house and remaining land was sold to the Bermingham family.
John Redmond’s political philosophy was, “let us have national freedom and imperial unity and strength”. He saw the Commonwealth as a
Commuters on the new Dart 2 high speed mono-rail spent two hours in freezing temperatures last night when the newly introduced system of transport broke down at Watergrasshill.
The 3am service from Cork to Mitchelstown developed transmission land of opportunity for Irish people which he felt should be nurtured. There is no doubt that the Redmond’s were great Irishmen and one of them paid the ultimate price for his political beliefs. In this respect, he was similar to Republicans who paid the same price for their nationalist objectives.
John Downing, writing in the Irish Independent on the centenary of the outbreak of the Civil War, stated it was a war between “the romantic Republicans and the smug Free Staters”. A similar comparison could be drawn between the ambitious young volunteers and the well heeled Redmondites. However, it trouble shortly after departing from Watergrasshill station and ground to a halt with power failure one mile north of the city's suburb.
A spokesman for the owners said that the break-down was due to a malfunction in the automatic drive computer system. After a delay 100 agitated passengers from Mitchelstown's giant Eichman Meats (formerly owned by Dairygold), who were attending a Christmas party in a city centre hotel, could be claimed that much of Redmond’s vision proved correct in the long term. It was Redmond’s belief that Ireland and Britain were too closely associated to be totally separated.
Ireland failed as an economic entity between 1922 and 1960 and was only rescued by foreign direct investment in the 1960s and joining the EEC in 1973. The English speaking world is still a significant destination for Irish people and it would be Boston or Brisbane before Berlin or Brussels for many young Irish people to this day. were relieved to see the arrival of a gyro copter which ferried them home.
This is the third time that the Dart on the northern route has broken down in as many weeks and one of the party-goers at the scene, a very angry 86 year old Matt Fryem, told our reporter that he was old enough to remember the days of Iarnród Éireann, so it wasn’t exactly something he hadn’t experienced before.
- From The Avondhu archives, 1993