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THE CONTROVERSY AND CONSEQUENCES OF JOHN REDMOND'S ESTATE SALE UNDER THE WYNDHAM LAND ACT, 1903*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2012

PATRICK COSGROVE
PATRICK COSGROVE*
Affiliation:
National University of Ireland, Maynooth
*
Junior Infirmary, South Campus, National University of Ireland Maynooth, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Irelandpatrick.j.cosgrove@nuim.ie
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Abstract

This article examines the controversy surrounding the sale of John Redmond's estate under the Wyndham Land Act of 1903, its impact on Redmond's political career, and divisions within Irish nationalism. As chairman of the Irish Parliamentary Party, Redmond automatically assumed the mantle of spokesman for nationalist tenant farmers. However, after inheriting his uncle's estate in 1902, his political responsibilities as a tenant representative and his personal position as a landlord were set on a collision course. Although now a landlord he chose to attend the 1902–3 Land Conference, whose report heavily influenced the Wyndham Act, as the chief tenant representative. After accepting an offer by some of his tenants to purchase their holdings just prior to the commencement of the new act, many nationalists felt that the terms were exorbitant and Redmond was castigated for setting a precedent for landlords to follow. Even though the estate was eventually sold at a lower price, allegations that Redmond had extracted an excessive price from his own tenants and doubts about his trustworthiness as a tenant representative were slow to disappear. Against this backdrop, this article offers a fresh perspective on John Redmond's political career, post-1900.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , March 2012 , pp. 75 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank the editors of the Historical Journal and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

References

1 See Cosgrove, Patrick, ‘T. W. Russell and the compulsory-land-purchase campaign in Ulster, 1900–3’, Irish Historical Studies, 37 (Nov. 2010), pp. 221–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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7 Redmond, John, in H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., Oxford dictionary of national biography, xlvi (Oxford, 2004), p. 279.

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9 See Bull, Philip, ‘The significance of the nationalist response to the Irish Land Act of 1903’, Irish Historical Studies, 28 (May 1993), pp. 283–305CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and idem, Land politics and nationalism: a study of the Irish land question (Dublin, 1996)Google Scholar. See Campbell, Fergus, ‘Irish popular politics and the making of the Wyndham Land Act, 1901–1903’, Historical Journal, 45 (2002), pp. 755–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and idem, Land and revolution: nationalist politics in the west of Ireland, 1891–1921 (Oxford, 2005)Google Scholar.

10 Meleady, Dermot, Redmond: the Parnellite (Cork, 2007)Google Scholar. See also ‘John Redmond – Parnellite and nationalist’, Journal of the Wexford Historical Society, 21 (2006–7), pp. 123–46Google Scholar.

11 John Redmond to James Moore, no date (July 1902) (National Library of Ireland (NLI), Redmond papers, MS 15, 241/9).

12 See Irish Times, 19 Oct. 1903 and John Redmond to Fr David Bolger, no date (Dec. 1903) (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 242/14).

13 Fr David Bolger to John Redmond, 29 Jan. 1903 (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 242/2).

14 The parliamentary debates, 4th ser., 1892–1908 (vols. i–cxcix, London, 1892–1909)Google Scholar (Hansard 4), cxx, 216 (25 Mar. 1903).

15 Pomfret, J. E., The struggle for land in Ireland, 1800–1923 (Princeton, NJ, 1930), p. 294Google Scholar. With the establishment of the land courts under the 1881 Land Act, rents could be adjusted in the land courts every fifteen years. These judicial rents adjusted in the fifteen years following the 1881 Land Act were known as ‘first term rents’ whereas those revised in the fifteen years after 1896 were known as ‘second term rents’.

16 Blunt, W. S., My diaries: being a personal narrative of events, 1888–1914. Part two, 1900–1914 (London, 1922), p. 51Google Scholar.

17 Ibid., p. 54.

18 Freeman's Journal, 26 Aug. 1903.

19 ‘Return showing by counties the average numbers of years’ purchase under the Ashbourne Act for the years 1901 and 1902, and under the act of 1903, to the 31st July, 1908, in the different counties of Ireland’ (356) HC 1908, xc, 1411.

20 Leinster Leader, 26 Sept. 1903. See Cosgrove, Patrick, ‘The sale of the Leinster estate under the Wyndham Land Act, 1903’, Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society, 20 (2008–9), pp. 9–25Google Scholar.

21 John Dillon at Swinford, Co. Mayo on 25 Aug. 1903, cited in O'Brien, William, An olive branch in Ireland and its history (London, 1910), p. 256Google Scholar.

22 Wexford Independent, 21 Oct. 1903.

23 Annual register for the year 1903 (London, 1904), p. 240Google Scholar.

24 Healy, T. M., Letters and leaders of my day, ii (London, 1928), p. 471Google Scholar; O'Brien, An olive branch in Ireland, p. 283. Healy had been expelled from the newly reunited IPP at a convention in 1900.

25 Irish Times, 7 Oct. 1903.

26 Ibid., 20 Oct. 1903. Jasper Tully's growing criticism of the IPP had led to his recent expulsion from the party.

27 Ibid., 19 Oct. 1903.

28 Irish Daily Independent and Nation, 19 Oct. 1903.

29 Sheehan, D. D., Ireland since Parnell (London, 1921), p. 115Google Scholar.

30 Irish Times, 28 Oct. 1903.

31 Irish Daily Independent and Nation, 5 and 6 Nov. 1903.

32 Freeman's Journal, 31 Oct. 1903.

33 Ibid., 4 Nov. 1903.

34 Ibid.

35 Fr James C. Cannon to John Redmond, 21 Nov. 1903 (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 242/13).

36 ‘The Redmond estate: some wild fallacies dispelled’, Irish People, 7 Nov. 1903.

37 O'Brien, An olive branch in Ireland, p. 289.

38 Irish Times, 6 Nov. 1903.

39 Wells, John Redmond, p. 70.

40 Irish Times, 13 Nov. 1903.

41 Ibid.

42 Irish Daily Independent and Nation, 10 Nov. 1903.

43 George Wyndham to Moreton Frewen, 14 Nov. 1903, in Guy Wyndham ed., Letters of George Wyndham, ii (Edinburgh, 1915), p. 84.

44 Irish Times, 23 Nov. 1903.

45 T. P. O'Connor, ‘J. E. Redmond’, in Felix Lavery, ed., Great Irishmen in war and politics (London, 1920), p. 61.

46 Stephen O'Mara to John Redmond, 4 Nov. 1903 (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 219/4).

47 Irish Times, 16 Nov. 1903.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid., 17 Nov. 1903.

50 Fr David Bolger to John Redmond, 5 Dec. 1903 (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 242/14).

51 John Redmond to Fr David Bolger, Dec. 1903 (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 242/14).

52 ‘Irish Land Commission, estates commissioners, estate of John Redmond M.P.’, 12 Jan. 1905 (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 244/2). A further two first term tenants paid 20.7 years' purchase while one second term tenant, who owned a shop, paid 24.8 years' purchase. See Gwynn, The life of John Redmond, p. 104.

53 ‘Return of advances made under the Irish Land Act, 1903 during the period from 1st November, 1903 to 31st December, 1905’, vol. i parts i, ii, and iii (Cd.3447, Cd.3560, Cd.3547) HC 1907, lxx, 1 and May to December 1906, (Cd.3310), (Cd.3434), (Cd.3531), (Cd.3532), (Cd.3535), (Cd.3557) H. C. 1907, lxx, 549. John Redmond also separately sold two holdings of approximately thirty-three acres for £344 and three holdings of approximately ninety-seven acres for £1,228.

54 ‘J. E. Redmond's estate [1904–5]’ (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15,244/2).

55 Cited in Gwynn, The life of John Redmond, p. 104. See also Irish Independent, 11 Mar. 1909.

56 Irish Times, 28 July 1904.

57 Ibid.

58 In order for an estate to be sold in the Land Judges Court, under section forty of the 1896 Land Act, an absolute order for sale had to be made by the land judge, a receiver had to be appointed and/or the estate had to be insolvent. However, since no such order was ever made, no receiver had ever been appointed, and the Redmond estate had never been declared insolvent, Healy's assertion that it could have been sold to the tenants under section forty of the 1896 Land Act was very doubtful. See also Cherry, Richard R., The Irish land law and land purchase acts 1860 to 1901 (3rd edn,Dublin, 1903), p. 581Google Scholar. Healy later claimed, in a published letter, that Redmond had sent the solicitor V. B. Dillon to the stockbroker James McCann MP to secure a loan of £24,000 in order to take his estate out of the court. A ‘Memorandum as to sale’, which includes a mortgage of £23,241 assigned to James McCann, can be found in the surviving Redmond papers, and suggests that the money may indeed have been used to take the estate out of the Land Judges Court. See Irish Daily Independent and Nation, 27 July 1904, and ‘Memorandum as to sale’ (Nov. 1903) (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 242/2).

59 Hansard 4, cxxxvii, 1132–38 (8 July 1904).

60 Ibid., 1138 (8 July 1904).

61 Punch, or the London Charivari, 127 (July–Dec. 1904), p. 49.

62 Canon Patrick Furlong to John Redmond, 10 July 1904 (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 243/8).

63 John Redmond to Canon Patrick Furlong, 13 July 1904 (copy) (NLI, Redmond papers, MS 15, 243/8).

64 Freeman's Journal, 26 July 1904.

65 Irish Daily Independent and Nation, 30 July 1904.

66 Hansard 4, cxl, 245–6 and 312–15 (11 Aug. 1904).

67 See, for example, Gaelic American, 7 Nov. 1903.

68 Irish World and American Industrial Liberator, 21 Nov. 1903.

69 Irish national movement and leader John E. Redmond should be sustained. Address by John O'Callaghan, national secretary of the United Irish League of America (Boston, MA, 1906).

70 Ibid.

71 Irish Times, 11 Mar. 1907.

72 Irish Independent, 11 Oct. 1907. See also William O'Brien, ‘The breakdown in Ireland part i’, The Nineteenth Century and After, 62 (July 1907), pp. 32–3.

73 United Irishman, 28 Nov. 1908.

74 Ibid.

75 Anglo-Celt, 13 July 1907.

76 Irish Independent, 10 and 25 Apr. 1908.

77 Ibid., 11 Mar. 1909.

78 O'Connor, ‘J. E. Redmond’, p. 71.

79 Irish Times, 4 Jan. 1910. Healy had been returned unopposed in the 1906 election as the IPP did not run a candidate.

80 Freeman's Journal, 7 Jan. 1910.

81 Irish Times, 11 Feb. 1911. Following a narrow victory in January 1910, T. M. Healy would lose his seat to Hazelton in the December election. He was later elected unopposed for the Cork North-East constituency in July 1911.

82 Irish Times, 19 Sept. 1910.

83 Ibid., 28 Nov. 1910.

84 See Freeman's Journal, 3 and 12 Oct. 1911. William O'Brien was later returned for the Cork City constituency.

85 Irish Times, 3 Dec. 1910.

86 Freeman's Journal, 27 Sept. and 14 Dec. 1910.

87 Irish Times, 5 June 1910.

88 Ibid., 19 July 1911.

89 See Irish Times, 22 and 24 July 1911.

90 Quoted in Freeman's Journal, 13 Dec. 1910.

91 Bew, Conflict and conciliation, p. 109.

92 Irish Times., 26 Aug. 1905.

93 Ibid., 14 Sept. 1908.

94 O'Connor, ‘J. E. Redmond’, p. 71.

95 Freeman's Journal, 22 June 1920.

96 O'Brien, ‘The breakdown in Ireland part i’, p. 32.

97 Jackson, Ireland, 1798–1998, p. 159. See also Bew, Conflict and conciliation, and idem, John Redmond.

98 Jackson, Ireland, 1798–1998, p. 148.

99 Times, 13 Feb. 1905.

100 Sheehan, Ireland since Parnell, p. 115.

101 Ibid., pp. 153–4.

102 United Irish League, Mr Redmond's estate. An unscrupulous allegation. The simple facts. Mr Redmond's vindication (Dublin, 1912).

103 Ibid., p. 7.

104 The parliamentary debates, 5th ser., House of Common, 1909–42 (vols. i–cccxciii, London, 1909–42), lv, 1776–88 (21 July 1913).

105 Meleady, Redmond: the Parnellite, pp. 1–2.

106 James K. McGuire, ‘Why England will never grant freedom to Ireland’, The Fatherland, 1 (Dec. 1914), pp. 6–7, idem, The king, the kaiser and Irish freedom (New York, NY, 1915), pp. 65–6.

107 Labhras Mac Fionngail (Laurence Ginnell), The land question (Dublin, no date (1917)), p. 8.

108 Irish Independent, 3 Feb. 1917.

109 Times, 7 Mar. 1918.

110 Blunt, My diaries, p. 331. This Latin phrase roughly translates as ‘an inheritance of damnation’ or ‘ruinous legacy’.

111 Gwynn, The life of John Redmond, p. 103.