While it has been argued that Free State leaders revelled in the achievement of self-government ‘without acknowledging the groundwork laid by constitutional nationalism, since the days of Isaac Butt’, the same could not be said of the thousands who congregated in Wexford and Ennis for commemorations of John and Willie Redmond in the early 1920s. The success of such events jars with perceptions that Redmond and the Irish Party were either neglected or excoriated in the Free State. Such anniversaries even exceeded commemorations for Redmond's parliamentary idol Parnell, while other prominent commemorations held at the time had the advantage of honouring figures who were seemingly easier subjects of tribute in the post-revolutionary independent state. W.T. Cosgrave delivered the oration at the 1924 event for 1798 republican Wolfe Tone, which included a military demonstration by the Free State army, while remembrance of the youthful founding fathers of the Free State, Collins and Griffith, in front of Leinster House, were understandably major ceremonial events with official endorsement. The Redmond events, on the other hand, demonstrated a strong show of vernacular memory. They underlined the impact which the Redmonds had made on Irish political life, but they also had the potential to challenge historical narratives which suited parties with Sinn Féin derivations.

The revival of the Irish Party's place in public debate was not therefore simply confined to the election of Captain Redmond or Alfie Byrne to the Dáil. Defence of the old party circulated among private and public writings and through extant home rule networks. Much of the historiography and public debate on history in the early Free State understandably dwelt on Ireland's ‘fighting story’. Such a focus was reflective of the political situation outlined in Chapter 1 and the Civil War cleavage would influence commemoration and memory of the Rising and subsequent events for decades.