John Redmond condemns British government’s ‘panicky violence’ in Ireland
Westminster, 18 October 1916 - The leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party John Redmond has condemned the manner in which the British government handled the Easter Rising in Dublin.
In a major speech to the House of Commons, Mr. Redmond said: ‘At first the Rising was resented by all classes in Ireland. It seemed so reckless, so causeless, and so wicked. Unfortunately, it was dealt with by panicky violence, and indignation arose. Popular sympathy, which was against the Rising on its merits, rapidly and completely turned around. It was a terrible and fatal blunder by the government.’
He further denounced the conduct of the government who he said had given very little credit to the Irish for the numbers in which they had joined the British army.
As he continued his speech, Mr. Redmond launched a bitter attack on the current Irish policy of the British government: ‘They re-established Dublin Castle and put into it a Unionist government. Was it seriously proposed to maintain the present system, to perpetuate martial law, to keep a Unionist Executive in office, and to keep hundreds of unaccused and untried men in prison?’
‘In Ireland, itself, so long as the present state of feeling and irritation existed, so long would everything be wrong. So long as Ireland felt that England was maintaining by martial law a unionist government against the will of the people of Ireland, so long could no improvement be hoped for.’
‘Let the government withdraw martial law, let them put in command of the forces in Ireland some man who had not been connected with the unhappy transactions of the past, let the untried 500 prisoners be released. Let the penal servitude prisoners be treated as political offenders.’
‘Above all, incomparably more important than all, let the government take their courage in both hands and trust the Irish people by putting the Home Rule Act into operation.’
He finished to cheers from nationalist MPs.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
