Redmond appeals to Irish catholics to come to the aid of Belgium

12,000 Irish Volunteers present at wide-ranging speech

Limerick, 21 December 1914 - John Redmond, leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, has appealed to catholic Irishmen to come to the aid of Belgium in their time of need.

Speaking in front of a crowd of 12,000 people in Limerick, he challenged them not to 'stand by and read of the destruction of Belgian churches and convents, and the murder of priests and nuns'.

He continuted: ‘Was there a Catholic Irishman who would not blush with shame if it could be said that the only Irishmen who come to the succour of the friendly Catholic nation of Belgium were the Orange Volunteers from Ulster?’

Mr. Redmond, who was joined on a podium by the Mayors of Limerick, Cork, Waterford and Clonmel, said there were now 150,000 Irishman in the British Forces and that they had once again proven the valour of their country.

Ireland, he said, was the cradle of the fighting race and would do her duty.

He stressed that the old order had changed forever: ‘The people of Munster fully realise the position of triumphant power in which the national cause of Ireland now stands. They realise the Union is dead. They realise that Ireland has at long last won a free constitution, a better and a freer Constitution than that which Grattan won for Ireland in 1782.’

Mr. Redmond continued: 'We have been very apt in the past to attribute, and in the main rightly to attribute, to the carelessness, some time to the malice, oftener to the ignorance of the English government, all the ills of Ireland - our poverty, our depopulation, our misery, our dissensions and even our religious discords. But let the Irish people realise that that excuse for Irish misery can exist no longer. From now on the British Government will not be responsible. The responsibility will rest with ourselves.’

A confidential report on the Limerick rally. Note the difference between the reported attendance and the police figure. Click on the image to view the report in full. (Image: CO 904/95 p. 515 RIC Confidential Report for Limerick the month of December 1914)

Special trains brought more than 1,000 people from Waterford, 950 from Nenagh, 800 from Ennis, 700 from Tralee and many more hundreds from other towns across Munster and south Leinster. With the contingent from Nenagh were a number of wounded Belgian soldiers.

For two hours before Mr. Redmond spoke, battalions of Irish Volunteers marched out from Limerick to Greenpark Racecourse. Mounted men kept back the huge crowds that thronged the footpaths.

When Mr. Redmond arrived at the racecourse he was warmly cheered by the crowds and he proceeded to inspect the battalions of Volunteers that stretched out before him.

As they left the meeting, the Volunteers were cheered by the assembled crowds.

[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.]