John Redmond's childhood was largely spent on the Wexford coast at Ballytrent, the home of his father's brother. Educated at Clongowes by the Jesuits, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1874, but in 1876 went to live with his father in London during the sessions of parliament, and in 1880 was nominated to a clerkship in the House of Commons. He was indeed educated largely in the House of Commons itself for the career to which hereditary tradition directed him. William Redmond, though he supported Butt's authority, was on friendly terms with Charles Stewart Parnell [q.v.]; and evidently his son's sympathy was captured by the new leader, for at the general election of 1880 when Parnell was mobbed in Enniscorthy, John Redmond was felled at his side by a stone. When the elder Redmond died in November 1880, his son would have succeeded to him, but that Parnell specially desired to bring in T. M. Healy, thus, as he said when the split began, ‘rebuking, restraining, and setting by the prior right of my friend, Jack Redmond.’ Two months later the borough of New Ross in county Wexford became vacant. Redmond was elected unopposed. Hurrying to Westminster, he arrived at 8 o'clock in the morning of 2 February 1881; the House had been forty hours in session, and an hour later Speaker Brand closured further debate. Next day when all the Irish members present were suspended for refusal to obey the rules of the House, Redmond made his maiden speech—a single sentence of protest—before he was removed by the serjeant at arms.
After this turbulent beginning, Redmond's part in parliament was quiet. But his talent as a speaker was utilized on English platforms, and his power of persuasive and moderate statement caused him to be chosen in 1882 for a mission to the Irish of Australia, where much opposition to the Irish cause had to be overcome. The Phoenix Park murders had roused indignation, and many who had promised support to the mission drew back. Sir Henry Parkes, the prime minister of New South Wales, proposed that Redmond should be expelled from the colony, but the motion was defeated. The Irish working-men in the colony stood by him and saved the situation, until a telegram arrived exculpating the Irish parliamentary party. Gradually the tide turned, and ultimately Redmond collected £15,000 before going on to America, where another £15,000 was raised. The whole tour occupied two years. He had been joined by his brother W. H. K. Redmond [q.v.], who during his absence in Australia was chosen member for Wexford, Healy having won an Ulster seat. So began a comradeship in service between the brothers, which was strengthened by the fact that in Australia they married near kinswomen. John Redmond's wife was Johanna, daughter of James Dalton, of Orange, New South Wales; their marriage took place in 1883. While Parnell's attitude to England was that of Irish Americans, Redmond's, through the affinities he formed in this early stage, was like that of the Australian Irish, a nationalism devoid of hostility to the British Empire.
The fight was hot in the years after 1886. In 1888, during Mr. Balfour's coercive rule, Redmond had experience of jail, being sentenced to five weeks' imprisonment on a charge of intimidation. But while the prestige of Parnell and his party was at its height, John Redmond did not rank in popularity, fame, or notoriety with Mr. Sexton, Mr. Dillon, Mr. William O'Brien, Mr. Healy, or Mr. T. P. O'Connor. No man was ever less ambitious. He was contented to be a member of a strong and successful movement, useful in the team but not seeking to be foremost in anything. Nor did he ever push his chances at the bar, to which he was called in 1886. He had some private means, and was happily married. He lived in Dublin at Leeson Park, where his three children, a son and two daughters, were born within this period; and he and his wife were much in the society of other households belonging to the parliamentary group. But Redmond's social circle was always limited. In London, during the sessions, he adhered strictly to the usage which grew up during the time when Irish members were Ishmaelites in the House of Commons, and he went to no houses but those of Irish sympathizers. In Dublin, the political struggle, then virtually a class-war, estranged him from his own class and even from his kin. His childless uncle, the owner of Ballytrent, in leaving him the family estate, so arranged his will that the inheritance was financially and politically a burden.
The closest of ties, however, bound him to his brother, and the two doubly related households lived in the utmost intimacy. When, in 1889, Mrs. John Redmond died, her three children were mainly in the care of Mrs. William Redmond. But before this bereavement, the crisis had come which called John Redmond to exert for the first time all his forces. On 17 November 1890 a verdict was given against Parnell in the undefended O'Shea
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