Investigating Irish Nationalist Leader John Redmond

Описание: 50-Minute Radio Documentary Investigating The Complex Life Of Irish Nationalist Leader John Redmond

Theme of documentary-
For nearly two decades, from 1900 to 1918, John Redmond was leader of the largest and most powerful Irish political party. Under his leadership, his party was responsible for solid legislative reforms that changed Ireland for the better, such as the 1903 and 1909 Land Purchase Acts which transferred ownership of the bulk of Irish land from elite landlords to poorer tenant farmers. In addition, Redmond forced the British government to agree to the restoration of an Irish parliament in Dublin, thus helping to pave the way to full Irish independence in the years that followed. Yet for all these accomplishments, he’s barely remembered nowadays, and if so, then often in a negative light, due primarily to his championing Irish participation in the British Army in World War One.
This documentary investigates the complex life of Redmond and attempts to reveal who exactly he was. In doing so it answers some of the core questions about him, such as: Was he too conciliatory to British politicians and Ulster Unionism? Did he sell out Irish nationalism to the British war effort in World War One? Was he himself betrayed by Irish republicans when they instigated the 1916 rebellion, and turned Irish public opinion against him, or was his cause already doomed beforehand? Most importantly, was he a Patriot who did right by his country, and so deserves to be better remembered? Or, was he a dupe, who unwittingly played into the hands of the British and helped send thousands of Irishmen to their deaths on the front?
More than anything else, this documentary tries to give a balanced analysis of Redmond, who was the single most important politician in early twentieth century Ireland from 1900 to 1918, and a central player in all the major events of those years.

** To be downloaded for non-profit purposes only, in adherence with the universal truth: “What you do for yourself dies with you, what you do for others remains. It is immortal.”