urged preparation for the general election, appealing to Home Rule supporters to remain united: ‘They must try to bring their forces together, for the Sinn Féiners did their traitorous work well.’ He finished on a note of menace: ‘Those men should never have been allowed to poll 700 votes in the City of Waterford, and that must not occur again.’89
The importance of the Hearne family in the Home Rule movement in Waterford was confirmed in the aftermath of the March election, when Richard Hearne was re-elected president of the city branch of the United Ireland League.90 In October, a Young Ireland branch of the league was inaugurated. This was inspired by, and modelled on, the branch founded in Dublin in December 1904, which had as its aim the encouragement of a younger membership in the party,91 so that it could ‘infuse new lifeblood into the increasingly sclerotic arteries of the home rulers’.92 John Hearne was the principal speaker at its inaugural meeting. His association with the branch was consistent with his call on supporters during his March victory speech to organise themselves. According to a newspaper report, he was invited to speak because ‘his speeches made such an impression during the election campaign’.93 Canon Furlong, who presided, said in his short address that ‘the eloquence of Meagher,94 Sexton95 and Leamy96 was not dead while they had John Hearne among them’. He was to deliver a significant speech in terms of outlining his political ideas.
Hearne began by delivering a panegyric to John Redmond, who was described as the ‘embodiment’ of nationalism and whose ‘illustrious’ name would be ‘the bright symbol in hopeful future years’. Once again, it was evident that the emotional attachment of Redmond’s followers to their dead leader was akin to that of Sinn Féiners for the 1916 leaders. Both groups of followers operated in the shadow of dead men and, in their public utterances, these followers were in thrall to their political legacies. Hearne stated that it was ‘fitting to inaugurate a Young Ireland branch in Waterford to carry on the old fight, along the old lines … with the master mind of Redmond still controlling the work and his extended hand pointing the steadfast way forward’. He outlined the purpose of the branch and his words echoed those of Redmond: ‘[it] proclaims the unabated, unbroken and unbreakable allegiance of the youth of our city to the age-old principle of parliamentary representation for Ireland, to work for and to win full and final self-government, absolute and unconditional, for our native land’.
Of course, this ‘full and final government’ was to be achieved in the context of Ireland’s continuing membership of the British Empire. Hearne utterly rejected the charge that Home Rule was setting boundaries to the march of the Irish nation. He argued that the alternative to Home Rule was not an Irish republic: ‘The controversy does not lie between these two alternatives, for the one is a practicable and attainable national policy, the other is a morbid and an amorphous and delusive national idea.’ Elaborating briefly on what he meant as a ‘practicable’ policy, he explained that it was to work to win for Ireland ‘a dignified and self-developing status among free peoples’. This policy he contrasted with Sinn Féin’s ‘political extravagances’ and ‘erroneous and maudlin patriotism’. The supporters of Home Rule were ‘not prepared to continue this turmoil that exists in Ireland today on the steadily receding chance of setting up a national republic somewhere about the time the archangel will set one foot upon the water and the other upon the land’. Rather than pursuing a futile dream of a republic, there were urgent issues demanding attention:
In the financial readjustment that will follow the war, the present ghastly and unreal prosperity of Ireland will be made the pretext for taxing our agricultural and industrial interests out of existence by our enemies in Great Britain and Ireland, unless our position be safeguarded and secured by the united, nation-supported efforts of our people in parliament. The status of the teaching profession, the great invaluable secular asset for the island of saints and scholars, must be uplifted from its present scandalous and disreputable condition. Turn where you will, the immediate needs of the nation call for vigorous and violent parliamentary agitation.
In focusing on taxation and education, Hearne was echoing opinions and concerns articulated by leaders of the Irish Parliamentary Party. John Redmond had spoken about over-taxation and education on a number of occasions, claiming that misguided British policies in these areas had ‘annihilated’ Ireland. Thomas Kettle97 had identified these issues as among the two most pressing ones for a native government.98 In the light of much work to be done, Hearne called on Home Rule supporters to be organised and disciplined. He concluded his speech with a rousing, rhetorical flourish:
Let them concentrate their energies, let them define their aims, let them pursue them in every circumstance of derision and defeat with fearless and steadfast confidence, and let them persevere to the very end. Let them remember, above all, that when the long night is past, and Ireland stands forth again in the white glory of her risen generation as the spiritual law-giver to the free nations of the earth, as the great commercial emporium between the continent of Europe and the cities of the western world, as the leader in the vanguard of the new freedom which is truth and justice and charity, the achievements will be attributable first, above all, to the men who fought with the emblem of peace and goodwill upon their banners, and the virtues of mutual trust and tolerance in their hearts.99
1918 general election
Within a few weeks of this speech, Waterford City was convulsed by the 1918 general election. Again, Richard and John Hearne played prominent roles in the campaign. William Archer Redmond’s selection as its candidate by the local United Ireland League was seconded by the former100 and he also seconded his formal nomination papers.101 John Hearne addressed meetings in the city; he spoke at Grace Dieu on 10 December102 and at a rally in Broad Street on 12 December.103 An indication of his increasing stature in political circles was an invitation to speak at a meeting in the county in support of the candidacy of James John O’Shee, the Home Rule candidate. In its account, the Freeman’s Journal listed the speakers, but made a particular reference to Hearne, commenting that ‘he delivered a powerful speech’.104 Unfortunately, no details were given of this or, indeed, of any of his speeches during the election.
Unsurprisingly, it was a bitter contest marked by incidents of disorder and violence on both sides. Volunteers were again drafted into Waterford to protect Sinn Féin canvassers who were outnumbered by their opponents. One volunteer recorded his impressions of the campaign thus: ‘I was in Waterford city for the most exciting election contest in the 1918 general election … I have never met anything since to equal the fanaticism of the Redmond supporters in that contest, who at times went berserk.’105 On the eve of polling, there were street brawls106 and disorder on polling day itself.107
Redmond retained his seat with 4,915 votes to White’s 4,431. For the Irish Parliamentary Party the election was a disaster nationally: it won six seats as against Sinn Féin’s seventy-three. Though Sinn Féin secured 48 per cent of the total votes cast and the Irish Parliamentary Party 23 per cent, the first-past-the-post system ensured the spoils to the victor. Constitutional nationalism was not dead but it had lost its voice for the moment. As Meleady has written: ‘Thus died, within months of his own death, all of the projects that had absorbed Redmond’s energies – home rule within the empire and the party fashioned to bring it into being.’108 John Hearne and his father also saw their political dreams, beliefs and commitment pushed aside as the country embarked on a new course.
Nearly forty years later, while serving as Irish Ambassador to the United States, John Hearne summed up his experiences of 1918 in an address to American lawyers: ‘I supported a political party which not only lost control of the country the year I joined its political hopefuls, but at the same time passed out of existence.’ He also shared with his audience the assessment of T.M. Healy of his venture into politics: ‘Young man, your political career was short, brilliant and disastrous.’109 While brutal in their directness, Healy’s words were accurate.
John Hearne’s political views: a summary description
At this point it may be useful to review and attempt a summary description of Hearne’s political ideas and views. This presents some real difficulties: ‘The reconstruction of mentalities is notoriously difficult, particularly when few records of intimate thoughts and aspirations, as those which sometimes appear in diaries and personal letters, are available.’110 However, his two election speeches and his