Redmond Chosen
For nationalist voters in Limerick city and county, John Redmond’s election as chairman of the reunited Irish Parliamentary Party on 6 February 1900 restored a recognised leadership to a movement weakened by almost ten years of division. The choice was made by Irish Members of Parliament at Westminster, not at a meeting in Ireland, but it carried immediate importance for constituencies whose interests depended upon united representation. The parliamentary record also places Redmond that day in proceedings concerning the proposed amalgamation of the Great Southern and Western and Waterford, Limerick and Western railway companies, a question of direct local commercial significance.