irishparliamentaryparty

Mr John Cullinan MP married Rita O'Meara on Wednesday 2nd April 1913 at Ardfinnan Parish Church. Minnie O'Meara was the bridesmaid, and Mr R Burke was best man. The bride was given away by her brother Mr James O'Meara. The bride "carried a handsome shower bouquet of white heather, lily-pf-the-valley, and white roses ... and wore a very beautiful diamond pendant, a gift from the Irish Party." (condensed from the report in Freeman's Journal 3rd April 1913)

The report also lists the 6 clergymen who were present in addition to the Very Reverend Canon Sheedy who performed the ceremony, and at whose house the wedding breakfast took place.

John Cullinan at wikipedia. Rita and Minnie in the 1901 Census.

I think this is at the Parochial House in Ardfinnan. You can see the corner of the house in one of the other photos of the event. Streetview of driveway.

By April the 10th he was back at work in Westminster: Hansard

This is a beautiful studio portrait of a truly great Irishman who has been almost forgotten in light of the Rising and the war that followed it. He had achieved his objective of Home Rule only to be thwarted by the onset of the Great War and the fudge by the Government of the time! " John Edward Redmond (1 September 1856 – 6 March 1918) was an Irish nationalist politician, barrister, MP in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party from 1900 to 1918. He was a moderate, constitutional and conciliatory politician who attained the twin dominant objectives of his political life, party unity and finally in September 1914 achieving the promise of Irish Home Rule under an Act which granted an interim form of self-government to Ireland. However, implementation of the Act was suspended by the intervention of World War I, and ultimately made untenable after the Conscription Crisis of 1918. He was the elder brother of Willie Redmond and father of William Archer Redmond, both of whom were to serve as MPs in his party"

Redmond married twice, his first wife was a Dalton from Australia and she died after having borne three children. He married Ada Beesley and I suspect that this is Ada as there is little resemblance that I can detect between the young lady sitting at his knee and the lady with her hand on his shoulder!

It is a superb portrait! Looking large I feel I can touch his shoes as the detail and 3d quality is excellent.

The date must be before his death for starters!

His first wife Johanna died in 1889, he married Ada in 1899.

A group of Redmondite volunteer Non Commissioned Officers in full regalia! I don't think I've seen anything like this before. All patriotic and well meaning and caught out by the Rising in 1916 and the decision of their leaders to support Britain in WW1 in the hope of gaining Home Rule by peaceful means. Many of them joined the war effort in Europe and lost their lives and many more changed over and took an active part in the war of independence. They are surprisingly well equipped with rifles, those are Lee-Enfield Mark II riflles the standard issue to the British Army at that time though they are sporting Boer War bandoliers.

Swordscookie Thanks, Sean, for condensing 10 turbulent years of Irish history into a few lines, and for the techie information. I've tagged from what you've said. You say "surprisingly well equipped". The rifles may have been up to date, but I wonder how many of those rifles the Volunteers had - not just those that would be displayed for PR reasons in a photo like this?

Swordscookie Pigsticker = Bayonet??

National Library of Ireland on The Commons Of course. The chap near the pointy end better not move in a hurry or he'll be bleeding like a stuck pig!

Swordscookie Thank you for that eloquent and evocative descripion! :)