Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will conclude in one minute. It was unfortunate, as the Minister has stated, that on having Home Rule passed we had the intervention of the Great War and many items were unresolved. Were it not for the intervention of war, John Redmond would probably have been the first Prime Minister of Ireland but things obviously intervened in the meantime. I am glad the decade of commemorations is commemorating so many great events but as a Waterford man I am pleased John Redmond's memory is being commemorated as well as that of the whole Irish Parliamentary Party and their efforts to keep the issue of self-determination on the agenda in very difficult years.