Page "John Redmond" Paragraph 28

Speaking at Maryborough, now Port Laoise, on the 16 August 1914, he addressed a 2, 000 strong assembly of Irish Volunteers, some armed, and according to the report in the Irish Times stated, " recently, I took the liberty of saying in the English Parliament that, for the first time in the history of the connection between England and Ireland, it was safe to-day for England to withdraw her armed troops from our country and that the sons of Ireland themselves, North and South, Catholic and Protestant, and whatever the origin of their race might have been – Williamite, Cromwellian, or old Celtic – standing shoulder to shoulder, would defend the good order and peace of Ireland, and defend her shores against any foreign foe.