Sir, - In the wake of John Hume's retirement as leader of the SDLP many commentators have referred to him as the man who redefined the ideal of Irish politics as unity of the people rather than a territorial claim.
Might I point out that he was not the first to espouse that view? On the death of Major Willie Redmond MP, soldier and brother of John Redmond of the Irish Party, Francis Ledwidge expressed his condolences in a letter to a local paper as follows:
"May I beg to be associated from here though far removed from politics and the little things that used to matter. Nationalist soldiers deplore the fate of Redmond as a national loss. There is some consolation in the hope that the victory for which he laboured so earnestly in Ireland - a united people - will soon be achieved and the great example he set to the manhood of Ireland, when the tramp of the world's common enemy was heard, will also have come to fruition.
"Comfort to his bereaved relatives must seem almost impossible now even as it is to the Nation. . .His name will evermore inspire new enterprise and go down in history to the glory and delectation of posterity." - Lance Corporal F.E. Ledwidge, 26th June, 1917.
Ledwidge was killed himself the following month.
The name of Willie Redmond did not go down in history to the glory of posterity, but perhaps now in these times of enlightenment we may soon see a re-evaluation of the Redmond brothers and their contribution to Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Liam O'Meara, Chairman, The Inchicore Ledwidge Society, Ballyfermot, Dublin 10.