In his treatment of Redmond, Joseph P. Finnan demonstrates the multiple
identities of the Irish Parliamentary Party as nationalist, liberal, and
Catholic. He looks at Home Rule as part of a federal solution to the
Irish question within the United Kingdom, the reasons for the failure of
Redmond's war policies, and the collapse of the Irish Parliamentary
Party as part of the wider phenomenon of the decline of liberalism
during the Great War. As he looks at Irish nationalism in its worldwide
context, Finnan also shows how Redmond's handling of organizational
problems in America sets the pattern for his later handling of similar
problems in Ireland.