In 1881, when Redmond entered Parliament, Mr.Dillon was thirty, Mr.T.P.

O'Connor and Mr.Sexton veterans of thirty-three, Mr.Healy twenty-six.

Mr.William O'Brien (who did not come in until 1883) was of the same year as Mr.Dillon.Redmond was younger than any of them, being elected at the age of twenty-four.

Yet nobody then thought it surprising that he should be sent in 1882 to represent the party on a mission to Australia and the United States at a most difficult time.

The Phoenix Park murders had created widespread indiscriminating anger against all Irish Nationalists throughout the Empire, and Redmond found it difficult to secure even a hall to speak in.