"he was most definitely NOT speaking for the entire nation"
Redmond as a supporter of The Home Rule Bill which kept Ireland in the Empire for an AGREED period.
As for majorities - had the entire island of Ireland been given the vote on independence at the time, it would have voted overwhelmingly for Indendence,
Had Ulster as a whole been given the vote, the result would have been the same.
As it was, the decision of permanent partition was taken unilaterally and secretly on behalf of the Ulster Unionists, who claimed to represent two thirds of the six counties, but in fact were a minority of the population as a whole, a minority of the Protestant population and divided among themselves - a minority of a minority of a minority.
Their power came from the barrel of a gun and they were prepared to plunge the whole of the island of Ireland into civil War (when it was still a part of Britain) in order to mantain that power.
Jim Carroll