Chapter VI: The Raising of the Irish Brigades (1)

I

At the ending of the long session of Parliament in 1914 there was a curious scene in the House of Commons, where members were crowded to assist at the formal passing of the Irish and Welsh Bills. On the adjournment, Mr. Will Crooks, from his seat on the front bench below the gangway, called out, "Mr. Speaker, would it be in order to sing 'God save the King'?" and without more ado uplifted his voice and the House chimed in. There must have been strange thoughts in the minds of Redmond, of Mr. Dillon, and others of the Irish, standing in the places where they had fought so long and bitter a battle, where they had been so often the object of fierce reproaches, whence they had hurled back so many taunts, now to find themselves the centre of congratulation, and joined with English members in singing on the floor of the House that national anthem which in Ireland had been for decades a symbol of ascendancy, rigidly tabooed by every Nationalist.

When the singing ended, Mr. Crooks's genial voice rose again. "God save Ireland!" he shouted.

"And God save England too!" Redmond answered.

That exchange of words outside the period of debate is, contrary to usage but very properly, recorded in Hansard.

From this time forth Redmond was on his trial. He had given pledges; he must make good to Ireland and make good to Great Britain. For the first, since Home Rule could not be brought into operation, he must secure recognition of the National Volunteers, must establish and regularize their status; for the second, he must obtain recruits as Ireland's contribution to the war. The two proposals were in his view--and indeed were in reality--inseparably connected. For both, in order to succeed, he needed to have the cordial support of his fellow-countrymen; for both, he needed whole-hearted co-operation from the British Government. It would be too much to say that Ireland backed him cordially; but for the limitation of Ireland's response the fault lay chiefly and primarily with the Government, which failed him completely. The War Office could not actually and directly oppose his effort to raise troops; what they could do was to hamper him by the adoption of wrong methods and the refusal of right ones. Yet in that part of his task which involved making good to England, laying England and the Empire under a debt of living gratitude, his appeal was made to Ireland, and he succeeded so far that only Ireland herself could have destroyed his work. But on the other point, which involved gaining satisfaction for Ireland, the appeal was made to Government and the refusal was complete. It was worse than absolute, for it was tainted with bad faith. Mr. Asquith as Prime Minister accepted the mutual covenant which Redmond had proposed, and allowed Lord Kitchener to disallow fulfilment of it.

Redmond's view was not limited to Ireland's interest. No man living in these islands felt more keenly for the great underlying principles at issue in the war. His mission, as he conceived it, was to lead Ireland to serve those principles. But it was futile to suppose that he could secure for England all that England expected of Ireland if he could obtain from England nothing of what Ireland asked. Redmond wanted recognition for the Volunteers chiefly as a basis upon which Ireland could feel that she was building an Irish army worthy of her record in arms; and this army would be no mean assistance to the nations allied against Germany's aggression. Considering all the facts which have to be set out, the true cause for wonder is not the limitation but the extent of his success.

There was neither delay nor uncertainty in his exposition of Ireland's duty. Quite literally, he seized the first chance that came to his hand. He left London on the evening when the Act was signed, motored to Holyhead, as he liked to do, in the big car which his friends had presented to him--it was the only material testimonial which he ever received--and crossed by the night boat, driving on in the morning to Aughavanagh. When he reached the Vale of Ovoca he found a muster of the East Wicklow Volunteers. These were the nearest thing to him in all the force--his own friends and neighbours from the Wicklow hills. Aughrim, his post-town at the foot of his own particular valley, had its company, commanded by a friend of his, the local schoolmaster--typical of what was best in the Volunteers, a keen Gaelic Leaguer, tireless in, work for the old language and old history. This man, well on in the forties, but mountain-bred and hardy, had thrown himself into the new movement--little guessing that a few months would see him a private in the British Army, or that he would come with honour to command a company of a famous Irish regiment on the battlefields of a European war.

If it had been only for the sake of Captain MacSweeny (he was then, of course, only a captain of Volunteers), I think Redmond would have stopped. But it was a gathering of many friends, who pressed him to speak at a moment when his heart was full. Grave results followed from what he said that day; but a week sooner or later he was bound to say these things, and the results were bound to follow. Here is the pith of his utterance:

"I know that you will make efficient soldiers. Efficient for what?
Wicklow Volunteers, in spite of the peaceful happiness and beauty
of the scene in which we stand, remember this country at this
moment is in a state of war, and the duty of the manhood of Ireland
is twofold. Its duty is at all cost to defend the shores of Ireland
from foreign invasion. It has a duty more than that, of taking care
that Irish valour proves itself on the field of war as it has
always proved itself in the past. The interests of Ireland, of the
whole of Ireland, are at stake in this war. This war is undertaken
in defence of the highest principles of religion and morality and
right, and it would be a disgrace for ever to our country, a
reproach to her manhood, and a denial of the lessons of her
history, if young Ireland confined their efforts to remaining at
home to defend the shores of Ireland from an unlikely invasion, or
should shrink from the duty of proving on the field of battle that
gallantry and courage which have distinguished their race all
through all its history. I say to you, therefore, your duty is
twofold. I am glad to see such magnificent material for soldiers
around me, and I say to you: go on drilling and make yourselves
efficient for the work, and then account for yourselves as men, not
only in Ireland itself, but wherever the firing-line extends, in
defence of right and freedom and religion in this war."

On the following Thursday Mr. Asquith, as Redmond had publicly urged him to do, came to Dublin and spoke at the Mansion House with the Lord Mayor in the chair. Mr. Dillon and Mr. Devlin, as well as Redmond, were on the same platform and spoke also. The papers of September 25th, which reported the speeches of this notable gathering, contained also a manifesto from twenty members of the original Committee of the Volunteers, definitely breaking with Redmond's policy and taking his speech to the Wicklow Volunteers as their cause of action. Having recited a version of the facts which led up to the inclusion of Redmond's nominees on the Committee, it continued:

"Mr. Redmond, addressing a body of Irish Volunteers on last Sunday,
has now announced for the Irish Volunteers a policy and programme
fundamentally at variance with their own published and accepted
aims and objects, but with which his nominees are, of course,
identified. He has declared it to be the duty of the Irish
Volunteers to take foreign service under a Government which is not
Irish. He has made this announcement without consulting the
Provisional Committee, the Volunteers themselves, or the people of
Ireland, to whose service alone they are devoted."

The next paragraph announced the expulsion of Redmond's nominees and the reconstitution of the Committee as it existed before their admission. Six resolutions followed. It is noteworthy that the attitude taken up with regard to autonomy was simply "to oppose any diminution of the measure of Irish self-government which now exists as a Statute on paper," and to repudiate any "consent to the legislative dismemberment of Ireland." There was no word of an Irish Republic and no explicit claim beyond immediate operation for the Home Rule Act.

Ireland's attitude towards the war was defined by a resolution:

"To declare that Ireland cannot, with honour or safety, take part
in foreign quarrels otherwise than through the free action of a
National Government of her own; and to repudiate the claim of any
man to offer up the blood and lives of the sons of Irishmen and
Irishwomen to the service of the British Empire while no National
Government which could speak and act for the people of Ireland is
allowed to exist."

Mr. Asquith, when he spoke on Thursday night, must have been informed that this split was imminent, and he spoke with a view to that situation. He said:

"Speaking here in Dublin, I address myself for a moment
particularly to the National Volunteers, and I am going to ask them
all over Ireland--not only them, but I make the appeal to them
particularly--to contribute with promptitude and enthusiasm a large
and worthy contingent of recruits to the second new army of half a
million which is now growing up, as it were, out of the ground. I
should like to see, and we all want to see, an Irish Brigade--or,
better still, an Irish Army Corps. Don't let them be afraid that by
joining the colours they will lose their identity and become
absorbed in some invertebrate mass, or what is perhaps equally
repugnant, be artificially redistributed into units which have no
national cohesion or character.

"We shall, to the utmost limit that military expediency will allow,
see that men who have been already associated in this or that
district in training and in common exercises shall be kept together
and continue to recognize the corporate bond which now unites them.
One thing further. We are in urgent need of competent officers, and
when the officers now engaged in training these men prove equal to
the test, there is no fear that their services will not be gladly
and gratefully retained. But, I repeat, gentlemen, the Empire needs
recruits and needs them at once. They may be fully trained and
equipped in time to take their part in what may prove to be the
decisive field in the greatest struggle of the history of the
world. That is our immediate necessity, and no Irishman in
responding to it need be afraid he is jeopardizing the future of
the Volunteers.

"I do not say, and I cannot say, under what precise form of
organization it will be, but I trust and I believe--indeed, I am
sure--that the Volunteers will become a permanent, an integral and
characteristic part of the defensive forces of the Crown.

"I have only one more word to say. Though our need is great, your
opportunity is also great. The call which I am making is backed by
the sympathy of your fellow-Irishmen in all parts of the Empire and
of the world.... There is no question of compulsion or bribery.
What we want, what we ask, what we believe you are ready and eager
to give, is the freewill offering of a free people."

This was a double pledge as to Redmond's two objects. It promised,
first, that every inducement should be given to join a corps
distinctively Irish and having national cohesion and character;
secondly, that the Volunteers should obtain recognition as part of
the defensive forces of the Crown. Over and above this was an
assurance of enormous importance. There was to be no question of
compulsion. Nothing was asked, nothing would be asked, but "the
freewill offering of a free people."

Lord Meath followed, a representative figure of Unionist Ireland and a most zealous promoter of recruiting. Then Redmond spoke, and as usual dwelt on Ireland's contribution to the forces of the Regular Army so far actually engaged, which was fully adequate in numbers. "As to quality, let Sir John French answer for that, and let my friend and fellow-countryman Admiral Beatty from Wexford speak from Heligoland."--Nothing gave him more pleasure at all times than to dwell on the personal achievement of Irishmen; his voice kindled when he named such names.--He went on to give confident assurance, having in it the note of defiant answer to the revolt which had been raised:

"I tell the Prime Minister he will get here plenty of recruits and of the best material. We will maintain here in Ireland intact and inviolate our Irish National Volunteers, and in my judgment that body of Volunteers will prove to be an inexhaustible source of strength to the new army corps and the new army that is being created."

Then, with disdainful reference to the "little handful of pro-Germans" who had "raised their voices in Ireland," he declared that it would be no less absurd to consider them representative than to take General Beyers and not General Botha as expressing the sentiments of South Africa.

Yet, as we know, the danger in South Africa was serious, and South Africa possessed freedom, not the promise of freedom. General Botha had what Redmond was denied--power to act and act promptly. In Ireland the menace was far less grave at this moment, but it was destined to become overpowering because Redmond lacked the power to deal with the situation in his own way. Already much had been lost. Between the declaration of war and the passage of the Home Rule Bill more than six weeks had been allowed to elapse in which nothing was done in response to Redmond's proposal, except the purely negative decision that Territorials should not be sent to garrison Ireland. This inevitably strengthened the hand of those who never liked the offer he had made. From the first an accent of dissent from the new policy was plainly distinguishable in what came from the Committee of the Volunteers. Mr. Bulmer Hobson says of the famous speech of August 4th:

"This statement amounted to an unconditional offer of the services
of the Irish Volunteers to the English Government, and was made
without any consultation with the Volunteers themselves. The first
that members of the Provisional Committee heard of their being
offered to the Government was when they read it in the newspapers,
and Mr. Redmond's nominees on the Committee were as much surprised
as the older members. At the next meeting of the Standing
Committee, held a couple of days later, the nominated members
strove hard to induce us to endorse Redmond's offer. The utmost
they could get, however, notwithstanding their clear party
majority, was a statement of 'the complete readiness of the Irish
Volunteers to take joint action with the Ulster Volunteer Force for
the defence of Ireland.' Further than that the older members of the
Committee declined to go. This statement in reality committed, and
was meant to commit, the Volunteers to nothing, though it was
interpreted by the Press as a complete endorsement of Mr. Redmond's
policy."

At the beginning of the war, there were two strong currents of desire in the Volunteer body and its backers. One sought that the Volunteers should retain complete freedom of action and in no way be brought under the War Office. The other craved to see them trained and armed with the least possible delay. Colonel Moore,[5] who was the chief of their military staff at this time, says Mr. Hobson, saw no way of accomplishing the latter object without the assistance of the military authorities. Other men, who had come in since Redmond's speech, impressed on the public that without legal recognition from the Crown no Volunteer could act against the Germans in case of a landing without exposing himself and others to the penalties which Germany was inflicting in Belgium wherever the civilian population fired a shot. As a result, negotiations were opened in August 1914 with the Irish Command, and Colonel Moore, in concert with General Paget's staff, drew up a scheme for training the Irish and Ulster Volunteers and for using them when trained for a short term of garrison duty in Ireland. The scheme was submitted to the Provisional Committee, who added conditions designed to lead to rejection by the War Office; and in the upshot Colonel Moore's proposals were refused by Lord Kitchener on one side and by the Standing Committee of Volunteers on the other.

Redmond was of course aware of the failure of this scheme, and took up the matter personally. He wrote to the Chief Secretary:

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

_September 9, 1914. Private_.

MY DEAR MR. BIRRELL,

I am very anxious to put shortly before you on paper my views with
reference to the Volunteer question, which we discussed with the
Prime Minister to-day. I take so strong a view on the subject that
I think I must ask you to show him this letter and to urge upon him
the importance of getting the War Office to move. I know the
influences that are at work in the War Office throwing cold water
on the Volunteers and causing intense dissatisfaction in Ireland by
unnecessary delays.

What I suggest should be done is this: There are two separate
questions: (1) Recruits; and (2) Volunteers for Home Defence.

The first absolutely depends upon the way in which the second is
treated. If the existing Volunteer organization is ignored and
sneered at and made little of, recruiting in the country will not
go ahead.

On the other hand, if the Volunteers are properly treated, I
believe that recruiting will go ahead.

Now, my suggestion is this: that an announcement should be made
immediately that the War Office are taking steps to assist in the
equipment and arming and instructing of a certain number of the
Irish Volunteers for Home Defence, and that this will be done
without interfering in any way with the character or organization
of the existing Volunteer Force.

Carrying out this programme will really not stand in the way of the
preparing of the new Army. All that is required is a few thousand
rifles, and there are plenty of them in the military stores in
Ireland at this moment which are not being used and will not be
used, because they are too old, in the training of the recruits,
but which would be quite suitable for making a beginning at any
rate in the drilling of the Volunteers. It might be stated that
they would be replaced by better weapons gradually, as soon as the
rush was over.

A few instructors should be placed at the disposal of the
Volunteers.[6]

If this is done, intense satisfaction will be given all through the
country, and the pride and sentiment of the Volunteers will be
touched, and the appeal for recruits generally through the country,
and even in the ranks of the Volunteers themselves, will, I am
confident, be responded to.

But, as I have said, if this course is not taken, inevitably
recruiting will flag.

I would earnestly beg of you to take this matter vigorously in
hand, so that some satisfactory announcement may be made before I
return to Ireland next week.

Very truly yours,

RIGHT HON. A. BIRRELL, M.P. J.E. REDMOND.

Mr. Asquith's speech on September 24th was at least an indication that the Prime Minister desired to act in the spirit of Redmond's suggestions. The Chief Secretary was of the same disposition. But neither of them was able to control the imperious colleague who now had taken charge of the Army, and who in the most critical moment thwarted effectually the designs of Liberal statesmanship in Ireland.

After Redmond's death an "Appreciation" published in _The Times_ (with the signature "A.B.,") by Mr. Birrell, contained this passage:

"He felt to the very end, bitterly and intensely, the stupidity of
the War Office. Had he been allowed to deflect the routine
indifference and suspicion of the War Office from its old ruts into
the deep-cut channels of Irish feelings and sentiments, he might
have carried his countrymen with him, but he jumped first and tried
to make his bargain afterwards and failed accordingly. English
people, as their wont is, gushed over him as an Irish patriot and
flouted him as an Irish statesman. Had he and his brother been put
in charge of the Irish Nationalist contingents, and an Ulster man,
or men, been put in a corresponding position over the Irish
Protestant contingents, all might have gone well. Lord Kitchener,
who was under the delusion that he was an Irishman no less than
Redmond, was the main, though not the only obstacle in the path of
good sense and good feeling."

Yet it is, to say the least, not clear why Lord Kitchener should have been allowed to be an obstacle. Redmond was not fortunate in his allies. He had set an example of generous courage; it was not followed by British statesmen.

From the very outset of his campaign in Ireland he had two hostilities to meet. The first was that of the section which had always been opposed to him--the Unionist party. Into this block he had already driven a wedge. The _Irish Times_, its principal organ in the South and West, was now backing him heartily, and, as has been seen, not a few leading Unionists were doing their utmost to assist. But the real opposition, that of Ulster, was in no way conciliated. On September 28th, "Covenant Day," a great meeting was held at which the Ulstermen denounced what they called the Government's treachery, and declared their implacable determination never to submit to Home Rule. Mr. Bonar Law for the British Unionists proclaimed that whereas heretofore his party were willing to be bound by the verdict of a general election, they now withdrew that condition, and without any reservation would support Ulster in whatever course it chose to adopt.

In a purely partisan sense these speeches, and this attitude, did Redmond no harm in his campaign with Nationalists. When a certain section of Home Rulers were clamouring that he had been tricked and betrayed by the Government, had given all and got nothing, it was a good rejoinder to point to the fact that in Ulster's opinion the opportunity had been used to gain an unfair victory for Home Rule. But Redmond from the outbreak of the war had no concern with party or partisan arguments. He wanted a real truce, an end of bitterness, in Ireland.

There was, moreover, a feature of the Ulster propaganda in these days which disturbed him. General Richardson, a retired Indian officer, who had chief command of the Ulster Volunteer Force, in appealing for recruits, urged the Volunteers "to recollect the events of March last and what the Navy and Army did for Ulster. They came to the help of Ulster in the day of trouble, and would come again." He added his assurance to the Volunteers that "when the war was over, and their ranks were reinforced by some 12,000 men, thoroughly well trained and with vast field experience, they would return to the attack and relegate Home Rule to the devil."

It did not assist Redmond in gaining recruits for the Army that a general officer should represent the services as trusty and proven allies of gentlemen whose leading idea in life was to relegate Home Rule to such a destination The average Nationalist civilian did not easily discriminate between what was said by a retired officer out of commission and what was said by officers in uniform. There was a tendency to regard General Richardson as speaking of right for the Army--for which Nationalist recruits were desired.

The Liberal Government could not help Redmond to allay Ulster or Unionist hostility. One thing they could do; they could ensure that whatever concession or privilege was extended to those who followed Sir Edward Carson should be equally accorded to those who followed Redmond. This one thing which they could have done they did not do. They allowed the War Office to increase the arrogance of the Ulstermen and to weaken Redmond's hand, giving Ulster special privileges, which inevitably created jealousy and suspicion in Nationalist Ireland--as shall be shown in detail.

But first it is necessary to indicate the other element of hostility--far more serious than that of Ulster, because it challenged Redmond's leadership. It was that of the extremist group, which rapidly began to welcome German successes, not for any love to Germany but because it could not conceive of any hope for Ireland except in the weakening or Destruction of British power. These men, as been already seen, had acquired an influence in the Volunteer Force out of all proportion to their numbers, owing to the fact that the Irish party had stood aloof from the movement in its early stages. Professor MacNeill said later that but for the Gaelic League and the Gaelic Athletic Association there would have been no Irish Volunteers. The bulk of both these bodies was always antagonistic to the parliamentary movement. When their opposition openly declared itself, in consequence of the East Wicklow speech, Redmond was not sorry to have a clear issue raised, involving a formal breach. In a public letter to Colonel Moore he wrote that he read "this extraordinary manifesto with feelings of great relief," because communications from all parts of the country had forced him to the conclusion that so long as the signatories to this document remained members of the governing body, "no practical work could be done to put the Volunteer organization on a real business basis."

By a real "business basis" he meant that the Volunteers should be made a defensive force to act in concert with the troops engaged in the war. That was the clear issue. You must be for the troops or against them. In these days the official attitude of those who signed the dissenting manifesto was that Ireland should be neutral. But at such a crisis, as Mr. Dillon said in a telling phrase, a man who calls himself a neutral "is either an enemy or a coward."

It became only too clear later that we had to do with a body of men who were enemies and were certainly not cowards. Their number at this moment was difficult to determine. What immediately revealed itself was that the vast majority of the Volunteers, when choice was forced on them, adhered to Redmond.

The case of my own constituency, Galway City, may be given as typical, though rather of the towns than of the country. The country-side was apathetic; the towns were both for and against Redmond's policy. In Galway, Sinn Fein had a strong hold on the college of the National University, but, on the other hand, the depot of the Connaught Rangers was just outside the city at Renmore, and that famous corps had many partisans; while in the fishing village of the Claddagh nearly every man was a naval reservist.

I came to Galway on the day the Home Rule Bill was signed and attended a couple of Volunteer drills, where I noted the activity of some young men going round with a password: "For whom will you serve?" "For Ireland only." After the publication of the dissenting manifesto a Committee was called, and I obtained leave to be present. There was a sharp discussion, and at the finish the vote was a tie, whether to support Redmond or the dissentients. This did not at all please me or my friends, so we determined to have a big general meeting to see on which side public support really lay. Everybody was invited, and a great many people could not get into the hall; this mattered the less because the Sinn Feiners cut the electric wires leading to the building and plunged us in darkness; luckily, it was a fine night, and we took the meeting outside with great success. A couple of interruptions were drastically dealt with, and complete peace then prevailed. Two of the four county members were among the many speakers, and the last man to address the meeting was a wounded Connaught Ranger back from the line. We cheered for the Rangers, and then we cheered for the King; the local band was present, but unable, though quite willing, to assist at this point. "Isn't it a pity," the chief bandsman said to me, "there was three of us knew the tune well, but they've all gone to the front, and not a one of us ever heard it."

But as a net result the original Volunteer organization was killed. The pick of the young and keen who were with us went off to the war; the young and keen who stayed kept up an organization with very different purposes. There was plenty of material in Galway and everywhere else to build up a volunteer corps such as Redmond desired to see; but the organizing spirits were in the opposite camp, and our friends did not interest themselves in what seemed to be a kind of play-acting when such serious business was afoot in the world. Had they been set to duties of coast patrol, under officers who were available on the spot, and given clear recognition as part of the defensive forces, their body would have been alive and active; as it was, it atrophied and grew inert. Broadly speaking, the same was true all over the country. Redmond was willing to make bricks for the War Office to build with; they insisted that he should make them without straw.

Facts directly connected with recruiting ultimately convinced the British public that the War Office had spoilt a great opportunity in Ireland. But the fundamental blunder, the deep-seated cause which undermined the force of Redmond's appeal, was the refusal of recognition to the National Volunteers and the failure to fulfil the promise held out in Mr. Asquith's Dublin speech.

II

The other respects in which the War Office crippled the Nationalist efforts after recruiting were matters of detail, not of principle. The first and best help which Redmond might expect would have come from his colleagues in the party; and all the recruiting authorities in Ireland should have been directed to secure that help locally. No such step was taken. No attempt was made to enlist Nationalists of position as patrons of the recruiting campaign. In Catholic Nationalist districts it was the rule rather than the exception to select gentlemen of the Protestant Church, and of strong Unionist opinions, as recruiting officers. If Catholic Nationalists had been selected as the official agents to assist in raising the Ulster Division, there would have been an outcry, and very rightly; it would have been contrary to common sense. But the War Office, always even obsequiously ready to consider the Ulstermen's point of view, completely lacked sympathy for that of the majority in Ireland. In some cases the choice of a man locally unpopular on public grounds afforded--to speak plainly--an excuse for those leading Nationalists who were loath to depart from all the tradition of their lifetime. Some of Redmond's colleagues held that they had been "extreme men" all their lives, and they thought it too hard that they should be expected to ask Irishmen to join the English Army. Yet these same men would have worked enthusiastically for the Volunteers, and by sympathy for their comrades who went out could have been led into a very different attitude.

Many of them, too, felt an honourable scruple about asking others to do what they could not do themselves. As a parliamentary group we were under a singular disability. In its early days the Irish party had been, what Sinn Fein is now, a party of the young. But so strong was the tie of gratitude that service in its ranks became an inheritance, and in most cases a man once elected stayed on till he died or resigned. By 1914, of all parties in the House we had by far the largest proportion of men over military age. I question whether three out of the seventy could have passed the standard then exacted--for two or three of the younger men were medically unfit. In these circumstances the War Office would have been well advised to waive a regulation or two to facilitate matters; but the rigour of the rules was maintained. One of my colleagues, a man in the early forties, offered to join as a private; he was refused. In my own case a similar refusal was based on Lord Kitchener's personal opinion against that of the Under-secretary for War, to whom, as a personal friend, I had written; it took nearly six months to get the decision altered; and by that time the value of example was much depreciated. The beginning was the chance to give a lead.

Far graver was the intolerable delay in forming a corps which should appeal definitely to Irish national and Nationalist sentiment. The First Army included one Irish Division--the Tenth, destined to a splendid history, under a popular commander, Sir Bryan Mahon; but it had no specially Nationalist colour, so to say, and no connection with the Irish Volunteers. Redmond wanted the counterpart of what had been readily granted to Sir Edward Carson; and this was what Mr. Asquith had outlined in his speech at Dublin. The Sixteenth Division already existed; its commander was appointed on September 17th. But the first step to give it the desired character was not taken without long delay, and much heart-burning and confusion resulted.

Part of the confusion is attributable to the fact that Redmond, in his desire to touch the historic memories connected with the famous corps which attained its crowning glory at Fontenoy, always spoke of "a new Irish Brigade." But at the Mansion House meeting Mr. Asquith spoke of something more than a brigade--an army corps; and Redmond, following him, instantly accepted the idea. "I used the word 'brigade' in my ignorance--I meant an Irish army corps." There was always present to his mind the hope that in some larger formation the Ulster Division might find itself shoulder to shoulder with other Irish troops.

Yet intending recruits were puzzled, and Lord Meath, writing to Redmond on October 10th that he had formed a Recruiting Committee in Dublin "for the purpose of endeavouring to raise the Irish Army Corps for which you spoke," reported that men came in asking to know where was the Irish Brigade, and refused to join anything else. Lord Meath suggested that Redmond should obtain from Lord Kitchener "an official declaration sanctioning the enlistment of Irishmen in an Irish Brigade, or Irish Army Corps, consisting exclusively of Irish officers and men." He wrote again on the 14th, asking that the Prime Minister himself should be approached, and on the 17th, in reply to some communication from Redmond: "I hope you will insist on some official and unmistakable statement that your request has been granted."

The tone of these letters, coming from no fire-eating Nationalist but the staunchest of Unionist peers, is sufficient proof that Lord Kitchener's action or inaction was resented by those who knew Ireland and had the best interests of Ireland at heart. The _Irish Times_ wrote in the same sense; and on October 19th a formal attack was launched in the _Daily Chronicle_, which drew a sharp contrast with the treatment accorded to Ulster. "Up to this hour," the writer said, "the Irish Division asked for by Mr. Redmond has been refused sanction by the War Office." This was an overstatement, but it was true that up to this time such a belief naturally prevailed, because the War Office could not be induced to make the desired announcement that sanction had been given. Moreover, although the concession had been made, it was made in a very different way from that used in dealing with Sir Edward Carson. Redmond had no voice whatever in the organization. The choice of a divisional commander was of infinite importance; and it fell upon Lieutenant-General Sir Lawrence Parsons, K.C.B., an artillery officer of great distinction, a man of wide general knowledge and culture and of strongly marked individuality. Yet his individuality did not make him easy for Redmond to work with. He was not simply a typical professional soldier of the old Army; he was an idealist in his profession; and part of the professional soldier's idealism is to resent and despise political considerations. He recognized that Redmond had spoken and acted with a statesman's vision; he failed to recognize that in many matters political tactics are necessary to carry out a statesman's plan. Also, it was very difficult for him or for any other professional soldier to realize that recruiting, under such conditions as then prevailed, was a politician's task, not a soldier's, even in Great Britain; and that this was tenfold more true of Ireland.

The point requires to be emphasized, because it applies to a greater personage--Lord Kitchener himself. I believe that Lord Kitchener honestly desired the success of Redmond's mission. To my personal knowledge he sent for one officer long known to him and took him from a command in which he was comfortably placed and sent him, against his will, to raise one of our battalions in a difficult area. The choice was absolutely sound, and success was achieved by methods which did not always follow strictly the letter of King's Regulations. But these departures from rule were quite in accordance with the spirit of the old Army, and Lord Kitchener was ready to stand over any of them. He would do the best he could for our division on the old lines. He would, I am certain, have said that he had done the best thing possible for it in appointing to the command an Irishman who was a first-rate soldier and a first-rate man to supervise the training of troops. So far as my judgment is able to go, the credit for making the Sixteenth Division what it was when we went to France belongs chiefly to the divisional general under whom we trained.

General Parsons had the gift, which appears to be rare in soldiers, of imparting ideas not merely about discipline but about the art of war; and he had an enthusiasm which communicated itself. But these were the qualities of the soldier in his own sphere, with which Redmond had no contact. What Redmond knew was the writer of letters which now lie before me. Running through them all is the tone of a soldier in authority who accepts assistance from a friendly, influential, well-meaning but imperfectly instructed civilian. There is no recognition of the fact that Redmond was the accepted leader of a Volunteer Force numbering over a hundred thousand men; no glimpse of any perception that morally, and almost officially, Redmond was the accredited head of the nation in whose name the division was being raised--a nation to which the statutory right of self-government had just been accorded.

The whole position was extraordinary. Legally and theoretically, Redmond was a simple member of Parliament. Practically and morally, he was the head of Ireland, exactly as Botha was of South Africa; and he was trying to do without legal powers what Botha was doing by means of them. He was far more than the Leader of the Opposition in Great Britain; for in Ireland there really was no Government. Moral authority, which must proceed from consent of the governed, the Irish Government had not possessed for many a long day; but its legal status had been unimpeachable. Now even that was gone; it was merely a stop-gap contrivance, carrying on till the Act of Parliament should receive fulfilment; and, as a bare matter of fact, it was powerless. No operative decision of any moment was taken or could be taken at this moment in Ireland. Everything was referred to the Cabinet, and that body had no power to carry out a popular policy in Ireland.

Redmond had put forward a policy which they had accepted in principle. It could only be carried out through him, and for success he must be consulted in detail. Neither Lord Kitchener nor General Parsons in fact recognized the status which this implied. They were prepared to listen to suggestions from him; they were not prepared to accept guidance, as they must have done had he been Prime Minister of the country.

It was impossible that Redmond's attitude in dealing with General Parsons should not imply some sense of the position which he held; equally impossible, from the temper and mentality of the man, that there should not be in General Parsons's letters an underlying assertion that in military matters the military must decide.

The correspondence between the two men opened by a letter from Sir Lawrence Parsons, who had just established his headquarters at Mallow; and its chief purpose was to direct Redmond's attention to the fact that an Irish Division was a much finer and nobler unit than an Irish Brigade. Two points in it, however, are of interest. "I have been appointed by Lord Kitchener," said General Parsons, "because I am an Irishman and understand my countrymen." Also, "I have had a considerable share in selecting the officers of the Division, almost all Irishmen of every political and religious creed."

What lay behind the first of these sentences was a profound conviction that the writer thoroughly understood the necessities of the situation. That was a disastrous mistake. To understand Ireland at such a moment was difficult for anyone, impossible for a man who had not been in close touch with the mental condition produced by all these extraordinary happenings. The effect of the preparations for rebellion in Ulster, of the Curragh incident, and of the collision between troops and people in Dublin--the effect of the existence of a permitted Nationalist Volunteer Force--the effect of Redmond's appeal: these were three completely novel and conflicting currents in the stream of Irish life. Nobody could hope to estimate these developments from a general view, however intelligent, of Irish history and character, nor even from the most intimate and sympathetic acquaintance with Irish troops of the old Army.

A proof of the unhappy lack of comprehension is furnished by the second sentence I have quoted. General Parsons had been most rightly allowed by the War Office to assist in selecting officers for the Division. But it had never occurred to either party to consult Redmond on this critical matter. Does anyone suppose that Sir Edward Carson had no voice in the staffing of the Ulster Division? He had at all events received from the first a clear promise that all professional soldiers who had been officers in the Ulster Volunteers would be officers in the Division, and that any who had been mobilized should be restored to their associates in the Division.

General Parsons brought to this whole matter the fine principle that no man's religious or political beliefs should stand in his way. He omitted to consider the effect produced on the situation by the fact that the Ulster Division had been actually allowed to exclude all Catholics, as such, and to accept no officer who was not politically in sympathy with Unionist Ulster. Redmond had not the least wish to exclude either Protestants or Unionists; he wanted all Irishmen on an equality. But he was bound by common sense and by a perception of realities to desire that Protestants and Unionists should not appear to monopolize the command.

Not one of the three brigadiers appointed was generally known in Ireland, personally or by his connections. One was an Englishman. Of the officers originally appointed not one in five was a Catholic. No Catholic commanded a battalion, scarcely half a dozen were field officers. The only Catholic field officer appointed to the Division who had been prominently connected with the Volunteers was Lord Fingall, and he had severed his connection with that body.

All this was a terrible blunder. Whether it was wise or unwise to allow the formation of a division having the peculiar character of the Ulster Division may be argued--but certainly Redmond never took exception to it, and no man who ever saw these Ulstermen in the field can regret its inception. But once it was formed, its existence created a situation which had to be recognized. An equivalent ought to have been given; but no genuine attempt to do this was made.

In replying to Sir Lawrence Parsons, Redmond raised no controversy as to what had been done; he was, indeed, not cognizant of the facts. But he addressed himself from the first to making friendly suggestions.

Amongst other things he referred to an appeal which Sir Lawrence Parsons had addressed to the women of Ireland, that they should provide regimental colours for the battalions of the Division. This appeal was promptly met, to Redmond's great delight--delight which was soon changed into vexation, for the War Office stepped in, declared the proceeding irregular, and prohibited the holding of colours by any temporary battalion. General Parsons was obliged to publish an explanation which must have been galling to himself, and which went far to confirm the impression that the War Office, with all its preoccupations, had time to keep an unfriendly eye on the Nationalist recruiting effort.

Another trivial matter led to prolonged and irritating controversy. Towards the end of October the Belfast and Dublin papers announced that the Army Council had approved of "an Ulster badge similar to that worn by Ulster Volunteers" as a cap badge for all troops in the Ulster Division. It was pointed out that this would have the effect of preserving the identity of the Ulster Division. Immediately, and not unnaturally, the demand for a similar concession was put forward on behalf of the Sixteenth Division. General Parsons was opposed, as any old soldier would be, to a variation in the distinguishing marks of old and famous regiments. He did not allow for the fact that we needed to attract new soldiers in masses--men who as yet knew nothing of regimental tradition. Still, he co-operated in forwarding Redmond's desire, which was to meet a widely spread sentimental demand. Now that the war is over, many soldiers argue that there is no reason in the nature of things why Irish regiments should not have a clearly distinguishing uniform, as the Scots or the Colonials do. In the last months, when recruiting was a matter of urgency, Colonel Lynch induced the War Office to consent to equipping an Irish Brigade with a completely distinctive dress; unhappily the pattern was (after several months) still under discussion when the war ended. I have little doubt that from the point of view of recruiting even the badge, to say nothing of a distinctive uniform, would have been an asset; I have no doubt at all that the refusal of it was a set-back, because it was a refusal given after a discussion and correspondence which lasted from November till February. The most interesting point, however, is that Lord Kitchener found time to occupy himself repeatedly with this question in the period between the first and second battles of Ypres. If his intervention had been judicious, it would have been as impressive as the spectacle of a battery elephant stopping in action to pick up a pin with his trunk.

On one point Redmond's representations, heartily backed by General Parsons, were successful. Catholic chaplains, of whom no adequate number were at first provided for Irish troops, were secured. It is pleasant to note that Lord Roberts, who before the war had been vehement on the Ulster side, used his personal influence to support this application. A month or two later, when death came to the veteran, dramatically, among the troops in France, Redmond told the House of Commons how on that question Lord Roberts had met him in the friendliest way and endeavoured to arrange for attending the great meeting at the Dublin Mansion House.

On another matter Redmond was able to assist the equipment of the Division. He suggested, and General Parsons fully admitted the value of, regimental bands; but the War Office made no grants for them. Redmond drew upon a large sum which had been placed at his disposal by a private individual to further his campaign, and all our battalions were indebted to him for their fife and drum equipment. There was, in short, no detail in which he was not willing and anxious to assist the Division and its commander. But the friction between the two men was unmistakable.

The most serious cause of it was the line taken by General Parsons about the appointment of officers. He laid down a rule, which I think would have had excellent results if enforced throughout the whole of the new armies, that no man should be recommended for a commission without previous military experience, and that candidates lacking that experience must put in a period of service in the ranks. He set apart a special company in one battalion, the 7th Leinsters, to which such men should be sent, so that while drilling and exercising with the rest of the battalion, and enjoying no special privilege, they ate and slept and lived together in their own barrack rooms.

Yet the obstacle thus set up deterred a good many of the less zealous, who could not understand why that should be made a condition in the Irish Division which was not so in the Ulster Division--nor, indeed, so far as I know, anywhere else at that time. Men who had been officers of Ulster Volunteers got their commissions as a matter of course; the officer of National Volunteers had to prove his competence in the cadet company. General Parsons fully admitted this difference of treatment, and justified it by saying to Redmond that in consequence of it he would be very sorry to change officers with the Ulster Division. One cannot refuse to admire such a spirit; but he ought to have asked himself whether it was fair to impose a handicap on Redmond's efforts. Everything turned on getting representative young men from the Volunteers, and from the correspondence it appears that few were coming from the South and West. From the North they poured in. In our 47th Brigade, the 6th Royal Irish Regiment was mainly composed of Derry Nationalists; the 7th Leinsters and the 6th Connaught Rangers were almost to a man followers of Mr. Devlin from Belfast.

Next after Redmond, Mr. Devlin was the man to whom our Division owed most. But the first and the main impetus came from Redmond himself. He spoke on October 4th at Wexford, the capital of his native county; on the 11th at Waterford, his own constituency; on the 18th at Kilkenny, the constituency of his close friend Pat O'Brien. A week later he was at Belfast and in the glens of Antrim, among the Nationalists of Ulster. Then Parliament kept him for a few weeks; in December he was back, and spoke at Tuam and in Limerick. Everywhere the Volunteers turned out in great numbers to receive him; and to them his appeal was primarily addressed.

At Wexford he laid stress on Mr. Asquith's pledge that the Volunteers should remain as a recognized permanent force for the defence of the country, and this led him to raise frankly the question of control. Who should have authority over Volunteers in a State? Surely the elected and responsible government. But pending Home Rule, "the policy and control of the Volunteers must rest with the elected representatives of the country."

More generally, he reminded them that he had always spoken of the possibility of some great political convulsion that might destroy their plans. "Nothing but an earthquake can now prevent Home Rule," he had said. "The outbreak of this overwhelming war might easily have overwhelmed Home Rule. But we have survived it."

And he went on to argue that the delay might be a blessing in disguise. Civil war between Irishmen had always seemed to him an impossibility. That impossibility was now universally admitted. In a passage of unusual heat he denounced the "so-called statesmen" who came over unasked to our country to inflame feelings--as Mr. Bonar Law had done; and he appealed to all sections "to enable us to utilize the interval before a Home Rule Parliament assembles to unite all Irishmen under a Home Rule Government."

At Waterford he was largely occupied with repelling the charge that he and his colleagues had made a bargain with the Government to ship Irish Volunteers overseas to fight whether they would or no. This was the line on which opposition was developing, and it was assisted by articles in the English Press, which laid it down that unless the Irish furnished a sufficiency of recruits, Home Rule should be repealed.