served on the Western Front, by May 1916 he had three dugouts blown in on him. Sent home because

of ill health, he repeatedly petitioned to return to the trenches and finally did so in October of that year; he was now fifty-two years old. One of those civilian soldiers who found such appeal in his British Army regiment Gwynn would write ' I was prouder of my company than of any earthly thing ' Amazingly he survived the war. Willie Redmond was the best known of this group of prominent Irish Nationalist MPs. He had sat for the Borough of Wexford, his fathers old seat, from 1883 and in the Commons he had frequently criticized the many campaigns of Empire that involved the British Army and Irish soldiers. Although he objected to the Boer War, in Parliament in February 1900 he applauded the bravery of Irish soldiers fighting in South Africa, ' as gallantly as Irishmen always have done ' He went on to speak in the House of Commons of the political loyalty of soldiers, mostly from southern Ireland, serving in the Irish regiments of the British Army; " Theyb are Catholics by religion, and in politics they are nationalists and Home Rulers like we are ". Because they are in the army does not mean that ' they are not in sympathy with us, because they are '. In other words they were capable of holding a dual allegiance. Willie Redmond's conflicting attitudes may be explained by the fact that he had a boyhood love of soldiering and that this influence could also be traced back to his Catholic family gentry background of military service in the Austrian, French and British Armies. His mother of Protestant stock, was the daughter of General Hoey of the Wicklow Rifles. A combination of influences therefore led him to join the City of Wexford militia battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment where he was commissioned in 1879 and thus was always able to temper his critism of the British Army. After campaigning enthusiastically for his brother John's Irish Volunteers and then the Irish Brigade, he announced at the end of 1914 " I am going for the Irish Brigade. I can't stand asking fellows to go and not offer myself ". He enlisted in The British Army in February 1915 despite being 54 years old and was gazetted as a temporary Captain in the 6th (S) Battalion Royal Irish Regiment. His Military training of many years earlier fulfilled General Parson's prerequisite for military experience for his officers. Willie threw himself into soldiering with a kind of religious enthusiasm but did not immediately go to front line service. He was sent to the divisional staff, not taking kindly to the suggestion that he remain in Ireland for recruiting purposes.

William (Left ) with brother John ( centre ) and John's son, circa 1912

His response was " I did not join the army to make recruiting speeches but to go to the front with my men " Although there was a move to to keep him from the Front because of his age, by February 1916 he was writing home from France appalled ' at the destruction, havoc and suffering i have encountered '. On leave in March 1916 he spoke in the House of Commons ' eulogizing the spirit of the men in France and deploring the failure to recognise specifically the services of the Irish troops.

Willie Redmond particularly enjoyed a warm friendship with lady Parsons, writing to her frequently from the trenches. Redmond's, Kettle's and Gwynn's enthusiasm for the soldiers serving under them and for the life of comarraderie and discipline was unexpected. Their idealism was not an uncommon reason for enlisting among New Army Irish soldiers, whereas professionals in the British Army usually enlisted for a career. Willie Redmond truly believed that reconciliation between the north and south of Ireland after the war, between Protestants and Catholics would be achieved through the shared experience of fighting in the trenches in a bond of common sacrifice. This was his constant theme. He was a devout Catholic and Nationalist and it is interesting that his hopeful view was shared by the Protestant Major Bryan Cooper, who wrote in his ' Tenth ( Irish ) Division in Gallipoli

" Catholic and protestant, Unionist and Nationalist, lived, fought
And died side by side like brothers....it is only to be hoped that
The willingness to forget old wrongs and injustices and to combine
For a common purpose that existed in the 10th Division may be a
Good augury for the future "

Daniel Sheenan was another Irish Nationalist MP who vociferously denounced Britain for her past and opressive treatment of Ireland, yet when war broke out in 1914 he too joined the British Army. He believed strongly and righteously of the Allied cause and at the same time he wanted to advance the cause of Irish freedom.

At the age of seven Daniel' s family had been evicted from their farm and all his relatives were Fenian. Sheenan entered politics in 1901 to press Labour's claims in the House of Commons, but not a believer in Home Rule, he was expelled from Redmond's Parliamentary Pary and then won his seat as an Independent Nationalist in the General Election of 1910. In the war crisis Sheenan threw himself enthusiastically into recruiting and claimed to have recruited nearly every soldier in the 9th (S) Battalion, Munster Fusiliers, under the slogan ' Fight for Right and Duty, Home and Motherland ' conducting tours throughout the regimental district which included Cork, his home and his constituency. Appointed a Lieutenant in the 9th, he was later appointed to Captain. Of his three sons who enlisted two were killed in action. After the war Sheenan wrote.

For the first time in the long centuries of service to the British Army, many Irishmen in the Great War ( and this is so important to remember ) saw themselves as fighting for Ireland's cause. For Sheenan, Willie Redmond offered his life as surely for Ireland as any man who ever died for Irish Liberty !!

Neither General Parsons of the 16th ( Irish )Division nor General Powell of the 36th ( Ulster ) took their divisions to France; both were considered too old. Powell was succeeded by Major General Sir O.S.W Nugent, a career soldier and the son of a General. Commissioned into the King's Royal Rifle Corps, Nugent had been on the North-West Frontier and in South Africa, where he was severely wounded. He was brought from commanding a brigade in France and therefore he conformed with the War Office policy for active service and experienced officers of the New Armies. From an Anglo Protestant family whose home was at Mount Nugent, County Cavan, increasingly he shared with many officers a contempt for all politicians. As for the Curragh incident he thought the ' arming' of Ulster had been a great mistake.

Major-General William Hickie, CB, a catholic from anold Irish Military family from County Tipperary, succeeded General Parsons. Hickie a great talker, was a career soldier who, after graduating from Sandhurst in 1885, was commissioned into the Royal Fusilers. He had had staff jobs in the South African War, but he always preferred regimental life with its opportunities for action and sport. Promoted Brevet Lieutenant Colonel he commanded a mobile column against the Boer Commandos. As a Brigadier general he had had recent experience commanding a brigade on the Western Front ( 1914-1915 ) where he was wounded. In commanding the 16th Hickie took political considerations into account, but his Division became no more Nationalist..than it was under Parsons. He did emphasize the 16th Division's Irishness, giving out on parade parchment certificates sketched by his own hand with a Shamrock and the word's

" The Irish Brigade " in Celtic lettering. They were awarded he told the troops for meritorious deeds so that the heritage worth preserving might be passed on to future generations to the ' Glory of the Irish Brigade '. He himself advocated Home Rule, disagreeing with Parsons, but as a professional soldier he respected what General Parsons had done for the 16th and he designed a monogram for the Division, LP as a tribute to him. If Parsons thought he was replaced to make way for a Catholic, Hickie's family believed that he had not been promoted above the rank of Major General because he was an Irish Catholic and referred to Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson's view that he had gone far enough.

It is also very important to understand in this period of high political tensions that not all Irishmen who enlisted in the British Army as citizen soldiers had political affiliations; " 48,000 had no stated Volunteer connections. One such young man, George Lindsay, from County Derry enlisted in a cyclist company in the 36th Ulster Division because he loved cycling. Many Irishmen not willing to wait for the Irish/Ulster Divisions to form while the politicians argued went to England to enlist, which is clear from the lists of VCs ( Victoria Cross 0 won by Irishmen in English Regiments. Many Ulstermen also joined Scottish Regiments that early vigorously recruited in Ulster.

News of the Irish heroes was essential at this time when the Irish Divisions were forming and Irish identity was being sought. When Lance Corporal Michael O'Leary of the 1st battalion Irish Guards won his VC at Guinchy, France, 1st February 1915, he was hailed as a hero in the British Press and returned home ' the darling of Ireland '