Dividing Ireland: World War I and Partition

THE GREAT WAR AND NATIONAL IDENTITY 83
false to her history, and to every consideration of honour,
good faith, and self-interest, did she not willingly bear her
share in its burdens and its sacrifices. 21
Redmond claimed a right for any new Irish recruits to be kept
together as a unit, officered as far as possible by Irishmen, and
composed, as far as possible, of county battalions in an ‘Irish
Brigade’ so that ‘Ireland may gain national credit for their deeds,
and feel, like so many other communities of the British Empire,
that she too has contributed an army bearing her name in this
historic struggle’. Redmond appealed to members of the
nationalist and unionist communities to bury domestic differences
so that:
as our soldiers are going to fight, to shed their blood, and to
die at each other’s side, in the same army, against the same
enemy, and for the same high purpose, their union in the
field may lead to a union in their home, and that their blood
may be the seal that will bring all Ireland together in one
nation, and in liberties equal and common to all. 22
The manifestation of Redmond’s policy of rapprochement with
British and Irish Unionism, through common martial sacrifice, was
made in a speech to Irish National Volunteers at Woodenbridge,
when he told them:
it would be a disgrace forever to our country and a reproach
to her manhood and a denial of the lessons of history if [the]
young [men of] Ireland confined their efforts to remaining at
home to defend the shores of Ireland from an unlikely
invasion, and shrinking from the duty of proving in the field of
battle that gallantry and courage which has distinguished our
race all through its history (cheers). I say to you therefore,
your duty is twofold…account yourselves as men, not only in
Ireland itself, but wherever the firing line extends, in defence
of right, of freedom and religion in this war (cheers). 23
In advocating such a radical change in nationalist attitudes
towards the British army and the Empire, Redmond was influenced
by the ethics of the war and his desire to see the creation of a
common sense of Irishness, among ordinary nationalist and
unionist soldiers, forged through common sacrifice on the
battlefield. In private he admitted the benefits that could occur