From beginning to end of this splendidly patriotic oration no allusion was made to the Nationalist attitude to the war.  Few people in Ulster had any belief that the spots on the leopard were going to disappear, even when the Home Rule Bill had been placed on the Statute-book.  The “difficulty” and the “opportunity” would continue in their old relations.  People in Belfast, as elsewhere, did justice to the patriotic tone of Mr. Redmond’s speech in the House of Commons on the 3rd of August, which made so deep an impression in England; but they believed him mistaken in attributing to “the democracy of Ireland” a complete change of sentiment towards England, and their scepticism was more than justified by subsequent events.

But they also scrutinised more carefully than Englishmen the precise words used by the Nationalist leader.  Englishmen, both in the House of Commons and in the country, were carried off their feet in an ecstasy of joy and wonder at Mr. Redmond’s confident offer of loyal help from Ireland to the Empire in the mighty world conflict.  Ireland was to be “the one bright spot.”  Ulstermen, on the other hand, did not fail to observe that the offer was limited to service at home.  “I say to the Government,” said Mr. Redmond, “that they may to-morrow withdraw every one of their troops from Ireland.  I say that the coast of Ireland will be defended from foreign invasion by her armed sons, and for this purpose armed Nationalist Catholics in the South will be only too glad to join arms with the armed Protestant Ulstermen in the North.”

These sentences were rapturously applauded in the House of Commons.  When they were read in Ulster the shrewd men of the North asked what danger threatened the “coast of Ireland”; and whether, supposing there were a danger, the British Navy would not be a surer defence than the “armed sons” of Ireland whether from South or North.  It was not on the coast of Ireland but the coast of Flanders that men were needed, and it was thither that the “armed Protestant Ulstermen” were preparing to go in thousands.  They would not be behind the Catholics of the South in the spirit of comradeship invoked by Mr. Redmond if they were to stand shoulder to shoulder under the fire of Prussian batteries; but they could not wax enthusiastic over the suggestion that, while they went to France, Mr. Redmond’s Nationalist Volunteers should be trained and armed by the Government to defend the Irish coast—­and possibly, later, to impose their will upon Ulster.

The organisation and the training of the Ulster Division forms no part of the present narrative, but it must be stated that after Carson’s speech on the 3rd of September, recruiting went on uninterruptedly and rapidly, and the whole energies of the local leaders and of the rank and file were thrown into the work of preparation.  Captain James Craig, promoted to be Lieutenant-Colonel, was appointed Q.M.G. of the Division; but the arduous duties of this post, in