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