Towards the end of the year new rumours were afloat.  The 49th Brigade had never been made up to strength, and there were stories that a non-Irish brigade was to be linked up with us.  Letters from two commanding officers of the 49th Brigade illustrate the extent to which Redmond had come by all ranks to be regarded as our tutelary genius; to him they appealed for redress, fearing that they would be turned into a reserve brigade.  The matter was settled at last to his content and theirs by a decision that the two brigades which were ready should go out in advance, to be followed by the 49th; and we entrained accordingly on December 17th.

Sir Lawrence Parsons wrote to Mr. Birrell:  “As the last train-load moved out of Farnborough station the senior Railway Staff Officer came up to me and said, ’Well, General, that is the soberest, quietest, most amenable and best disciplined Division that has left Aldershot, and I have seen them all go.’” The compliment was well paid to General Parsons, and it may have been some consolation for a sore heart:  that keen spirit had to be content to be left behind.  Major-General W.B.  Hickie, C.B., who had greatly distinguished himself in France, now took over command.  It would be disingenuous to say that John Redmond was not content with this change; but his brother was deeply impressed by the hardship inflicted on a gallant soldier.

The Ulster Division had preceded us by three months.  All three Irish Divisions were now in the field, and reserve brigades were established to feed them.  Redmond could feel that in great measure his work was done, and that he could await the issue in confidence.

He wrote at this time, in a preface contributed to Mr. MacDonagh’s book The Irish at the Front, a passage of unusual emotion which tells what he thought and felt upon this matter.

“It is these soldiers of ours, with their astonishing courage and their beautiful faith, with their natural military genius, carrying with them their green flags and their Irish war-pipes, advancing to the charge, their fearless officers at their head, and followed by their beloved chaplains as great-hearted as themselves—­bringing with them a quality all their own to the sordid modern battlefield—­it is these soldiers of ours to whose keeping the Cause of Ireland has passed.  It was never in holier, worthier keeping than with these boys offering up their supreme sacrifice of life with a smile on their lips because it was given for Ireland.”

He wrote this when fresh from a sight of troops in the field.  This visit took place in November 1915, and he was full of the experience when he came down to say good-bye before we went out.  Nothing in all his life had approached it in interest, he said to me.  The diary of his tour is prefixed to Mr. S.P.  Ker’s book, What the Irish Regiments Have Done—­but it conveys little, except this dominant impression:  “From the Irish Commander-in-Chief himself right down through the Army one meets Irishmen wherever one goes.”  On that journey he got the same welcome from Ulstermen as from his own nearest countrymen in the Royal Irish Regiment.