Preparation, discussion, went on in private and in public.  It was soon indicated that Sinn Fein would take no part, on the double ground, first, that the Convention was not elective in any democratic sense, for all the representatives of local bodies had been elected before the war, before the rebellion, before the new movement took hold in Ireland; and secondly, that it was committed in advance to a settlement within the Empire.  On the other hand, Redmond was flooded with correspondence concerning candidates for membership of the new body.  There was also the question of a meeting-place.  The Royal College of Surgeons offered its building with its theatre, possessing admirable facilities.  But Trinity College offered the Regent House.  The conveniences here were in all ways inferior; but Trinity was the nearest place to the old Parliament House; much more than that, it was the most historic institution in Ireland.  Its political associations of the past and the present were strangely blended and Redmond liked it none the less for that.  He decided to press for acceptance of this offer.

Then across the current of all our thought came the news of the Battle of Messines.  Troops had been massing for some time on the sector of line which the Irish Divisions had now held since the previous October; and the day was plainly in sight which had been expected since spring, when they were to try and carry positions in front of which so much blood had been vainly shed.  On June 7th, at the clearing of light, all was in readiness:  the Ulstermen and ours still in the centre of the attack from Spanbroekmolen to Wytschaete.  Just before the moment fixed, men could see clearly:  in half a minute all was blotted out.  The eighteen huge land-mines in whose shafts our second line had been so often billeted were now at last exploded and the sky was full of powdered earth, with God knows what other fragments.  In that darkness the troops went over.

For once staff-work and execution harmonized perfectly; the success was complete, and the sacrifice small.  The Irish raced for their positions, and no one could say who was first on the goal.  News of the victory quickly reached London—­great news for Ireland.  Australians and New Zealanders had their full share in it, but the shoulder to shoulder advance of the two Irish Divisions caught everyone’s imagination:  it was Ireland’s day.

Then came through the message that Willie Redmond had fallen.

Ever since his illness in the previous summer he had been taken away from his work as company commander; at his age—­fifty-six—­he was probably the oldest man in any capacity with the Division.  A post was found for him on General Hickie’s divisional staff which made him specially responsible for the comforts of the men, in trenches and out of trenches.  In the battles on the Somme he entreated hard to be let rejoin his battalion, but General Hickie issued peremptory orders which did not allow him to