The response from Nationalist Ireland had not long to be waited for—­although the inquest on the victims of the Bachelor’s Walk tragedy was in progress on the very day when Redmond’s speech appeared in the Press.  Waterford Corporation instantly endorsed their member’s utterance, and throughout the week similar resolutions were passed all over the country, Unionist members of these bodies joining in to second the proposals.  In Cork, the City Council had before it a resolution condemning the Government for its attempt to disarm the Irish Volunteers, and calling for stringent penalties on the offenders in the Bachelor’s Walk affair:  the resolution was withdrawn and one of hearty support to Redmond’s attitude adopted.

Yet Irish opinion did not go so far as Mr. William O’Brien, who proposed the complete dropping of the Home Rule Bill till after the war, in order to bring about a genuine national unity.  The action of the Offaly corps of Volunteers, for instance, was typical.  They agreed to offer their services gladly on two conditions:  first, that the Home Rule Bill should go on the Statute Book; secondly, that the Volunteers should be subsidized and equipped by Government.

But it was assumed in Ireland that no question arose about the safety of the Bill, and people gave themselves to the new emotion.  Troops were cheered everywhere at stations and on the quays:  National Volunteers and local bands turned out to see them off.  Even the battalion of King’s Own Scottish Borderers, which had been confined to barracks since the events of July 26th, was cheered like the rest as it marched down to the transports ready for it.[3]

This was the attitude of the general populace.  Broadly speaking, Redmond’s speech pleased the people.  It was welcomed by generous-minded men in another class, who responded at once in the same spirit.  Lord Monteagle wrote:  “Mr. Redmond has risen nobly to the occasion”; Lord Bessborough, that he trusted all the Unionists in the South would at once join the Irish Volunteers.  The Marquis of Headfort, the Earls of Fingall and of Desart, Lord Powerscourt, Lord Langford, all chimed in with offers of help.  Mr. George Taaffe wrote:  “I thank God from the bottom of my heart that to-day we stand united Ireland.”  In county Wexford sixty young Protestants came in a body to join up, led by a very Tory squire.

It should be clearly noted that while Redmond’s aim was to make this Ireland’s war, in which Irishmen should serve together without distinction of North or South, all that he asked of the land in his speech of August 4th was that the Volunteers should undertake duties of home defence.  This was precisely what Sir Edward Carson had asked of Ulster.  On August 14th, in a letter to the Press, the commander of a Fermanagh battalion of Ulster Volunteers wrote:  “No one will be asked to serve outside Ulster until Sir Edward Carson notifies that he is satisfied with the attitude of the Government with regard to the Home Rule Bill and Ulster.”