WHAT IRELAND HAS DONE

New Zealand Tablet, 6 May 1915, Page 13

WHAT IRELAND HAS DONE

IMPORTANT SPEECH BY THE IRISH ‘ LEADER. Mr. J. E. Redmond, M.P., delivered an important speech before an immense audience in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on March 14. In the course of his address, Mr. Redmond said: —- ' I have been supplied by the Irish Government with figures, which they have most laboriously collected in every parish in Ireland, with reference to enlistment. These figures only go up to the 15th February, and therefore when I give them to you you will bear in mind that practically a month’s recruiting has to bo added to the totals. Up to February 15 there were Irishmen from Ireland with the colors to the number: of 99,704. That is to say, in round numbers a month ago there were 100,000 Irishmen with the colors. Re-' cruiting since then has not only gone on steadily, but has been accelerating its pace. According to these figures, which have been supplied to me, it is going on at the present moment at the rate of about 4000 a month. From December 15 to January 15 there were 3858 recruits; from January 15 to February 15 there were 4601 recruits, showing a remarkable increase. And I read with great interest in a Unionist paper in Ireland— was before the war a Unionist paper in Ireland—a speech made by a gentleman who was in charge of a recruiting office which was opened in Grafton street, Dublin, by Lord Meath. This is what he said the other day:— ‘ He was connected with the recruiting office for the Irish Brigade in Grafton street, and though they were asked by Lord Kitchener not to give any further returns for publication he might mention that recruits were now coming in so rapidly that they had to increase their clerical staff. In Grafton street they were now getting daily over five times the number of recruits they got in the -months of August and September last, and the men were coming in from all parts of the city and county. They were getting Unionists and Nationalists and Sinn Feiners.’ i Volunteers With the Colors. There were, Mr. Redmond went on to say, with the colors, according to these figures, on the 15th of last month 20,210 men who had been actually enrolled, disciplined, and drilled members of the National Volunteers, and there were at the same time on that date 22,970 Ulster Volunteers with the colors. Now, as I have mentioned this question of the Volunteers, allow me to dwell on it for a moment. They present one of the most extraordinary spectacles ever seen in the history of these countries. There are to-day in Ireland two large bodies of Volunteers. One body is called the Ulster Volunteers ; the other body is called the National Volunteers. They are partially armed; they are partially drilled only, but they are all filled with true military sentiment and spirit. .As it appears from the figures I have already given, many thousands of them —up to 50,000 between the two— have joined the army —either the old army as reservists or the new army as recruits ; but I want to point out to-day that there are many thousands, outside the 50,000 who have joined, many thousands of these Volunteers who are not of military age and are not physically fit, and who are prevented from joining the army by just the same reasons as prevent thousands of people'in this country, but these men are quite capable of home defence. The Duty oI Home Defence. May I say also they are eager to be allowed to perform the duty of home defence. You may repiember that on August 3 I made an offer in the House of Commons, which was really not so much an offer as an

appeal.' .1 said to the Government that for the first time in the history of the relations between England and Ireland that Ireland could be left safely to the defence of her own sons. 1 told the Government that they could withdraw every regular soldier from Ireland, knd I made an appeal, to the Government to allow us to undertake the duty of defending our country, and, in the : same breath, I made an appeal to the Ulster Volunteers, and I begged of them beg was the word I' used— begged to them to allow us to join hands with them and jointly to defend our country. Now 1 make no complaint, but I think it right to record this fact that I have received no response either to one appeal or the other. The Prime Minister on the 10th of August stated in the House of Commons that the Government were then seriously considering how the Volunteers could be utilised, and he went on to say that, of.course, Lord Kitchener’s first duty was to raise his new army, which everybody admits. Well, up to this nothing has been done. Early in the business we made an offer whereby 20,000 men could have been made immediately available for home defence, and no single regular soldier of the country would have been withdrawn from his duties in the army for the purpose of home defence. Our offer has not been accepted. Since then, as I have shown you, 50,000 of these Volunteers, North and South', have joined the army, and today the remainder of the Volunteer forces — have no right or title to speak for the Ulster Volunteers, but I will pay them the compliment of saying that I believe ill- this instance I can speak for . them as well as for the National Volunteers —the remainder of the Volunteer forces, North and South, in addition to supplying a constant stream of recruits, as they are doing and as they will continue to do, are quite willing to undertake on their shoulders alone the burden of the entire defence of Ireland. It is interesting to know that I have some reason to think that in military circles in Ireland there is a strong feeling that from a purely military point of view enlistment for home defence should be permitted. I want to point out that thousands of men of the regular army, of Kitchener Army as it is called, who arc supposed to be drilling and training fox* the front are at this moment absolutely wasted by being engaged in defending various points on the coast, defending railways, defending bridges, defending waterworks and so forth. Instead of being in their drill yards preparing themselves for the front, the whole of these men could be set free from that work at once, and their places taken by Irishmen who are quite capable of the work, and I must say I cannot conceive what the reason can be why this has- not been done, and why the promise with reference to the organisation and equipment of the Volunteers has not been carried out. The Irish Race Abroad. Well, passing from that point let me proceed with the thread of my discourse. I have shown you that Ireland has sent from Ireland, from Irish soil, over 100,000 men to the colors. What about the Irish race throughout the world ? What about the Irish race in Great Britain ? I saw figures published the other day which went to show that 115,000 recruits of Irish birth or descent had gone from Great Britain since the commencement of the war. I have made some inquiries into these figures. I find that in some places they were most carefully compiled, parish by parish. I find that in other places and in more important ones, for example a place like Manchester, the calculation had to be necessarily, owing to the circumstances, hot so detailed but of a more general character, and 1 am told that the number of Irish recruits from Manchester and Salford put down in that list is short by thousands of the number who have gone. But making all allowance for that and it is better that we err by being moderate than by exaggeration—making all allowance for that, if you take 115,000 men as the contribution of the Irish race in Great Britain, what a magnificent result it is. ,

The Irish Divisions. ' ' . - In some , places, like on the Tyneside, these Irish recruits have been banded together in - Irish brigades, and all that they do that is honorable and chivalrous‘in the future will redound to the credit and the honor of their native Ireland. But s 6 far as the great bulk of these Irish recruits are concerned in Great Britain by being scattered up in English regiments, some here, some there, I am greatly afraid that their gallant achievements cannot in the same sense redound to the credit of their country, and I deeply regret that these Irish recruits from Great Britain have not in all cases enlisted ’in Irish regiments and Irish brigades. On this point I want to make an appeall know it is late in the day, I know that so far as the Irish people of Great Britain are concerned, as recruiting forces they may be said practically to have been exhausted, there are very few left to go, but no matter how few they are, or how late it may — I want to make this appeal. We have in Ireland three divisions. A division, as you know, consists of three brigades. We have three Irish divisions. One of them has been called the. Ulster Division, and the men wear the red hand of Ulster badge on their caps. lam told, I have no accurate information, that that division, though not full, is very nearly full. Then there is another division called the 10th Division, presided over by a distinguished and gallant Irishman, General Sir Bryan Mahon. This second division was started to be a purely Irish division. When Sir Bryan Mahon had obtained two-thirds of the number of men to complete the division some thousands of English recruits were sent over to Ireland, and put into the division, with the result that, unfortunately, for the moment at any rate, it ceased to be a purely Irish division. Then a third division was started, called the 16th Irish Division, presided over also by a distinguished Irish soldier. General Sir Laurence Parsons, a man it is pleasant to recollect, who has inherited the title and bears the' name of that same Laurence Parsons who was Grattan’s right hand man in the Irish Parliament, and who opposed to the last the passage of the Act of Union. Well, now, this 3rd Division, which has its headquarters, half in the County of Cork and the other half in Tipperary, is not quite completed. It is practically complete, you may say, but it still requires a couple of thousand men to complete it. Of course it will be completed in due course and without any trouble, but I make this apjxeal to any Irishman who wants to enlist in England now. The Hoad to Tipperary. If he wants to enlist why not test how long, the road to Tipperary is. Let him, when he goes into the recruiting office, and when he is asked what regiment, say to the recruiting officer, ‘ I am bound for Tipperary.’ This Division consists of many of the most famous Irish regimentsthe Dublin Fusiliers, the Munster Fusiliers, luniskilling Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers, the Royal. Irish Regiment, the Leinster Regiment, and the Royal Irish Rifles, and any Irishman in England who wants to enlist —I am not urging anyone, because it would be a poor thing for me to come here after what the Irishmen of Great Britain have done, and attempt to force them in any way — but I say to any Irishman who does want to enlist in the future in Great Britain, I beg of him to pick out one of these Irish Regiments, and make his way either to Fermoy or Tipperary. Ireland is Doing its Duty. » We have 100,000 men, at least, from the soil of Ireland itself. We have 115,000 men, at least, from the Irish in Great Britain. How many have we amongst the contingents from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? J have good means of information upon these points,' because I am in close touch with men in every one of our colonies, and I have been told by responsible men in Canada, and all parts of Australia, and New Zealand that an enormous and quite a surprising proportion of these contingents. are Irishmen, either

Irishmen born, or the sons of Irishmen, and it is, therefore, no exaggeration whatever for us to say that at this moment the Irish race has at the front, or with the colors at least a quarter of a million sons. Well, now, I don’t want to make comparisons at all. 1 believe every country is doing its duty the best way it can. Irish Army and Navy Leaders. I make no claim for Ireland, except that Ireland is doing its duty, and I say that our record up to this is one of which we can be proud, and if we turn for a moment to the record of performances at the front, I think we Irishmen can hold up our heads. Sir John French is an Irishman. He springs from a good old Irish stock. Admiral Beatty is an Irishman from the County Wexford, Admiral Carden, who is bombarding the Dardanelles, is an Irishman from Tipperary. The Lieut. Commander of the destroyer that sank the U 8 the other day is a Creagh from the County Clare. And if we leave the high in rank and go down to the rank and file, I think the name of Mike O’Leary will be forever associated with the history of this war. And if you look at the performances at the front from another point of view, and if you look at the casualty "list, and if von sec how whole regiments of Irish troops have been almost wined out, I do not think that any man will lie found in this country to deny that Ireland is doing her du<v. But after all wo make no boast of it; it is no thing to be wondered at. It is in keeping with the history and traditions of our race.