General Parsons fully admitted this difference of treatment, and justified it by saying to Redmond that in consequence of it he would be very sorry to change officers with the Ulster Division.

One cannot refuse to admire such a spirit; but he ought to have asked himself whether it was fair to impose a handicap on Redmond's efforts.
Everything turned on getting representative young men from the Volunteers, and from the correspondence it appears that few were coming from the South and West.

From the North they poured in.

In our 47th Brigade, the 6th Royal Irish Regiment was mainly composed of Derry Nationalists; the 7th Leinsters and the 6th Connaught Rangers were almost to a man followers of Mr.Devlin from Belfast.
Next after Redmond, Mr.Devlin was the man to whom our Division owed most.

But the first and the main impetus came from Redmond himself.