Local pressure, personal not political, was against us, especially that of the mothers; and there was a shyness about taking this plunge into the unknown.
One exception stands out, in my mind, unlike the general run of these gatherings.

It was the first field day of our brigade, when, dressed in the khaki that had at last been served out, we mustered on the race-course at Fermoy, five thousand strong; and I went from the review to the train for Waterford.

There was no mistaking the temper of Redmond's constituency; we got men there in hundreds, including a score or so of cadets--young men of education--for our special company of the Leinsters, which was filling up fast.
At that meeting we had one force with us which was not often active on our side.

The Bishop of Waterford was strong for the war; the leading parish priest of the town took the chair and spoke straight and plain, while one of the Regulars, a Carmelite friar, made a speech which was among the most eloquent that I have ever listened to.
At the beginning of April I was gazetted to a lieutenancy in the 6th Connaught Rangers, and began to know the Division from another aspect.
Broadly speaking, the men with whom I had been sharing a hut were Nationalist by opinion and by tradition--though by no means all Catholics.

There were Unionists, but they were few.