We could not expect to move to France before August, and by that time all that we could hope would be to form part of the army of occupation.

Rumour was rife, too, that the Division would be broken up and utilized for draft-finding, that it would never see France as a unit.

All this talk came back to Redmond and increased his anxiety to make the work complete.
He held, and I think rightly, that the whole machinery of recruiting worked against us; that every officer had instructions to send no man to the Sixteenth Division who could be got into a draft-finding reserve battalion.

Knowing what we know, I cannot blame them; but the game was not fairly played.

A man would come in and say he wanted to join the Irish Brigade.