Given that, he would be confident of possessing the foundation for the structure of an Irish Army--an army which would be regarded as Ireland's own.

Without it, the whole fabric of his efforts must be insecure.

He desired to build, as in England they built, upon the voluntary effort of a people in whom entire confidence was placed.

In the War Office undoubtedly men's minds were set upon finding a regular supply of Irish troops by quite other methods--by the application of compulsion.
Redmond saw to the full the danger of attempting compulsion with an unwilling people; it was a peril which he sought to keep off, and while he lived did keep off, by securing a steady flow of recruits, by gaining a reasonable definition of Ireland's quota, and by exerting that personal authority which the recognition of his efforts conferred upon him.

I do not think he was without hope of a moment when Ireland might come, as Great Britain had come by the end of this year, to recognize that the voluntary system levied an unfair toll on the willing, and that the community itself should accept the general necessity of binding its own members.