National Volunteers
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The National Volunteers is the name taken by the group of the Irish Volunteers that sided with Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond after the group split in the wake of the question of the Volunteers' role in World War I.
While Redmond took no role in the creation of the Irish Volunteers, when he saw how popular they had become he realized an independent body of such magnitude was a threat to his authority as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and therefore sought control of the organization. Eoin MacNeill, along with Sir Roger Casement and other leaders of the Irish Volunteers, had indeed sought Redmond's approval of and input in the organization, but did not want to hand control over to him. In June, 1914 Redmond insisted the Volunteers accept 25 members of his choosing to the 27 member Provisional Committee (as some of the standing members were already Redmond supporters this would have given him control). The motion was bitterly opposed by the radical members of the committee (mostly members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood), notably Patrick Pearse, Sean MacDermott, and Eamonn Ceannt, but was carried nevertheless in order to prevent a split. With the support of the Irish Party the Volunteer organization grew dramatically.
Following the outbreak of World War I in August, and the successful placement of the Third Home Rule Act 1914 on the statute books, Redmond made a momentous speech in Woodenbridge, County Wicklow on September 20, in which he called for members of the Volunteers to enlist in an intended Irish Army Corps of the British Army, his motives twofold. Firstly, it was in the future interest of an All-Ireland Home Rule settlement to support the war cause, joining the Ulster Volunteer Force who offered immediate support enlisting in their 36th (Ulster) Division). Secondly, he reminded the Irish Volunteers that when they returned after an expected short war at the end of 1915, they would be an armed army capable of confronting the outcome of the partition bill forced through by Sir Edward Carson, leader of the Ulster Unionists, as an ammendmment to the Home Rule Act. Nearly all of the original leaders of the Volunteers utterly rejected this notion, and dismissed Redmond's appointees, who then formed the National Volunteers.
The vast majority of the membership remained loyal to Redmond, keeping some 175,000 members, leaving the Irish Volunteers with a mere estimated 13,500. Most members of the National Volunteers as well as many other Irishmen following the call of their parliamentary leaders, such as William O'Brien MP. and D.D. Sheehan MP., joining the 10th (Irish) Division or the 16th (Irish) Division. Redmond's expectations were however overtaken by events to follow, the denied Irish Army Corps (the British insisted that nationalist be led by English officers, unlike their Ulster counterparts), the unexpectedly prolonged war, the Easter Rising and then the results of the general elections in December 1918. Many Irishmen returned from the war, such as Tom Barry, played a decisive role in the ensuing Irish War of Independence, helping to mold the IRA into an effective disciplined force.
Following the Anglo-Irish Treaty on terms similar to the Home Rule Act, the Irish Free State was founded, followed immediately by de Valera's anti-treaty civil war in 1922. In this third Irish war within a decade many earlier members of the National Volunteers played a decisive role, in forming a large part of General Michael Collins's new pro-treaty Free State Force. Their military discipline and professional experience saved the new state from falling into anarchy and chaos, bringing the anti-treaty revolt under control a year later.