No conscription for Ireland says Asquith
London, 20 November 1914 - The Prime Minister Herbert Asquith has denied that there is any plan to introduce conscription into Ireland. He was responding to questioning from John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party.
The question of conscription has arisen again due to the fact that recruitment to the army slowed in October, although it is reputed to have increased again as November has progressed.
With losses mounting, the demand for new recruits continues to accelerate and the need to expand the British military presence on the continent of Europe remains of vital importance.
(An anonymous letter calling attention to the emigration of young men to America from the Claremorris District owing to rumoured reports of conscription, National Archives of Ireland, CSO RP 1914. Click on the image to read the document in full.)
New Irish recruits
A detachment of 600 Belfast nationalists left a railway station in the city, bound for a training camp at Fermoy, Co. Cork today. Many thousands of Belfast people marched with them through the city from the Victoria Barracks. They were led by the Clan Uladh Pipers, who played ‘God Save Ireland'.
The Irish nationalist MP Joe Devlin saw the men off at the station, going from carriage to carriage and shaking each man’s hand. Later, as the train pulled away from the station, the crowd sang ‘A Nation Once Again’ and other patriotic songs.
The men will join new battalions of the Connaught Rangers, Leinster Regiment and the Royal Irish Regiment.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
