England's difficulty has indeed been
Ireland's opportunity--the opportunity of displaying that generous
nature which has already contributed thousands of men to the
Expeditionary Force, and is mustering tens of thousands more under the
patriotic stimulus of those old political enemies, Mr. John Redmond and
Sir Edward Carson. The civil war is "put off," as one Irish soldier
expresses it; old enmities are laid aside and Orange and Green are
righting shoulder to shoulder, on old battlefields whose names are writ
in glory upon the colors.
No more cheerful regiments than the Irish are to be found in the firing
line. Their humor in the trenches, their love of songs, and their dash
in action are manifested in all their letters. An English soldier,
writing home, says that even in the midst of a bayonet charge an
Irishman can always raise a laugh. "Look at thim divils retratin' with
their backs facin' us," was an Irish remark about the Germans that made
his fellows roar. And when the Fusiliers heard the story of the Kaiser's
lucky shamrock, one of them said: "Sure, an' it'll be moighty lucky for
him if he doesn't lose it"; adding to one of three comrades, "There'll
be a leaf apiece for us, Hinissey, when we get to Berlin."
In the fighting the Irish have done big things and their dash and
courage have filled their British and French comrades with admiration.
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