At 12 noon I made my adieus to all and set out for the station, which is three miles away... The train arrives at 2.40 pm...instead of 2.00 pm. It is crowded with reservists. Every unit in the army is represented; the majority are uproariously drunk... The occupants of every carriage were singing. The crowd of country people who were assembled on the platform were truly amazed, I overheard such observations as, ‘They must all be mad; fancy men singing and they going off to be killed, for killed they will surely be as the English always put the Irish in front of the battle’. ’Twas a common belief in the country places in Ireland that the English always put the Irish in front in every engagement in order to get as many Irishmen as possible killed, so that if Ireland ever had to fight England for Home Rule they would have less Irishmen to oppose them. << less