National Volunteers

The National Volunteers is the name taken by the group of the Irish Volunteers that sided with Irish 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 placement of the Home Rule Act 1914 on the statute books, Redmond made a speech in Woodenbridge, County Wicklow on September 20, in which he encouraged members of the Volunteers to enlist in the new Irish Divisions of the British Army. 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, and the National Volunteers kept some 175,000 members, leaving the Irish Volunteers with a mere estimated 13,500. But many members joined the 10th (Irish) Division or the 16th (Irish) Division, and took no part in the events to follow, notably the Easter Rising, thus playing little role in Anglo-Irish War or the Irish Civil War and politics from then on.