ingredient.

I shall have to talk about the Irish soldiers in this Preface; and I
want any comrade of theirs who is not Irish who may chance to see
these lines, and any other reader who is not Irish, to bear in mind
that it is about Irish soldiers I am intended to talk here, and not
about others; that that is my business here; and I would beg them to
understand that in fulfilling this duty I am not overlooking for a
moment the renown of English, Scottish, Welsh, or Dominion soldiers.
Also, I would like to tell them this: that it is from the Irish
soldiers--and I have listened to it from their lips again and
again--you will hear the heartiest and warmest tributes to the valour
and staunchness of their British and Dominion comrades. These gallant
comrades, I know, will be the last to begrudge us the pious task of
making some record of the Irishmen's work who have fought and died by
their side, and of trying to add, as her sons would wish, to Ireland's
honour through their deeds. The official record has not been copious,
and Ireland may be pardoned the watchfulness of a mother's pride.

Let me turn from the soldiers themselves for a moment to look at the
significance of the part they are playing before history. It is
important for Ireland, and I am sure it is also important for the
British Empire, and perhaps for America as well, to appreciate the
part taken by the Irish troops in this war. The war, which in a night
changed so many things, offered to Ireland a new international place,
and her brave sons, not hesitating, acting upon a sure and noble
instinct, have leaped forward to occupy it for her. After long
struggles the Irish people had won back from England a series of
rights--ownership of the land, religious equality, educational
freedom, local self-government--an advance which had coincided with
and been helped by the emancipation and rise of British democracy. The
culmination was reached when in the session of 1914 the Imperial
Parliament passed the Act to establish national self-government.
Ireland had said, "Trust me with this, and I will wipe out the past
and be loyal to the Empire"; and the answer--somewhat long delayed, no
doubt, but still it came--was the King's signature to the Government
of Ireland Act. Thus when the war arrived Ireland had at once a
charter of rights and liberties of her own to defend, and, like
Botha's South Africa, her plighted word to make good. The war by a
most fortunate conjunctio