But neither of them was able to control the imperious colleague who now had taken charge of the Army, and who in the most critical moment thwarted effectually the designs of Liberal statesmanship in Ireland.
After Redmond's death an "Appreciation" published in _The Times_ (with the signature "A.B.,") by Mr.Birrell, contained this passage: "He felt to the very end, bitterly and intensely, the stupidity of the War Office.

Had he been allowed to deflect the routine indifference and suspicion of the War Office from its old ruts into the deep-cut channels of Irish feelings and sentiments, he might have carried his countrymen with him, but he jumped first and tried to make his bargain afterwards and failed accordingly.

English people, as their wont is, gushed over him as an Irish patriot and flouted him as an Irish statesman.

Had he and his brother been put in charge of the Irish Nationalist contingents, and an Ulster man, or men, been put in a corresponding position over the Irish Protestant contingents, all might have gone well.

Lord Kitchener, who was under the delusion that he was an Irishman no less than Redmond, was the main, though not the only obstacle in the path of good sense and good feeling." Yet it is, to say the least, not clear why Lord Kitchener should have been allowed to be an obstacle.