There was passionate resentment against the Government, and the question was asked, For what were their men dying?
Redmond's answer could not be so confident as it would have been six months earlier.

There were many who said that he dare not face the country.

His answer to this was given at Waterford, where on October 6, 1916, his constituents received him with their old loyalty--though now for the first time there were hostile voices in the crowd.

He spoke out very plainly, saying with justice that in all his life he had never played to the gallery and would not now.
Things had to be looked at squarely.
"We have taken a leap back over generations of progress, and have actually had a rebellion, with its inevitable aftermath of brutalities, stupidities and inflamed passions." He would impugn no man's motives, least of all the motives of the dead; but those who had set this train of events in motion had been always the enemies of the constitutional movement.

The constitutional movement must go on, he said; but it would be folly to pretend that it could go on as if nothing had happened.