This was not only from temperamental reasons: there was an official obstacle.

He was an individual member of the Convention: but he was Chairman of the Irish party, pledged not to bind it without its consent.

He felt, no doubt, that any detailed proposal from him would be taken as binding the party, whom he could not consult without bringing them into the secrets of the Convention.
But this attitude of self-abnegation was pushed very far by him, and perhaps too far.

In his early utterances he deprecated all official recognition of sections.

Yet from the moment when committees came to be appointed this recognition was claimed; and from the first the Ulster group maintained a compact organization.