"Irishmen did not and would not volunteer to expand the British Empire."
Nope - they went out because they were offered jobs, an easy war and meals every day, which many of them did not have at home.
Expalin the sudden U-turn - from support for Britain to a War of Independence that drove Britain out of Ireland in a matter of months.
Ireland had everey reason to hate Britain in teh shape of a deliberately manipulated Famine ("God's punishment for indolence" according to Sir Charlie") and mass enforced (sail or starve) immigration.
As with every nation, the Irish have their flaws, but they would have to be a nation of masochists to support a nation which did that to them.
The war provided work and wages, as it did for many in Britain - it turned out to be not as easy as they had been led to believe.
Jim Carroll