"Yes, and it was a total failure because Irishmen VOLUNTEERED"
Some did and for different reasons as did the volunteers of Britain
"Home rule was in the bag."
Until Lloyd George moved the goalposts.
As it happens, it was always and only the Unionists who offered opposition to Home Rule - from the very outset in the 19th century, even to the point of threatening Civil War - you have the evidence, but here's a little more.
This is what Winston Churchill had to say on the Unionists continuing opposition to the Home Rule bill just as World War One broke out and after The Bill had been agreed on in principle only by those attending the Buckingham Palace Conference:
"According to Winston Churchill, the conference 'toiled round the muddy byways of Fermanagh and Tyrone', but there was no spirit of generous compromise, and the talks broke down. Sir Edward Carson certainly thought that civil war was unavoidable: 'I see no hopes of peace. I see nothing at present but darkness and shadows.... We shall have once more to assert the manhood of our race.'
A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes (Jonathan Bardon, 2008)
"There was no fear of conscription, and no need to fear. It was never imposed."
It was never opposed because compulsory involvement in the war was totally opposed from the beginning, even by the Irish Parliamentarians who supported remaining in the Empire (for six years, if you repeat this again I will have no alternative to dredge up every shred of evidence I have put up and anything else I can find - is that what you really want
"The rebels had nothing to offer, but blood and death for nothing".
Melodramatic, Post Imperialist jingoistic sloganising that could have come from an early 20th century poster.
Please try to reach some degree of maturity in your arguments and inject a little reality into this Keith
I remind you that you have yet to produce one single scrap of documented evidence of your case from the beginning of this - what you have to say is all personally opinion and we have all been aware where that stems from for a long, long time - certainly not from an interest or a modicum of knowledge of Ireland or her history - you've told us that.
Jim Carroll