The National Volunteers were therefore a minority among the 206,000 Irishmen who served as volunteers for the British Army in the war .
The National Volunteers so failed to constitute a nascent Irish Army as Redmond had hoped .
The National Volunteers were therefore a minority among the 206,000 Irishmen who served as volunteers for the British Army in the war , and so failed to constitute a nascent Irish Army as Redmond had hoped .