This was unusual in many respects. The initiative did not go out from the British Army, but from the West Clare M.P. Arthur Lynch whose intention was to raise a unit in 1918 which did not have the barriers against national identity which had affected the raising of the 16th Division. He had previously raised the Second Irish Brigade to fight for the Boers in the South African War, for which he had been sentenced to death by the British, which was later commuted. He then became involved in constitutional politics.