Conscripts, or even suspected conscripts received poor treatment when joining Irish units. A draft of English conscripts to the 14th Rpyal Irish Rifles appears to have been dubbed the 'Gawd blimy brigade'. Edward Bowyer-Green, drafted into the 15th Royal Irish Rifles from the 25th London Regiment, received an even less effusive welcome. As he noted, 'We were the pariahs you see, although we were helping their battalion we weren't one of them, they made out we were conscripts but we weren't, we were volunteers, territorials'. Some officers felt that the policy of drafting Englishmen to Irish battalions had all but destroyed the regimental system.

'Irish Regiments in the Great War : Discipline and Morale' by Timothy Bowman.