 Confiding to an old friend before he returned to the front ""I'm going back to get killed"", Redmond believed that by serving together in the trenches the different populations in Ireland could be reconciled, and hoped that Ireland's Protestants would thereby come to accept Home Rule.The Irish troops of the 16th and 36th Divisions made a shoulder-to-shoulder successful advance in the great attack on the Messines Ridge towards the small village of "Wytschaete" (now Wijtschate) next to Messines.On going over the top Redmond, leading his men, was one of the first out of the trenches.