In the summer of 1914 the Great Powers of Europe went to war. The reach of these empires saw forces skirmish and fight across all corners of the globe while men were drawn from around the world to fight in the main theatres in Europe. Ireland was one of the many nations dragged into quagmire of war after Britain declared war on Germany, ostensibly at least, for the violation of Belgian sovereignty. Here the call to arms was answered by a myriad of people driven by various goals, dreams, and ideals.
In September 1914 the Home Rule Bill received Royal Assent. Though the outbreak of war forced the enactment of the bill to be delayed it was promised that Ireland would have Home Rule ‘not later than the end of the present war’. Capitalising on this triumph John Redmond called on Irish nationalists to enlist for the British Army.
By proving that Ireland would be a voluntary ally of Britain Redmond hoped to secure political favour for Ireland’s cause and the case for self-governance. A great many men heeded Redmond’s call including large numbers of the nationalist Irish Volunteers; setting aside their grievances with the British and unionists to go and fight the Hun.
Irish World War One recruitment poster
When Kitchener’s call for volunteers rang out unionists around Ireland answered en masse. For most of them it was simply the duty to fight for king and country that brought them to the recruiting station. For many, however, there was also an undercurrent of political motivation drawing them to join the fight in France and further afield.
The promise to bring Home Rule to Ireland with no overt assurances that a separate unionist state would be created in Ulster dismayed Carson, Craig, and their supporters. Terrified of becoming an oppressed minority under a Catholic dominated Home Rule Ireland the unionists had pledged to fight ‘Rome Rule’, with force if necessary. The Ulster Volunteers were formed as a result of this pledge, their presence threatening violence should Home Rule be forced on them.
With war engulfing Europe, however, a new plan was devised for this force and they surged forward to join Kitchener’s Army; eager to prove themselves loyal subjects of the British Crown. Like Redmond the unionists hoped that this act of fealty would endear Parliament and the British to their cause and secure Ulster independence from the Catholic South, if not a repeal of the Home Rule Bill. Furthermore, how could these loyal sons of Ulster shirk their duty when so many nationalists were going off to fight?
The Ulster Volunteer force in Belfast, 1914
Though the most historically significant reasons for enlisting, nationalist and unionist political motivations were far from the only factors pushing Irishmen to go and fight in Flanders fields and the greed fields of France. Pay, pals, and principles may in fact be more responsible for sending an estimated 200,000 Irishmen to the battlefields of the Great War than domestic political concerns.
Throughout history Ireland has exported its men to fight in foreign armies. In France and Spain, Austria, Sweden, and Poland the Irish built a reputation as soldiers of renown; the American Civil War even saw Irishmen fighting in Union Blue and Confederate Grey. After the Penal Laws were done away with at the end of the 18th century, however, Britain quickly became the main destination for Irish soldiers.
Officers of the 88th Regiment of Foot (the Connaught Rangers) during the Crimea War in 1855
The British Army had always played second fiddle to the navy and soldiering had long been a disparaged career. With few prospects open to them, however, many Irish men had little choice but to wear a redcoat. The Irish soon became a staple in the British Army with many named regiments popping up, including the establishment of the Irish Guards in 1900. By the start if the First World War this tradition of service was still strong and Ireland provided 57,000 of the men who made up the British Expeditionary Force who departed for Belgium and France to expel the invading Germans in August 1914.
While this promise of stable pay continued to draw Irishmen to the British Army long after 1914 the unique case of the First World War saw many other factors for enlisting emerge also. Kitchener’s call for volunteers saw the emergence of pals battalions. Made up of men who enlisted together many of these groups have garnered mythical status across Britain. This desire to serve with friends and family extended across the Irish Sea and men from factories, football teams, and unions around Ireland went off to Europe together, each man drawing those around him closer to joining the fighting on the front.
For many, if not most, of the men who volunteered for service in the First World War it was their principles that saw them enlist. In Ireland the call to defend poor Belgium and the civilised world from the invading Hun was plastered across the recruitment posters festooned around the island. The German invasion of small, neutral, Catholic Belgium struck a chord with many of the Irish at home. The news of atrocities being committed by the Kaiser’s forces gave even more moral weight to the British cause, making the decision to enlist a lot easier for many men. Their reasons for going are, however, as diverse as the men who served in the First World War.
Recruitment poster for the 199th (Duchess of Connaught's Own Irish Rangers) Battalion in 1915
Whatever their reasons for joining up by the time the guns stopped firing on November 11th 1918 roughly a third of Irishmen eligible for enlisting had served with the British forces in the First World War. These men served with distinction in theatres from Belgium and France to Turkey, Greece, and Palestine. During this time the Irish survived through the brutal gas attack at 2nd Ypres, the Gallipoli landings, the Somme offensive, and the quagmire of Passchendaele; earning 37 Victoria Crosses during this time. Still more Irish served in the armies of their adopted homelands; serving in the uniforms of Canada, the United States, and Australia to name but a few.
Many of those who left Ireland’s shores to fight the Hun never returned, while those who did came back to an island utterly changed by the conflict and political happenings at home. The 1916 Easter Rising and subsequent events in Ireland had radicalised Irish nationalism and killed Home Rule in its cradle. Some of those who returned from the front found themselves drawn to the fighting and brought their British training to the ranks of the IRA. Other soldiers found themselves shunned or even met with open hostility because of their service to the Crown.
In January 1919 the Irish War of Independence began and the role of the Irish in the Great War became forgotten in the shadow of this struggle and the subsequent Civil War. Today the national amnesia surrounding Ireland’s involvement in the First World War has lifted and the stories of the Irish men who served in British uniform are being publicly told. With years of centenary commemorations starting with the anniversary of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination this Saturday, the 28th of June, Ireland has the opportunity to publicly mourn all of her sons and daughters who died as a result of fighting from 1914-1918.
Irish Guards at the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, 1916
John Lucy's classic memoir, 'There's a Devil in the Drum', provides a fantastic first hand account of an Irishman's experience of the First World War as it follows John and his younger brother and documents their life in the Royal Irish Rifles from enlistment in 1912 to death and discharge. Neil Richardson's 'A Coward if I Return, A Hero if I Fall' offers more tales from Irishmen who served in the Great War, this time collected and complied by historian Neil Richardson. The Royal Irish Academy's 'Our War: Ireland and the Great War' offers the reader a more objective account of the Great War with numerous chapters by a variety of historians delving into the role Ireland played in the Great War and the impact the conflict had on the island.
For a full list of book recommendations from ‘Talking History’ click here.
