In all, about 210,000 Irishmen served in the British forces during World War One. Since there was no conscription, about 140,000 of these joined during the war as volunteers. Some 35,000 Irish died. Irishmen enlisted for the war effort for a variety of reasons. Some, just like their fellows in other warring states, joined up for the perceived justice of the cause. But in Ireland, which in 1914 was deeply divided between nationalist and unionist political groups, more local considerations played an important part for many individuals. Nationalists, for whom the establishment of an Irish home rule parliament in Dublin had been the principal political aim for most of the 19th century, were committed to the war effort by their leader, John Redmond, in September 1914. This was on the grounds that the necessary legislation had been passed (though in fact it was suspended for the duration of the war), and that the freedom of small nations (such as Belgium or Serbia) was that of Ireland as well. The plight of gallant, Catholic little Belgium, invaded by a militaristic aggressor, was disadvantageously compared with Ireland, achieving freedom (so Redmond argued) within the British Empire, rather like Canada or Australia. Unionists, who were particularly concentrated in the northern province of Ulster, naturally needed less justification to join up. Having from 1912 organised a sizeable, armed, paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) to oppose home rule and secure the union with Great Britain, they could scarcely stand idly by when Great Britain itself went to war. Despite some jockeying for party advantage, a substantial proportion of the UVF enlisted to form the predominantly unionist and almost wholly Protestant 36th (Ulster) Division. Nationalists, themselves mostly Catholic, joined the other two of Lord Kitcheners New Army divisions raised in Ireland: the 10th (Irish) and 16th (Irish) Divisions.But Irishmen joined up for more than political reasons. Some were simply after adventure, like Tom Barry, later to become a noted IRA commander, who enlisted in June 1915 to see what war was like, to get a gun, to see new countries and to feel like a grown man. For others there was an economic motive. James Connolly, the socialist revolutionary, said that employment opportunities were so bad in Ireland that men had no choice but to enlist. It was, he asserted, economic conscription. Certainly an unskilled worker might more than double his pay by joining up. By some accounts, Francis Ledwidge, poet, nationalist and trade union organiser, enlisted on the rebound from an unhappy love affair. And yet others, as the historian Philip Orr has argued, may have been borne along on a surge of naive patriotism. The first of the Irish New Army Divisions to see action was the 10th Division, which landed at Suvla Bay in Gallipoli in August 1915. The composition of one battalion, the 7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers, illustrates the wide social range of Irish recruits. D Company, which was nicknamed The Footballers included many rugby-playing professional men, as well as a professor of law from Dublin University who died at Suvla. But another company in the battalion contained Dublin Dockers, many of them Larkinites after the charismatic radical trade union leader, James Larkin. Francis Ledwidge, who served here with the Royal Iniskilling Fusiliers, remarked after one battle, It was a horrible and a great day. I would not have missed it for worlds. The other two divisions served in France, both taking part in the Battle of the Somme. The 36th (Ulster) Division had the worst of it, going over the top on the first day, 1 July, and suffering terrible casualties. On 1 and 2 July the division lost 5,500 killed, wounded or missing out of a total of about 15,000. Because 1 July coincided with an important Orange anniversary - it was the original date (before the calendar was changed by 11 days in 1752) of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 - the losses came to be identified particularly with the Ulster Unionist cause. And the close-knit character of the formation meant that the casualties had a disproportionate impact back home. The 12 July Orange parades were cancelled, and five minutes silence was observed in Belfast that day. The 16th (Irish) Division first saw serious action in September 1916, still as part of the long drawn-out Somme campaign. Eight months later, up the line in Belgium, the 16th and 36th Divisions fought alongside each other at the Battle of Messines, causing some observers to hope that the common experience of unionists and nationalists serving together on the battlefield might help political reconciliation back home - a hope, in the end, which was not fulfilled. At Messines, John Redmonds younger brother, Willie, was killed. Although it was just one of so many individual tragedies, Willie Redmonds death was particularly poignant. Although over 50 years old, he had insisted both on joining up and on serving in the front line. I cant stand asking fellows to go and not offer myself, he wrote. From here: bbc.co.uk/history/british/britain_wwone/ireland_wwone_01.shtml#one
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 01:42:04 +0000
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