During World War I (1914–1918), Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which entered the war in August 1914 as one of the Entente Powers, along with France and Russia. In part as an effect of chain ganging, the UK decided due to geopolitical power issues to declare war on the Central Powers, consisting of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and later the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.
Occurring during Ireland's revolutionary period, the Irish people's experience of the war was complex and its memory of it divisive. At the outbreak of the war, most Irish people, regardless of political affiliation, supported the war in much the same way as their British counterparts, and both nationalist and unionist leaders initially backed the British war effort. Irishmen, both Catholic and Protestant, served extensively in the British forces, many in three specially raised divisions, while others served in the armies of the British dominions and the United States, John T. Prout being an example of the latter. Over 200,000 men from Ireland fought in the war, in several theatres. About 30,000 died serving in Irish regiments of the British forces,David Fitzpatrick, Militarism in Ireland, 1900–1922, in Tom Bartlet, Keith Jeffreys ed's, p. 397 and as many as 49,400 may have died altogether.
In 1916, Irish republicans took the opportunity of the ongoing war to proclaim an independent Irish Republic and launch an armed rebellion against British rule in Dublin, which Germany attempted to aid. In addition, Britain's intention to impose conscription in Ireland in 1918 provoked widespread resistance and, as a result, remained unimplemented.
After the end of the Great War, Irish republicans won the 1918 general election and declared Irish independence. This led to the Irish War of Independence (1919–1922), fought between the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and British forces. Ex-servicemen fought for both sides. During the War of Independence, the British government partitioned Ireland. This phase of conflict ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty which split Sinn Féin and the IRA, leading to the Irish Civil War (1922–1923) between pro-treaty and anti-treaty forces. The pro-treaty forces were victorious, with most of the island becoming the Irish Free State.
The remarks attributed to National Volunteer and poet, Francis Ledwidge, who was to die in preparation of the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, perhaps best exemplifies the changing Irish nationalist sentiment towards enlisting, the War, and to the Germans and British.
After the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising – including his friend and literary mentor Thomas MacDonagh – were executed during his military leave, he said:
Prelude to the Great War
Political climate in Ireland
The First World War was immediately preceded in Ireland by a major political crisis over Home Rule or Irish self-government.
The Government of Ireland Act 1914 received royal assent on 18 September 1914. However, the operation of this Act was suspended for the duration of the war. Moreover, it was resisted fiercely by Unionists, concentrated in Ulster. In 1913, they had formed an armed militia, the Ulster Volunteers, to resist the implementation of Home Rule or to exclude Ulster itself from the settlement. Nationalists in response formed a rival militia the Irish Volunteers, to "defend the constitutional rights of the Irish people",Horgan, John J.: Parnell to Pearse p. 256, Brown & Nolan Press Dublin (1946) and to put pressure on Britain to keep its promise of Home Rule.Collins, M.E., Sovereignty and partition, 1912–1949, p. 32, Edco Publishing (2004) Conflict between the two armed groups looked possible in the early months of 1914. The outbreak of war temporarily defused this crisis.
Nationalist response On 3 August 1914, John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, declared in the House of Commons, "the government may withdraw every one of their troops from Ireland and rely that the coast of Ireland will be defended from foreign invasion by her armed sons". His 'Home Defence' initiative was widely acclaimed, though not by all of the Irish Volunteers.Hennessey, Thomas: Dividing Ireland, World War I and Partition, Ireland in 1914 pp. 46–47, Routledge Press (1998) After Unionist leader Edward Carson urged Ulster Volunteers on 3 September to enlist in their new Ulster division and with the Home Rule Bill passing into law on 17 September, Redmond found himself under pressure to demonstrate commitment.Hennessey, Thomas: pp. 72–73 On 20 September, addressing a muster of Volunteers in Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, he called upon them to enlist in existing Irish regiments of the British army, in support of the Allied war effort:
Redmond's call came at a time of heightened emotions as the swift German advance through neutral Belgium was also threatening Paris. Redmond believed that Imperial Germany's hegemony and military expansion threatened the freedom of Europe and that it was Ireland's duty, having achieved future self-government through the passing of the Home Rule Bill. Many other parliamentary leaders, such as William O'Brien, Thomas O’Donnell, and Joseph Devlin, supported Redmond's decision. Redmond's own son, William Redmond, enlisted, as did his brother Major Willie Redmond MP, despite being aged over 50 years. They were among a group of five Irish MPs who enlisted, the others being J. L. Esmonde, Stephen Gwynn, and D. D. Sheehan, as well as former MP Tom Kettle.Department of the Taoiseach: Irish soldiers in the First World War, see also: * Initially, the Catholic Church in Ireland was also supportive of the War under the slogan of "save Catholic Belgium".Charles Townshend, Easter 1916, p. 78
The 180,000 Irish Volunteers were divided by Redmond's support for the British war effort. A large majority followed him, forming the National Volunteers. About 25,000 of these went on to serve in Irish regiments of the New British Army during the war. The remaining 10,000 Volunteers under Eoin MacNeill declared they would keep their organisation together and in Ireland until Home Rule was passed. A further 100,000 or more men, who were not members of the National Volunteers, enlisted from around Ireland in the New Army divisions for the duration of the war.
However, the more radical fringe of Irish nationalism, the remaining Irish Volunteers, and the secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood, rejected Irish participation in the war on Britain's side. They actively opposed enlistment and in secret, elements of them prepared an armed insurrection against British rule in Ireland which would later be known as the 1916 Easter Rising.
Redmond gave a speech in opposition to the Easter Rising in which he described it as a 'German intrigue'. His pleas, and Dillon's, that the rebels be treated leniently were ignored by the Irish public, and would later cost his party in the election following the War, as well as being of consequence to subsequent events such as the British military actions under martial law following the Easter Rising and the Conscription Crisis of 1918. Sinn Féin won the majority of seats (73 out of 105 seats) in the 1918 general election while the Irish Parliamentary Party and the Unionist Party won 6 and 22 seats respectively.
Unionist response Unionist leader Edward Carson promised immediate Unionist support for the war effort. He was motivated in this by two main factors, one being genuine identification with the British Empire, another being a desire to demonstrate the loyalty of Unionists to the British government, despite having formed an armed militia in defiance of it over Home Rule.McIntosh, Gillian: The force of Culture, Unionist Identities in 20th Century Ireland pp. 10–11
At this time, Herbert Kitchener was in the process of raising a New Service Army in support of the relatively small pre-war regular Army. The Unionists were granted their own Division, the 36th (Ulster) Division which had its own reserve militia officers and its own symbols. It was largely recruited from the Ulster Volunteer force and had a strongly Protestant and unionist identity.McIntosh: pp. 10–11
Redmond requested the War Office to allow the formation of a separate Irish Brigade as had been done for the Ulster Volunteers. The British Government, however, was suspicious of Redmond after he declared to the Volunteers that they would return as an armed and trained Irish Army by the end of 1915 to resist Ulster's opposition to Home Rule. Eventually he was granted the gesture of the 16th (Irish) Division. However, with the exception of its Irish General William Hickie and unlike the 36th (Ulster) Division, the 16th was led by English officers. Most Irish recruits lacked military training to act as officers.
According to David Lloyd George, Nationalist women had embroidered a green flag depicting the Celtic harp for the Irish division, and Unionist women had embroidered for the Ulster Division a flag emblazoned with the Red Hand of Ulster. Kitchener ordered the green flag with the harp to be taken away but he allowed the Ulster Division to keep their flag: "Ireland was deeply hurt. Her pride was cut to the quick, her sense of fair play was outraged, her sympathy with the Holy War against the military dictatorship of Europe was killed, and John Redmond's heart was broken".David Lloyd George, War Memoirs: Volume I (London: Odhams, 1938), p. 453. Lloyd George argued that thereafter, "the effort of Irish Nationalism to reconcile England and Ireland by uniting the two peoples in a common effort for the oppressed of another land failed, and Lord Kitchener's sinister order constituted the first word in a new chapter of Irish history".
In the judgement of one historian, "Both political camps [nationalist and unionist] expected the gratitude of the British administration for their willingness to sacrifice themselves and the rank and file of their parties. Neither foresaw that in the First World War, all special interests would be expendable".Gillian McIntosh, The force of Culture, Unionist Identities in 20th Century Ireland p. 11
Recruitment
A total of 206,000 Irishmen served in the British forces during the war.Fergus Campbell, Land and Revolution, Nationalist Politics in the West of Ireland 1891–1921, p. 196 Of these,
58,000 were already enlisted in the British Regular Army or Navy before the war broke out, including: 21,000 serving regular soldiers, 18,000 reservists, 12,000 in the Special Reserve, 5,000 Naval ratings and 2,000 officers.David Fitzpatrick, Militarism in Ireland 1900–1922, in Thomas Bartlet, Keith Jeffrey, ed. A Military History of Ireland, p. 386 130,000 were service volunteers recruited from Ireland for the duration of the war, including: 24,000 from the National Volunteers. 26,000 from the Ulster Volunteers. 80,000 with no experience in either of the paramilitary groups.Fitzpatrick, pp. 386–388
Of the wartime recruits, 137,000 went to the British Army, 6,000 to the Royal Navy, and 4,000 to the Royal Air Force.Fitzpatrick, p388. Fitzpatrick is the source for all the figures in bullets points above
According to historian David Fitzpatrick, "The proportion of eligible men who volunteered was well below that in Britain [...] even so, the participation of 200,000 Irishmen was proportionately the greatest deployment of armed manpower in the history of Irish militarism".Fitzpatrick, p. 388. The recruitment rate in Ulster matched that of Britain itself, Leinster and Munster were about two-thirds of the British rate of recruitment, and Connacht lagged behind them.Charles Townsend, 1916, The Easter Rising, p. 65 Overall, Protestants volunteered in higher proportions than Catholics,Coleman, Marie. The Irish Revolution, 1916–1923. Routledge, 2013. p.10 although in Ulster Catholics volunteered just as often as Protestants.James Loughin, in Ireland and the Great War: a war to unite us all? (Adrian Gregory, Senia Pašeta Ed.s) pp. 141–142