Historical Background

A Brief Synopsis

The full story of the Irish soldiers from both Nationalist and Unionist traditions who served side-by-side as members of the British army in WW1 is only now emerging from almost a century of at best ambivalence and at worst political suppression and disinformation.

From one viewpoint their legacy can be seen as the sacrificial slaughter of a generation of young men who shared neither the public school idealism of heroic sacrifice epitomised by Rupert Brooke, nor the propaganda-induced patriotic camaraderie of the Pals Battalions who answered Kitchener’s call: ‘Your Country Needs You.’

Yet many soldiers from each tradition had been motivated to enlist by their separate political leaders. Shortly before the outbreak of the War, the Home Rule Bill for Ireland had been passed by the House of Commons and awaited only the symbolic approval of the Lords to become law. This would give the island of Ireland a degree of self-determination and autonomy within the Empire. It was the culmination of a long campaign against British rule, exploitative landlords, poverty and oppression. Yet already, in Ulster, Lord Edward Carson was rallying the Unionist people to sign the Ulster Covenant opposing such a move.

Since January 1913 the Loyalists had been preparing to defend their Province militarily, as the Ulster Defence force. By November that year the Irish National Volunteers were mobilising along similar lines, to oppose them. Leaders of the Home Rule movement, which was headed by the nationalist MP John Redmond, watched them closely. Redmond led an influential Nationalist group in the Commons, which included MPs Stephen Gwynn, Tom Kettle and Redmond’s younger, more outspoken brother Willie.

When war was declared, both the Unionist and the Home Rule leaders urged their supporters to enlist. The Unionists believed that a show of loyalty to Britain would ensure the scrapping of any Home Rule bill after the war was won; Nationalist leaders believed a display of loyalty to Britain would engender trust and enable Ireland to enter the Empire as a free, independent and self-governing member sharing equal rights with any other member country.

Many Irish men, joined for other reasons, as well. Records show that hundreds, if not thousand s of them were career soldiers – in peacetime, the army offered job security and reasonably good wages. Others were lured away by the promise of travel, even the excitement. Some, including my own antecedent, went, undoubtedly, to escape problems at home.

35 thousand Irish-born soldiers died in WW1. Time and again they were subjected to the hopeless strategies of inadequate, obstinate and woefully misguided leaders. After the 1916 Rising, many British people questioned Irish loyalty.

While they were political opponents at home, once the young Irish men landed on French soil it became commonplace for the Ulster Rifles and the Irish Volunteers to serve in the same operations, their British army uniform distinguished only by the orange or green shoulder badge. Differences were forgotten in the common inhumanity of war. At the Battle for Messines in June 1917 they fought side by side for the first time.

The nationalist MPs who had themselves enlisted in the army saw this as a way forward for their country; an example which would be built on in peace time. It would secure the principles of equality, and an end to discrimination on religious and political grounds, which would surely follow the granting of Home Rule after the war.

Felicity McCall