During the period of British rule, press gangs operated in Ireland as they did in Britain, conscripting men to serve in the Royal Navy.
[1] In 1793, the Irish Militia was established by the Dublin Castle administration as a result of the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars to defend Ireland from invasion.
[2] The Irish Volunteers, a paramilitary organisation founded in 1913, took the name of the 18th-century militia units raised in Ireland; both groups saw the fact that they were all-volunteer forces as a source of pride.
[6][7] In May 1941, there were reports that the Churchill war ministry was considering extending conscription, which was already in place in Great Britain, to Northern Ireland due to wartime demands.
[8] On 27 May, Winston Churchill told the House of Commons of the United Kingdom "it would be more trouble than it is worth" to introduce conscription to Northern Ireland, and the idea was abandoned.