Ireland and World War I

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 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.

[3][4] "I joined the British Army because she stood between Ireland and an enemy common to our civilization, and I would not have her say that she defended us while we did nothing at home but pass resolutions".After the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising – including his friend and literary mentor Thomas MacDonagh – were executed during his military leave, he said: "If someone were to tell me now that the Germans were coming in over our back wall, I wouldn't lift a finger to stop them.

This war is undertaken in the defence of the highest principles of religion and morality and right, and it would be a disgrace for ever to our country and a reproach to her manhood and a denial of the lessons of her history if young Ireland confined their efforts to remaining at home to defend the shores of Ireland from an unlikely invasion, and to shrinking from the duty of proving on the field of battle that gallantry and courage which has distinguished our race all through its history.

I am glad to see such magnificent material for soldiers around me, and I say to you: "Go on drilling and make yourself efficient for the Work, and then account yourselves as men, not only for Ireland itself, but wherever the fighting line extends, in defence of right, of freedom, and religion in this war .

It would be a disgrace forever to our country otherwise 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.

[further explanation needed] 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.

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.

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".

[15] 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.

[20] 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".

Kitchener was certainly not inclined to, as he saw it, waste valuable officers and equipment on such a force which, at best, would relieve Territorial units from garrison duties and, at worst, would provide Irish Nationalists with the ability [by training them in the means of War] to enforce Home Rule [when they returned] on their own terms'.

In December the division moved to France, joining the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Irish Major General William Hickie, and spent the duration of the war in action on the Western Front.

Wilson reported to the Army Commander Monro (6 January) that the division, despite having been training since September–October 1914, would not be fit to serve in an active part of the line for six weeks.

During these two successful actions between 1 and 10 September its casualties amounted to 224 officers and 4,090 men; despite these very heavy losses the division gained a reputation as first-class shock troops.

The 36th, under Major General Oliver Nugent, was one of the few divisions to make significant gains on the first day on the Somme in July 1916, when it attacked between the Ancre and Thiepval against a position known as the Schwaben Redoubt, according to military historian Martin Middlebrook.

The Germans were pushing their advance through Belgium to encircle Paris within three weeks (Schlieffen Plan), when on 27 August the 2nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers was chosen for the arduous task of forming the rearguard to cover the retreat of the British Expeditionary Force during the Battle of Mons.

[58] The Munsters' and Irish Guards' experience was typical of the decimation of the highly trained pre-war British Army in the campaigns of 1914 in France and Belgium.

[59] For this reason, it was necessary to deploy, first reservists to replace casualties, and then the wartime volunteers of Kitchener's New Army (including the 10th, 16th and 36th Irish Divisions), in order to fight a war of an unprecedented scale.

Following the successful engagement of the Dublin Fusiliers during the Arras Offensive in April, the 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions fought alongside each other to capture the Belgium village of Wijtschate in a well planned attack in June 1917 at the Battle of Messines.

The subsequent battle was a complete success militarily, the two divisions showing great fortitude—the Germans were no match for them as they mopped up all resistance, advancing over two miles in a few days with minimal losses, incredible by Western Front standards.

Irish manpower was reallocated to other Divisions when following the American campaigns they took part in the final Hundred Days Offensive which by October drove the Germans back from territory gained in the previous four years, to end the war.

As a result, Irish, British, French, Australian and New Zealand troops were formed into the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force and transported from Britain to Gallipoli for a land invasion.

Heavy losses encountered on the Western Front after the great German spring offensive, resulted in the transfer of 60,000 men from Palestine to France, including ten battalions of the 10th Division.

[76] Several reasons may explain this, one being high unemployment in Ireland and another being the rise of militant nationalism in the country, which in many cases was hostile to those who had served in the British forces.

Thousands of these ex-servicemen re-enlisted in the emerging Free State's newly formed National Army on the pro-Treaty side after the outbreak in June 1922, of the Irish Civil War, during which multiple atrocities were committed.

Although the Irish government donated £50,000 in 1927 towards the construction of a Great War Memorial in Dublin, they put it in Islandbridge, outside the city centre, rather than in Merrion Square as originally proposed.

Government minister Kevin O'Higgins (whose two brothers had served in the world war) summed up the dilemma of the moderate nationalist Cumann na nGaedheal government, "I say that any intelligent visitor, not particularly versed in the history of the country, would be entitled to conclude that the origins of this State were connected with...the memorial in that park Merrion Square and the lives lost in the Great War in France, Belgium, Gallipoli and so on.

[94] The unveiling of a Cross of Sacrifice to honour Irish soldiers who died in both world wars, took place at Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin, on 31 July 2014.