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Column Remember those who fought in WWI – they were as diverse, and Irish, as any of us

The 140,000 Irishmen who enlisted during WWI marched under a British flag, but their reasons for enlisting to fight against Germany were varied and many.

EVERY VILLAGE, town and city is Ireland has one, be it a small grave marked with military insignias or a monumental stone affair carved with hundreds of names of young men. World War I memorials have largely been forgotten in the annals of Irish history, outshadowed by their more politically dramatic cousins, the cenotaphs of the Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War, but they are a physical and poignant reminder of the sacrifice made by 140,000 enlisted Irishmen during a conflict that has shaped the world we live in and how we perceive ourselves as Irish men and women in it.

As the Irish Nation we tend to think of the World Wars as being foreign affairs, foreign history, but although we live on an island we are aware that great world events, and disasters, are interconnected to us through our indelible historic links to the British Empire and to Europe as a whole.

The First World War was an international cataclysm; its mass slaughter had an effect on human social and political thinking that cannot be practically expressed in a short article such as this. In historical terms we can divide our modern history into before and after 1914-1918. Social movements in workers’ unions, women’s right (the suffragettes) and welfare entitlements became invigorated by the events of the War and moved at-pace to sweep away Victorian ideals and outdated institutions that stifled equality and lower class prosperity.

A misconception about men who volunteered

The political effects of the War were felt as much in Ireland as they were across the rest of the world. Social revolutions were followed by political ones, old monarchs and orders were swept aside, and it was with great difficultly that mainland Britain kept control of her democratic-monarchy during the social turbulence that followed the fighting.

There is a misconception that the 140,000 men who volunteered to serve on the Western Front were all Protestant, Unionist, Irish men with anti-nationalist and anti-home-rule loyalties to King and Country, but statistics and documentation from the soldiers themselves prove that is not the case. Irish regulars and volunteers came from all backgrounds, both religions and every corner of the country. Their reasons for enlisting to fight against Germany were varied and many.

Some fought out of a sense of duty, some believed that the Union between Britain and Ireland would be strengthened by their actions against a common foe, while others, conversely, believed that by helping to defeat the Kaiser’s armies that Ireland would be rewarded with Home Rule, a long sought after goal. Many of those who marched off to France and Belgium in 1914 were simply fooled, like the millions of other soldiers on all sides, into believing that war was a romantic, heroic and dutiful thing. They would find out to their great cost that warfare had become ‘Total’ and there was nothing romantic about it. Those who returned home to their respective nations in 1918 would not just be returning to a different political landscape, they themselves had changed beyond all recognition.

Disillusioned with the political processes in Ireland

In the trenches of the Western Front, Easter 1916, life was a bleak, daily dice with death; news from home was always welcomed as a small comfort to soldiers numbed by the mass slaughter around them. But letters describing the events in Dublin Easter 1916 would have left many of those men shocked, angry and more disillusioned with the political processes in Ireland. They had fought the Germans in a realistic hope of Irish Home Rule, many perhaps believing that this would be a step toward full independence, but now that hope seemed to lie in pieces around them.

A series of executions helped to swing Nationalist support away from the Parliamentary Party and behind the more radical Sinn Fein Party. Irish Nationalist soldiers, in the King’s uniform, at the front, found themselves in an impossible quandary. They would return home not as heroes and Irishmen, but as British soldiers, an enemy in their own land.

Many found themselves ostracised from their own communities

The personal aftermath for many returning Irish servicemen depended on their geographical position and their religion. The election in December 1918 was a clear endorsement of Sinn Fein outside of the traditional Unionist areas. The efforts made in the war were sidelined in the southern Nationalist provinces, whereas the sacrifices at the Somme and Messines Ridge became part of the social heritage of the new Unionist Northern Ireland.

As positions became polarised throughout the country many of the forgotten volunteers of WWI drifted into one camp or another, taking arms in the War of Independence, taking sides in the Civil War or answering the rallying call to defend Unionism in the north. But not all veterans chose to fight on in Ireland’s darkest days. Many found themselves ostracised from their own political communities, former Nationalist friends turned their backs on them and their actions in the Great War, foolish or brave, became marginalised in Irish collective memory and official history; a harrowing portend of the same social and political ostracising that tens of thousands of Irishmen would suffer when they joined Britain’s armed forced in the Second World War, for economic rather than ideological reasons.

This year we commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the start of World War I. It is perhaps the defining event of our leap from the ages of Enlightenment to what we call Modern. Although there will be few official tributes to the 35,000 Irish men who gave their lives in WWI, I think if we pass a forgotten roadside memorial to those men, in whatever town or city we’re in, we should take a moment to remember that they were as diverse and Irish as any of us are today.

Steve Downes is an Irish contemporary poet, historian and novelist, currently living and working in Ireland. Steve is the author of The Botolf Chronicles, WarWorld and several collections of poetry including Urbania and the Pagan Field.

Read: Blood, swords and Iceland: A new way of looking at the Battle of Clontarf

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    Mute Ciaran Ó Fallúin
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    Nov 15th 2017, 2:42 PM

    Exercising his right to be all kinds of wrong.

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    Mute Gillian Weir Scully
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    Nov 15th 2017, 9:35 PM

    @Cultural Marxist: Quite right too and how many female mass murderers?

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    Mute Cultural Marxist
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    Nov 15th 2017, 9:40 PM

    @Gillian Weir Scully: Indeed.

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Nov 15th 2017, 3:50 PM

    Another case of a mass shooter having a history of domestic violence. If only there was some kind of law to prevent those with convictions from having access to guns. It must be hard for Americans to figure out….

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    Mute Deborah Behan
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    Nov 15th 2017, 3:53 PM

    @Deborah Behan: and why did he go to the school? He must have wanted to kill the kids inside! Absolutely nuts.

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    Mute Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa
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    Nov 15th 2017, 3:56 PM

    @Deborah Behan: In a country with such easy access to weapons a law like that would be pointless. I think getting upset about shootings in the US is a waste of time. It’s over, and the gun lovers won and won well. With more guns than people a change in any of the laws is futile. Just let them enjoy their freedom.

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    Mute Thought for Food
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    Nov 15th 2017, 4:03 PM

    @Deborah Behan:

    Yes, if only felonies prohibited people from legally acquiring and owning firearms in the US.

    Oh wait, it’s already outlined in Chapter 18 of the USC that felons cannot own firearms.

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    Mute Larissa Caroline Nikolaus
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    Nov 15th 2017, 4:54 PM

    @Thought for Food: Go back, stroke your guns, troll, no-one cares to listen to your bs excuses for these killers

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    Mute David On Tour
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    Nov 15th 2017, 9:41 PM

    @Thought for Food: You’re clearly an expert on US gun law. Tell me, exactly why would any member of the public need to own a firearm?

    I’m interested because a guy on twitter told me earlier he needed a gun to defend himself against bears. I’m hopeful you can come up with an even dafter excuse.

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    Mute GClare
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    Nov 16th 2017, 1:00 AM

    @Deborah Behan: he had to surrender his licenced guns after charges earlier in the year , the ones he used were illegal and registered to someone else

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    Mute Michael Heery
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    Nov 16th 2017, 2:51 AM

    @Diarmaid Mac Aonghusa: about 400 millions guns in private hands ,,,africa is safer.

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    Mute Thought for Food
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    Nov 16th 2017, 6:15 AM

    @David On Tour:

    How is defending themselves from a bear a daft excuse? Bear attacks on trails in the US are a relatively frequent occurrence.

    The needs for guns are varied. Target practice, hunting, self defence and just because someone wants one are all valid reasons.

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    Mute RónanMullsHisFaith#8
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    Nov 16th 2017, 7:08 AM

    @David On Tour: there is approx 8 million Americans that own on average anything between 8 to 142 guns..They need these guns to be able to shoot up tanks,fighter jets and incoming tomahawk missiles that have been fired from aircraft carriers..Any other silly question?

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    Mute Benson Hallahan
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    Nov 16th 2017, 8:35 AM

    @RónanMullsHisFaith#8: Don’t forget hurricanes!!

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    Mute Ciarán Masterson
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    Nov 15th 2017, 3:03 PM

    “Neal’s mother told The Associated Press her son, who was a marijuana grower, was in a long-running dispute with neighbours he believed were cooking methamphetamine.”

    Well, he was definitely breaking bad!

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    Mute Northern Craic
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    Nov 15th 2017, 11:42 PM

    @Ciarán Masterson: Nice neighbourhood.

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    Mute Polly Dolan
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    Nov 15th 2017, 2:53 PM

    Let’s be clear here he terrorised no one. Just an unhappy chap.

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    Mute Kerry Blake
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    Nov 15th 2017, 9:34 PM

    Well at least the guns involved didn’t kill anyone. Just another subject who had easy access to weapons….

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    Mute Thought for Food
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    Nov 16th 2017, 6:17 AM

    @Kerry Blake:

    He was legally barred from acquiring or holding firearms. How exactly is that “easy access”?

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    Mute Frank Hunt
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    Nov 16th 2017, 6:31 AM

    @Thought for Food: He was legally barred but yet got his hands on a semi automatic rifle and two hand guns, seems like easy access to me.

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    Mute RónanMullsHisFaith#8
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    Nov 16th 2017, 7:11 AM

    @Thought for Food: give up man.Your a$$has been handed to you on a plate sooo many times on this very subject..

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    Mute Thought for Food
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    Nov 16th 2017, 7:48 AM

    @Frank Hunt:

    So what would have prevented the same attack from happening here then? After all, the Bataclan attackers had easy access to automatic firearms even though legally they were forbidden from having them anywhere in the EU.

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    Mute John Owens
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    Nov 16th 2017, 3:59 PM

    @Thought for Food: have you lost your mind. All across the states there could be a mass shooting for every day of the week, but there hasn’t been more than a handful across all of Europe and Australia who are much stricter on gun ownership. You can ignore arguments if you like, but you can’t deny the endless reports coming out of one place where the laws are different… it’s not up for question at all. Americans in certain areas are complete idiots. It’s about time California and New York broke off from the madness in the middle. Most of the gang crime is in the major cities anyway where gun laws would be easier to police

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    Mute Bob Murphy
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    Nov 15th 2017, 9:37 PM

    It must be a muslim

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    Mute David Cagney
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    Nov 15th 2017, 10:38 PM

    The GOP, the NRA, Christian Republicanism, the organisations that just keep on giving. How else would we have thoughts and prayers?

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    Mute Fiona deFreyne
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    Nov 15th 2017, 10:31 PM

    The killer used the guns for the purpose for which they are designed and manufactured, that is to kill and injure people.

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    Mute Martin Sinnott
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    Nov 15th 2017, 9:57 PM

    Not news anymore! Only the friends and relatives will Romberg this in six months. Mass shootings in USA

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    Mute Northern Craic
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    Nov 15th 2017, 11:49 PM

    @Martin Sinnott: There’s a news organisations guideline in place that says mass shooting incidents in the States that result in fewer than 5 deaths are no longer deemed newsworthy anymore. Not sure why this one got through – likely the school/kids element.

    So you’re correct, this isn’t news anymore.

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    Mute Cormac Ó Braonáin
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    Nov 16th 2017, 12:37 AM

    a lovely country

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    Mute John Mulligan
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    Nov 16th 2017, 7:33 AM

    The home of the brave.

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