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AN POST HAVE launched two commemorative new stamps to mark the centenary of World War One.
The two stamps feature recruitment posters issued by the Central Council for the Organisation of Recruiting in Ireland that aimed to encourage Irish men to join the British war effort in Europe.
The stamps were designed by Irish designer Ger Garland.
The 68 cent and €1 stamp, together with a limited edition first day cover envelope, can be viewed and purchased at the GPO and all main post offices. The can also be viewed here.
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Almost 30, 000 Irish were killed druring WW1 fighting for Britain. This is a commemoration for them. It would be nice to leave out the politics and the living in the past.
That goes both ways, treat it as it was, a tragedy and a waste of life, none of this glory nonsense.
There was nothing glorious about Irish lads dying for an army and Govt. that saw them as inferior at home and to make sure that Germany did not get colonies or trade deals across Africa and Asia.
It was the product of the time, money was tight here, they were jobs and people thought it would be short, sharp and not too bloody.
Well said
Irish infantry regiments where not seen as inferior to any other regiment in the British army at the time . They fought for centuries in the British army and where glorified with battle honours and awards . The Irish have had more then there share of VC s .
We were treated as inferiors for 80 years by the catholic church supported ably by Dev and successive FF governments who governed for the vast periods since the inception of our state, These stamps recognise the brave contribution of our people whatever their intention was in a bloody war, for once leave the politics out of it.
Didn’t FG treat us as inferior as well. The contempt it had for the bottom half of Irish society made them unelectable for decades at a time.
Leaving politics out after that retort.
It is always interesting that so many in FG admire Collins and Redmond at the same time, even though Collins despised Redmond as a stooge and his party as corrupt, he viewed them as the internal enemy.
I would disagree with you regarding FGs treatment of what you call the bottom half of society, they as far as I am concerned treat everyone equally, they did not construct any tents in galway for the purposes of wining and dining the pseudo maker and shakers of our society and that’s me leaving politics aside, now re: Redmond not every fine gaeler held Redmond in esteem but you elude to that anyway, I certainly would not have held him in esteem that’s not saying I did not have respect for him, he was an honourable man but parnell or Collins he was not, I would have far more esteem for him though than that sleeveen dev.
Fair enough response. Tks.
Official figures put the Irish death toll in combat at 49,400. That does not take account of the thousands more who subsequently died of their wounds post WW1. Spanish Flu also took a massive toll killing many who came into contract with the returning servicemen.
Your first Duty is to your family !
John Redmond, poor auld eejit.
60 years his party tried for home rule and as soon as it came close the Tory party starting talking about a call for civil war, the British army mutinied and refused to uphold the law and Britain let the UVF set up a large army, while they shot civilians in Dublin who cheered for the Irish volunteers.
John’s response to the British military refusing to support his law was to encourage tens of thousands of poor lads to become cannon fodder in France so he could still have a pat on the head.
Eire and W.W.1 should not appear on the same piece of paper together …that’s like a commemorative stamp of Brian Boru appearing beside the E.U. ,..
Speaking of which is there a commemorative stamp of Brian Boru this year?
Hello, “Eire” may be legally required on the stamp for the purposes of licencing.
Any Irishman who fought for the enemy was a traitor.
How about burying the past? I’ve lived on the border, could do without that kind of attitude up there and anywhere else for that matter.
And you are both a troll and a fool, Kev (to think that anyone finds you funny).
Sheik….he’s not trying to be funny….maybe just expressing his opinion
Many of those who fought in WW1 went on to join the IRA to fight for Irish freedom
Neil I agree totally but why then commemorate one side of the event
If someone who fights for the enemy isn’t a traitor then I don’t know who is.
where can we bury it?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion but he is very quick to judge men out of hand who fought and died. That or he is trolling. I don’t have a very high opinion of a lot of republicans, having known people murdered in cold blood by some of them- I don’t tar people wit a brush like Kev seems to do though.
Extremist ideals like that are the only thing to consider an enemy.
Tom Barry probably the greatest ira commander of all time served in the British army during wartime you fool
Kev, you would wet yourself if you met any of those Irish soldiers face to face. the real traitors of this country were those that initiated a civil war after independence and those that murdered servants of this state not that long ago.
David, bury it – as in put the hatred behind us and move on, a lot of people in this country have done it to break the cycle of hatred.
Why is fighting still seen as the good, honourable and brave thing to do? Most of this savagery achieved nothing but death and misery for millions. Humanity needs to change its mindset.
Many others, James Connolly included
Right Neil. But, sadly, those who live in the past – like sryan on here – will always espouse their biggoted views.
No matter what….
Kev – there was an agreement to implement Home Rule which was postponed due to The Great War, the vast majority of Irishmen fought with that in mind and it was a very insignificant minority who took up arms in Ireland during the war are perhaps scuppered the opportunity of a peaceful transition.
Very nice stamps which reflect the general mood in the country in the run up to WW1. The fact is that at that time the majority of the people in Ireland were contented enough to be part of the British Empire. A significant minority espoused separation.
In 1916 I presume An Post will have suitable stamps to Mark in an appropriate way the Easter Rising.
Yet when the choice of independence was actually put before the Irish electorate they voted overwhelmingly for it.
So facts do not bear out your assertion.
“The fact is that at that time the majority of the people in Ireland were contented enough to be part of the British Empire”. ????
Micheal, your comments are truly bizarre. I’m actually not sure if you are trolling or not.
Almost all Irish people were deeply unhappy to be part of the British Empire.
Not only that, the stamps absolutely do not reflect the general mood in the country in the run up to WW1.
That is correct. In the election of 1918 the mood had changed because of the manner of the killing by the British of the leaders of the Easter Rising and the threat of conscription in the last year of WW1. The introduction of Home Rule which would have satisfied the aspirations for self rule had it been enacted rather than deferred and thus maintained the unity of governance on the Island of Ireland as a whole had by 1918 been disregarded as a viable option. The 1918 election outcome was a precursor to the eventual partition of the island. Two separate Free States who acknowledged the supremacy of the British monarch. The outcome of the Easter Rising was Partition; the outcome of Home Rule could have been one Free State under the supremacy of the British monarch. We did not become a Republic until 1949, only then was the connection officially broken.
For Rupert: the fact is that in 1914/1915 around 90% of the Irish Volunteers heeded John Redmond’s call to join the British army to defend Belgium and thus bolster the case for Home Rule which had been deferred until the end of the war. ( this was expected at the time to be a short war). The Unionists volunteered for the war to prove their allegiance to the Crown. Quiet ironic then that both groups fought for Britain side by side at the Battle of the Somme for diametrically opposite reasons! All sides politically and socially accepted that a separate all island Republic was simply unachievable in the context of the times. The majority at the time 1914 voted for the Irish Party ( for the aim of Home Rule). The remaining 10% became the organisers of the Easter Rising hoping that their sacrifice would bring about the change of mood which precipitated the demise of the Irish Parliamentary Party of John Redmond to be replaced by Sinn Fein in 1918. By 1918 obviously a majority on the island had come around to the idea of total separation from England. This also could not be achieved because a sizeable minority wanted to maintain the link with Britain. As it is a majority in both entities have now accepted that an all island government will not be achievable for the foreseeable future.
World war one was nothing to do with the ordinary Irish man but our neutrality during world war two is our greatest shame.
Umm… you say that with the benefit of historical hindsight!
Not really…. There was enough hindsight After the 3rd or 4th unprovoked attack.
Everyone who could stay neutral in WWII stayed neutral. In any event, wrong war for this comment section!
Yeah because it’s no shame to be in with a group that includes Franco’s Spain and Switzerland.
Luke.
Your are a great one for the fighting when it is a generation later or some one else that is going off.
Reminds me of those people who call for Ireland to join Nato etc and they wouldn’t even be able to shoot a rabbit but they were all gung ho for sending Irish soldiers off to Iraq and Afghanistan etc etc.
I never mention NATO, you did. They killed 6 million Jews, surely our inaction deserves a small bit analysis.
Luke, with all due respect that is historical nonsense.Neutrality was overwhelmingly popular for perfectly sensible reasons. Only one T.D. in the Dail was opposed.Incidentally there is no oppobrium attached to the neutrality of the many other neutrals.Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal all traded actively with Germany throughout the war unlike ourselves.
My father had friends who served in the British forces througout the war. When I was young they explained to me that they supported neutrality as well,
Neutrality for Ireland was of the “benevolent neutrality” type. By being neutral Ireland silently protected Britain’s rear and Britain by geographical position effectively protected Ireland. Churchill admitted that short of declaring war on Germany Ireland did everything it could possibly could in support of Britain. Certainly by 1941 Ireland had given British aircraft permission to cross Irish airspace to attack U-boats in the Atlantic and also placed a series of prominent markings on the western approaches to help guide American aircraft coming to Northern Ireland. Also Ireland provided regular weather reports to the British but not to the Germans. One of these weather reports from West Mayo determined that D-day could happen on 6th June 1944. One would have to say the Irish Government behaved very shrewdly from 1939 to 1945 and in doing so spared us the ravages of WW2.
“I’ll go to”. The real Irish spirit me arse. Let’s just use the stupid paddies as cannon fodder.
I’ll go too. But wait, we-sa gonna die?????
Sir John Esmonde, described Ireland as having been “cheated and betrayed” in 1914 by the sham over Home Rule being “passed” in Westminister yet the state refused to implement it or uphold the law.
Yet the eejits in the Irish Parliamentary Party, themselves yearning for knighthoods, turned a blind eye to the British establishment acting to deny democracy here and doing so by the barrel of a gun.
Britain was openly flouting its own laws and its army defying the state to prevent democracy in Ireland.
Poor auld Redmond and Co. were so used to being made fools of that they had no idea how to react to it and carried on.
How much is a stamp? Jepers
Great to finally see the Irish Great War contribution being celebrated, even if it’s only a low key affair for now..
They look nice. Might actually buy them to keep.
Ha very good commemoration to have that gobshyte Redmond on the front of a stamp. Just shows how stupid it all was, though I am sure whoever drew it up in An Post either had a great sense of irony/humour, or genuinely believes Ireland should only have had Home Rule doled out to them and was worth serving a bloody empire for(there are actually eegits in the Republic who believe that).
It is true what was said above, Barry etc. went to war, but people like him later regretted it and said they should have been here in 1916. For what it’s worth at least three of my great great uncles were in the IRA, one in Bolands Mills in the Volunteers, one a quartermaster in Meath, another one/two of them played a major hand in the burning of the local RIC barracks around the same time as the sacking of Balbriggan. They were fearless as they literally lived on the doorstep of the local Army barracks in Gormanston-darkest place was under the light.
Let’s be honest though the Brits were just stringing us along-we’d have been like a worse version of India, Scotland and Wales for the next 80 years no parliament, no domestic laws, restricted rights…this shouldn’t be a commemoration for to commemorate is almost to be proud. It should be a national mourning of a whole generation of poor lads fooled and beggared into death and trauma.
In contrast to Britain’s self righteous ‘national jubilee’ we should as Michael D said, pay homage to the men who vainly died in the carnage of murder that followed. 50’000 men fooled and beggared into a war ought to be something we are angry about if anything, or if not angry as it was 100 years ago, at least it ought to be recognised as a mass injustice and mourned as such.
Contrary to popular propaganda from the John Bruton Redmondite types in power, as Tom Barry said, most people came to oppose the war and the anti-conscription campaign helped galvanise the up and coming political class, would be forces of state(local govt and church, colleges, GAA, everyone) public before the historic first democratic election in 1918.
Anyways the crap about Irish people wanting to be in the empire-not true-yes the IRA was always a minority, as were the mad fellas who went off to war, simply cos most people were too intimidated to resist British Rule. This is also where the spectre of the informer in organisations here and the anti-Republican traditions of some, if not all major Irish political parties come from. What did people think everyone joined the IRA? Even in Wolfe Tone’s time 100’000 peasants was a minority.
It is the minority in any repressed or repressive country who resist because most people are bought off or silenced-As Goering said to the fellas in Nuremberg ”look around you, what do you see YES Men, all the NO men are six feet under ground!!!”
Thanks for that – one of the minority of sensible comments on here.
I, too, was baffled by some comments on here saying that ‘the Irish were delighted to be under British rule before WW1′, etc.
…and then some other eejits giving them thumbs up.
The drawing on the Redmond one isn’t great
The twisted hand does match his twisted tongue though !
…and there is one stamp that holds a cock instead of a whip that is estimated to be worth 729 billion bitcoins.
Regardless of race anyone who leaves his family and risks his life for a bell end government is a plonker if u ask me.. They have a way of making you believe that its the country you are fighting for not the clowns who sent you
I wonder will the Royal Mail issue a stamp to commemorate the 1916 rising..
thanks Christina for this nice article , this is all about which i like to read , my dad’s grandfather was the part of WW1 so its a memorable day for me :)
If I ever see the day when enda himself is tooling up on the battle field then I will re consider
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