About 150,000 Irishmen volunteered for the British Army during the First World War, in addition to the c. 50,000 Irishmen already serving at the outbreak. Joining the army was seen as an opportunity to better oneself, and the military provided a source of income for many of Ireland’s unskilled workers. Only those who came from … Read more
Tracing the responses of Irish visual artists to the First World War usually takes us out of Ireland and to painters whose ‘Irishness’ is sometimes debated. Conventionally, the two most significant were William Orpen, a Dublin-born Protestant, and John Lavery, a Belfast-born Catholic, both of whom were appointed official war artists in 1917 by the … Read more
One hundred years on, and there remain few periods of Irish history that are so confounded by myth and falsehood as that of the Great War. Indeed, I have repeated some of the myths myself—that the first British shots of the war were fired by Corporal E. Thomas from Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, of the Royal … Read more
As the centenary of the Battle of the Somme appears over the horizon, plans for the celebration, contemplation and commemoration of the 36th Ulster Division are well under way. In venerating the tens of thousands who fought on the battlefields of the Western Front one name will seldom be mooted. For 31 of the 37 … Read more
In the spring of 1914, Ulster’s political antagonisms reached fever pitch. The British government sent military reinforcements to guard key installations in the north of Ireland, while Royal Navy gunboats sailed along the coast. On an April night, ships docked at Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee, bringing consignments of rifles purchased by unionists in Hamburg. Within … Read more