The first constitution of the new Irish state was innovative: it asserted the sovereignty of the people; it included a bill of rights, a guarantee of free elementary education, trial by jury and direct democracy (on the say-so of 75,000 electors). And it contained a provision allowing judicial review of legislation, which broke with the … Read more
Drawing on the revered heritage of the Irish Volunteers, the Fianna Fáil government created the Volunteer Force on 6 April 1934. This part-time militia was intended to appeal to the party’s republican supporters, and to offer them an alternative to membership of the IRA. Recruiting posters stressed the specifically Irish nature of the new force, … Read more
Established in 1947 by the Irish government in collaboration with a committee of professional historians and former Irish Volunteers, the purpose of the Bureau of Military History was ‘to assemble and coordinate material to form the basis for the compilation of the history of the movement for independence from the formation of the Irish Volunteers … Read more
Under EPO 362, 4,634 Irish soldiers who had been absent from their posts for more than 180 days were summarily dismissed from the Irish Defence Forces for desertion. Servicemen who on 8 August were absent for less than 180 days and were not captured were dismissed automatically as soon as they passed the 180-day threshold. … Read more
Apart from increasing military wages, there was little that the Irish government could do to address the main problem facing Irish servicemen: boredom. After the initial surge of recruitment in mid-1940, when Defence Force numbers peaked at around 40,000 men, life in the Irish forces quickly became routine. As the threat of invasion receded after … Read more