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
On 9 August the Newtownards Chronicle posed this question to the young men of the district. The newspaper was referring to the reserve battalion of the Royal Irish Rifles, the British regiment that recruited locally. Many people in Newtownards referred to this unit by an earlier designation, the North Down Militia. The Irish militia tradition … Read more
Irish women were well placed to adapt quickly and efficiently to the challenges initiated by Britain’s declaration of war against Germany in August 1914. The country’s existing network of philanthropic and political organisations provided a firm foundation for a wide variety of voluntary war work, and they were quickly bolstered by a raft of new … Read more
Ireland’s largest women’s political organisation, the Ulster Women’s Unionist Council (UWUC), reacted swiftly to the announcement of war, suspending most of its political activities and throwing itself instead into supporting the Empire in its hour of need. Having been established in 1911 to support the work of the entirely male Ulster Unionist Council, it nonetheless … Read more
The first true modern machine-gun was created by American inventor Hiram Maxim in 1884. Indeed, the four greatest names of machine-gun history—Gatling, Maxim, Browning and Lewis—were all Americans. There had been machine-guns created in time for the American Civil War (1861–5) but these were hand-cranked. In 1915 Maxim recalled being told in 1882: ‘Hang your … Read more