MESOPOTAMIA WAS AMONGST THE HARSHEST THEATRES OF THE GREAT WAR By Mark Phelan While the Easter Rising and the Battle of the Somme understandably dominate the current commemorative landscape, the experiences of Irishmen under arms elsewhere in 1916 remain largely unknown. Far from the street fighting in Dublin and the killing fields of France, the … Read more
‘THOUSANDS OF MEN WERE PASSED FIT WITHOUT ANY MEDICAL EXAMINATION WORTH THE NAME’ By Michael Robinson In spite of the huge increase of research on—and popular interest in—the First World War in recent years, a continuing omission has been those Irishmen who were able to enlist in the British Army, and experience active service, who … Read more
BEREHAVEN, CO. CORK—PERHAPS NOT THE KEY TO THE ATLANTIC NOR AN ‘IRISH GIBRALTAR’, BUT NOT A BACKWATER EITHER By John Ware The Royal Navy first moved into the waters of west Cork in 1797. The west coast of Ireland is, in sailorly terms, ‘iron-bound’, and the prevailing westerlies obliged ships to be wary of it. … Read more
It’s a Long Way to Tipperary—An Irish Story of the Great War follows the daily lives of a single family from July 1914 to December 1918 through weekly posts of diary extracts, letters, photographs and other wartime memorabilia. The posts are based on documents accumulated by the Armstrong family of Moyaliffe Castle, Co. Tipperary. This … Read more
The triumph of the Young Turk Revolution of 24 July 1908 was sudden, unexpected, always patchy, and never complete in the way revolutions are meant to be. Only after five years did the Committee of Union and Progress definitively move to fully consummate its power. The over-arching aim of the Young Turks was to find … Read more