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On
reading that a new memorial in the Irish Republic
to those Irishmen who lost their lives in World War
One, whilst serving in the British Armed Forces has
been erected, via public subscription in the village
of Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, I got to thinking
about Irish attitudes to the Great War of 1914-18.
For it was out of the flames of that great imperialist
conflagration that Ireland's Statehood indirectly
arose, albeit in its still uncompleted form, along
with other European nations such as Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia,
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the Revolutionary
Russia, some of which have faltered along the way,
imploding or realigning themselves in the process.…
Indeed it could be said that the emergence of these
States as independent entities was about the only
decent thing that WW1 brought forth.
Ireland's manhood who went off to war and those they
left behind at home suffered as much as any nations
involved in the Great War. An approximately half a
million Irishmen served in the British Armed Forces
during that war, out of a population of less than
4.5 million, the vast majority volunteers as the British
failed to enforce conscription in Ireland as they
had in England, Scotland and Wales, for fear of the
political consequences. Although in April 1918, at
the height of the great German Spring offensive on
the Western Front, desperate for what can only be
described as 'new blood,' if one takes into account
the slaughter then taking place on the Western Front,
the British Government introduced a fifth version
of the Conscription Act. Its most notable provision
extended age eligibility so that men aged from 17
to 51 could be called up. In addition the act was,
for the first time, to be applied to men in Ireland,
the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, although
the policy was never actually implemented in Ireland.
Nevertheless by the end of this unnecessary, wretched
meat grinding imperialistic slaughter, approximately
fifty thousand Irishmen had lost their lives. Thus
the tragedy of WW1 touched, if not every Irish home,
then almost certainly every town, village and remote
rural community. The vast majority of these men who
marched off to war with the cheers of their fellow
country men and women ringing in their ears returned
as ogres who were best advised to keep their experiences
to themselves. Historically they can be compared with
the US servicemen who fought in Vietnam, although
the returning Irishmen's predicament was ten times
worse. Some went to their graves without even talking
to their closest family about what they had endured,
national events had by-passed them, leaving them in
an historical no-man’s land.
By the time it became fashionable to site in almost
every town and village of Britain, cenotaph's in memory
of the dead of WW1, mainly copied from or inspired
by the one erected in London's Whitehall, designed
by E. L. Lutyens with the inscription to the memory
of 'Our Glorious Dead' written upon it, Ireland had
experienced the Easter Rising and the Tan War out
of which the Irish Free State had emerged. The memories
of the Civil War that followed its establishment were
still fresh. Thus Ireland had need of other heroes,
who in the eyes of many at the time were far more
worthy and patriotic than the Irish victims of perfidious
Albion’s imperialist conflagration with its European
rivals. So apart from the six north eastern counties
of Ireland, which due to its Protestant and Unionist
majority, coupled with a fair amount of chicanery,
deceit and violence remained loyal to the British
Crown, the rest of the country having become the Irish
Free State, like any newly established State desperately
required its own heroes to celebrate and inspire.
Within a generation monuments to the martyrs of the
Republic were as thick on the ground in the South
as those to the 'Glorious Dead' were in the north
and across the sea in the rest of the UK. One could
hardly catch a train or walk down a street without
seeing a reminder of Irelands own newly created, 'glorious
dead'.
There is little doubt that these days with the 'Republic'
of Ireland becoming an ever more confident country,
at home in its own shoes and its place in the world,
it was inevitable that the question of its dead of
World War One would arise. After all many feel that
by ignoring these men, Ireland has not shown its best
side (there were few women). And by so doing, Ireland
has almost implied that by volunteering to fight for
Great Britain, there was something almost traitorous
about them. Many now seem to feel it is time to move
on. However before it will be possible to do so, we
have to understand how it was that the actions of
half a million men during the years 1914-18 were wiped
from Irelands historical slate.
To do so one has to remember the traumatic split that
took place within Ireland's national movement during
the Great War. The Irish volunteers having been formed
in response to the Ulster Volunteer Force, were in
the main made up of two traditions, the physical force
Fenians and those who believed Home Rule could be
gained from Britain by parliamentary methods. The
latter was led by John Redmond, a one time aid to
Parnell. Redmond, when war broke out, like many of
his class, called on Irishmen to come to England's
aid and in return after the conflict the mother country
would grant home rule. Tens of thousands of Irish
Volunteers followed Redmond's call and joined up to
fight the Hun in France. Sure for some it was necessary
to dress up this support for an imperialist war as
fighting for noble, newly occupied Catholic Belgian,
where it was said the Hun pitchforked tiny Catholic
babies in the streets on the end of their bayonets.
As always the priesthood was only to willing to offer
their services to their flocks' oppressors and send
the message out from their pulpits that their parishioners
should go forth like sheep and offer themselves up
as cannon fodder. In reality however in 1914 such
encouragement was hardly necessary as a patriotic
fever raged in Irish towns and cities as it did throughout
Europe; after all those going to war would be home
by Christmas covered in glory. Add to these poor souls,
those who joined the colours out of economic necessity
or due to their having emigrated to England and ended
up being conscripted, it is easy to see how the half
a million figure was reached.
The section of the Irish Volunteers whose allegiance
was to the Fenian tradition, i.e. England's difficulties
is Ireland's opportunity, would have none of this
and with the start of the war they began busying themselves
planning a rising within Ireland, and as the man said,
the rest is history.
Today in the south the political establishment and
the Provisional Republican Movement, who may soon
become part of it can afford to show some compassion
on this issue. For it should not be overlooked that
many of those who became Republican leaders, along
with there enemies who helped establish the Free State
had served in World War One. Indeed diehard republicans
such as Tom Barry and Erskine Childers learnt much
of their military craft within the ranks of the British
Army, as did many who went on to found the Free State's
Army
Having said this, one of the major problems many have
in officially paying there respects to the dead of
WW1 is that the ceremonies are currently organised
under the auspices of the Royal British Legion. For
many this is a step to far as this organisation has
such close ties with the British Army and remembers
the war dead in a very jingoistic manner. The slogan
on the cenotaph, Our Glorious Death, sums them up,
i.e., These people died for King and Country. Whereas
in Ireland, as in other parts of the British Empire
many of those who fought were doing no such thing
but for a host of often complicated reasons. Is it
not time the 'Republic' of Ireland reclaimed its own
WW1 dead by setting up an Irish organisation to commemorate
them? Perhaps with British troops still on the ground
in the north of Ireland it is to soon to go down this
road there, as it may well send out the wrong political
message. The nationalist communities there will have
to decide when they feel the time is right.
But in the Republic of Ireland, perhaps it is time
to have at least a public debate at whether these
men should at long last, be shown the respect many
feel they deserve. To recap, those who joined the
British Armed Forces, to fight in World War One may
have been mistaken to do so, but as I have said above
many did so for the best of reasons, following Redmond's
mistaken call that if they did so, Ireland would gain
its freedom in the realignment of European nations
at the war's end. Others followed the time honoured
tradition within Ireland of taking the English King's
shilling when times were hard. True some followed
the beat of the jingoists drum, but they were not
alone in doing so, most of Europe's young manhood
were at that time tapping their toes to that wretched
beat. The point is this, are these men to follow the
hundreds of thousands of Irishmen who fought for perfidious
Albion over the period of its occupation of Ireland,
ever doomed to be relegated to a neverland of historical
mists. Or is it not time that the Irish people claimed
them as their own, whilst nevertheless recognising
that like most of humanity at one time or another,
they made a wrong choice, which for them cost them
dear?
To understand the calibre of these men and the courage
on the battlefield many of them showed, I will finish
with the military awards given to just one.
James McCudden, of County Carlow who was awarded the
Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order and bar,
Military Cross and bar, Military Medal and the Croix
de Guerre.
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