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Ireland's Great War
Here, name by name, parish by parish, province by province, Kevin Myers details Ireland's intimate involvement with one of the greatest conflicts in human history, the First World War of 1914 to 1918, which left no Irish family untouched.
With this gathering of his talks, unpublished essays and material distilled from The Irish Times and elsewhere, Myers lays out the grounds of his research and findings in Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. He revisits the main theatres of war in Europe - The Somme, Ypres and Verdun, the war at sea and Gallipoli. He documents these bloody engagements through the lives of those involved, from Dublin to Cork, Sligo to Armagh, to the garrison towns of Athy, Limerick, Mullingar and beyond.
In Ireland's Great War Myers uncoils a vital counter-narrative to the predominant readings in nationalist history, revealing the complex and divided loyalties of a nation coming of age in the early twentieth century. This remarkable historical record pieced together the neglected shards of Ireland's recent past and imparts a necessary understanding of the political process that saw Sinn Féin's electoral victory in 1918 and the founding of the Irish Free State. By honouring Ireland's forgotten dead on the centenary of the Great War. Myers enables a rediscovery of purpose that will speak to future generations.
With this gathering of his talks, unpublished essays and material distilled from The Irish Times and elsewhere, Myers lays out the grounds of his research and findings in Connaught, Leinster, Munster and Ulster. He revisits the main theatres of war in Europe - The Somme, Ypres and Verdun, the war at sea and Gallipoli. He documents these bloody engagements through the lives of those involved, from Dublin to Cork, Sligo to Armagh, to the garrison towns of Athy, Limerick, Mullingar and beyond.
In Ireland's Great War Myers uncoils a vital counter-narrative to the predominant readings in nationalist history, revealing the complex and divided loyalties of a nation coming of age in the early twentieth century. This remarkable historical record pieced together the neglected shards of Ireland's recent past and imparts a necessary understanding of the political process that saw Sinn Féin's electoral victory in 1918 and the founding of the Irish Free State. By honouring Ireland's forgotten dead on the centenary of the Great War. Myers enables a rediscovery of purpose that will speak to future generations.
- GenresIrish Literature
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2014
19 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Myers
11 books3 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Journalist, broadcaster and novelist Kevin Myers wrote for The Irish Times, The Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Irish Independent and The Sunday Times in a career that spanned over thirty years. He reported from Africa, Central America, India and Japan, covered the wars in Lebanon and Bosnia, and was journalist of the year for his dispatches from Beirut. His first memoir, Watching the Door: A Memoir, 1971–1978, was published in 2006.
Journalist, broadcaster and novelist Kevin Myers wrote for The Irish Times, The Spectator, Sunday Telegraph, Irish Independent and The Sunday Times in a career that spanned over thirty years. He reported from Africa, Central America, India and Japan, covered the wars in Lebanon and Bosnia, and was journalist of the year for his dispatches from Beirut. His first memoir, Watching the Door: A Memoir, 1971–1978, was published in 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2017
In 1913, the Irish Volunteers were formed to support the push for Home Rule. When World War One broke out the following year, with Home Rule passed in the shape of the Government of Ireland Act of 1914 but suspended for the duration, the Irish Nationalist leader John Redmond instructed the Irish Volunteers to join the British army, both to fight for the freedom of small countries such as Serbia and Belgium, and also to demonstrate the loyalty of the Irish people to the crown. Of the 180,000 Volunteers, 170,000 heeded Redmond's call and enlisted in the British army. Along with a large section of the southern Irish unionist community which also enlisted, these men won a formidable reputation as soldiers from Gallipoli to the Somme.
Of the 10,000 remaining Volunteers, just 2,000 took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. They were a minority of the Volunteers left in Ireland who were, in turn, a minority of the total pre-war Volunteer membership. Yet is these men who are remembered in Ireland today. Those who fought for Ireland, as they saw it, under the Union flag at Gallipoli, Third Ypres, or, in my great grandfather's case, Mesopotamia, disappeared from history. After returning home, during the IRA's campaign from 1919 onwards, many of them literally disappeared.
Nobody has done more than Kevin Myers to rescue these men from historical oblivion and this book is the culmination of his work. It is an excellent testimony to men who fought and died like all the rest and who deserve to be remembered like all the rest.
Of the 10,000 remaining Volunteers, just 2,000 took part in the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. They were a minority of the Volunteers left in Ireland who were, in turn, a minority of the total pre-war Volunteer membership. Yet is these men who are remembered in Ireland today. Those who fought for Ireland, as they saw it, under the Union flag at Gallipoli, Third Ypres, or, in my great grandfather's case, Mesopotamia, disappeared from history. After returning home, during the IRA's campaign from 1919 onwards, many of them literally disappeared.
Nobody has done more than Kevin Myers to rescue these men from historical oblivion and this book is the culmination of his work. It is an excellent testimony to men who fought and died like all the rest and who deserve to be remembered like all the rest.
January 16, 2026
A meticulously researched, vividly detailed book that was long overdue when it was first published more than ten years ago. Myers has done a great deal to highlight Ireland’s huge contribution to WWI, which for decades was sidelined or actively maligned.
Note to the publisher, however: my 2015 copy is absolutely littered with typos, odd phrasing, and missing punctuation — I almost gave up reading it because the errors interfered so much, especially in the early chapters. Hopefully it is properly proofread for the next print run.
Note to the publisher, however: my 2015 copy is absolutely littered with typos, odd phrasing, and missing punctuation — I almost gave up reading it because the errors interfered so much, especially in the early chapters. Hopefully it is properly proofread for the next print run.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews