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Our War: Ireland and the Great War
"...you went into [a casualty-clearing station] young and light-hearted. You came out older than any span of years could make you." - Catherine Black, Ramelton Co. Donegal, describing her work as a nurse in France during the Great War * "[He] kept me an hour talking of his dead boy. He read his letters aloud but broke down. At this rate everybody in a year will be mourning. I can think of half a dozen already." - Shane Leslie, Glaslough Co. Monaghan; 12 November 1914 * "One fellow's brains were shot into my mouth as I was shouting for them to jump for it. I dived into the sea. Then came the job to swim ashore and one leg useless, where I had been shot. I pulled out a knife and cut the straps and swam ashore. All the time bullets were nipping around me." - Sergeant J. McColgan, describing the assault on Gallipoli, 25 April 1915 * "I was waiting for a barm brack & they did not get them in. I am just sending a cake & butter, but shall send cake & bacon on Friday...I never prayed as fervently.asking the Little Infant Jesus to bring you home safe and unhurt to me." - Mary Moynihan, Tralee Co. Kerry, in a letter to her son Michael, 3 June 1918 (Michael was reported dead on 18 June 1918) * "...you will be alright and you might to [sic] be satisfied now and give over your wild ways." - Roseanne Mooney, Thomas St. Dublin, in a letter to her wounded husband John, c. 1916-17 *** Our War: Ireland and the Great War, written by some of Ireland's leading historians, provides an Irish perspective on the Great War which saw over 200,000 Irish soldiers fighting and up to 50,000 dying. The book relays the experiences of ordinary Irish people during the war and it chronicles the effect this war had, and still has, on Irish society. The lives and deaths of soldiers in the trenches, nurses, politicians, and the workforce are all examined. Archival letters, diaries, wills, and illustrations are reproduced which document the pride, fear, anxiety, and sorrow felt by sweethearts, families, and friends. The book accompanies Ireland's RTE Radio 1 series Our War: Ireland and the Great War, which was broadcast in 2008, from late October to late December.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 24, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 30, 2026
This is a marvellous book of history but, rather then groundbreaking it was following in the footsteps of best selling novels like 'At Swim Two Boys' by Jamie O'Neill in 2001 and 'A Long, Long Way' by Sebastian Barry which had already put Ireland's experiences in WWI back into the popular zeitgeist. I do not mean to say that the academics whose articles make up this book had not been exploring and publishing on this subject for many years but I can't help feel that the success of this book owes much to O'Neill and Barry.
It is also possible that my reactions are influenced by my age - I finished school in Ireland in 1976 and have lived away from Ireland for over half-a-century - so I grew up and was educated in a different Ireland - I remember classmates going to visit WWI veterans and interviewing them (my grandfather on my mother's side was a WWI veteran - long dead at this point) - but the overall perception - The Irish National War Memorial Gardens (by Lutyens) by the late 1970s was a site for caravans and animals of the Irish Traveller community, while Dublin Corporation's refuse disposal office using it as a rubbish dump for the city's waste. So what this book (and others like 'Ireland's Great War' by Kevin Myers) shone a light back on what was forgotten:
"...At the beginning of the twentieth century the British Army no longer held the huge proportion of Irishmen that it did in the 1830s when 40% of its men were from this island. However, close to 30,000 Irishmen were in the regular forces by 1914 and another 30,000 were reservists. Irish soldiers were stationed in locations across the empire, in units known as battalions, approximately 1,000 strong. Each battalion belonged to one of the historic regiments that recruited in Ireland, usually on a regional basis. Every regiment had its store of military traditions, going back in some cases to the seventeenth century and including participation in famous battles such as Waterloo. As well as the long history of Irish foot-soldiers, there was an officer tradition among Anglo—Irish gentry with twelve of the generals in the British Army being Irish in 1914, including Henry Wilson, from Ballinalee, Co. Longford, who was assassinated by the IRA in 1922."
(From the second paragraph of the third chapter "200,000 volunteer soldiers", by Philip Orr)
Indeed I often think it was a deliberate, if unspoken policy, by Irish governments to ignore those soldiers because they did not fit into the 'rebellion narrative'. But Ireland was not unique in this - look at all those citizens of thee Austro-Hungarian successor states who fought so long and loyally for the Hapsburg empire. It took the demise of the Soviet Union for the story of its WWI soldiers to be remembered and commemorated (look up WWI memorials in Russia - https://www.google.com/search?q=wwi+w... - and you will be surprised how many there are now). Indeed it is interesting that Ireland now remembers its WWI dead but also sees its own independence as an integral part and result of WWI.
Clearly this is a book for those who know and love Irish history - but even you know nothing you will probably enjoy this book.
It is also possible that my reactions are influenced by my age - I finished school in Ireland in 1976 and have lived away from Ireland for over half-a-century - so I grew up and was educated in a different Ireland - I remember classmates going to visit WWI veterans and interviewing them (my grandfather on my mother's side was a WWI veteran - long dead at this point) - but the overall perception - The Irish National War Memorial Gardens (by Lutyens) by the late 1970s was a site for caravans and animals of the Irish Traveller community, while Dublin Corporation's refuse disposal office using it as a rubbish dump for the city's waste. So what this book (and others like 'Ireland's Great War' by Kevin Myers) shone a light back on what was forgotten:
"...At the beginning of the twentieth century the British Army no longer held the huge proportion of Irishmen that it did in the 1830s when 40% of its men were from this island. However, close to 30,000 Irishmen were in the regular forces by 1914 and another 30,000 were reservists. Irish soldiers were stationed in locations across the empire, in units known as battalions, approximately 1,000 strong. Each battalion belonged to one of the historic regiments that recruited in Ireland, usually on a regional basis. Every regiment had its store of military traditions, going back in some cases to the seventeenth century and including participation in famous battles such as Waterloo. As well as the long history of Irish foot-soldiers, there was an officer tradition among Anglo—Irish gentry with twelve of the generals in the British Army being Irish in 1914, including Henry Wilson, from Ballinalee, Co. Longford, who was assassinated by the IRA in 1922."
(From the second paragraph of the third chapter "200,000 volunteer soldiers", by Philip Orr)
Indeed I often think it was a deliberate, if unspoken policy, by Irish governments to ignore those soldiers because they did not fit into the 'rebellion narrative'. But Ireland was not unique in this - look at all those citizens of thee Austro-Hungarian successor states who fought so long and loyally for the Hapsburg empire. It took the demise of the Soviet Union for the story of its WWI soldiers to be remembered and commemorated (look up WWI memorials in Russia - https://www.google.com/search?q=wwi+w... - and you will be surprised how many there are now). Indeed it is interesting that Ireland now remembers its WWI dead but also sees its own independence as an integral part and result of WWI.
Clearly this is a book for those who know and love Irish history - but even you know nothing you will probably enjoy this book.
December 27, 2020
https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/3557932.html
A lovely book of essays on various aspects of Ireland's engagement with the first world war; I'm familiar enough with the subject from my own work (my PhD thesis was on Irish science from 1890-1930 and the effects of the war were pretty significant), but even so I learned a few things, including the fact that the British government made it illegal to buy a drink for someone else in pubs. Topics address include specifics on the roles of women and of the labour movement, and on the wider societal impact of a war whose legacy in Ireland was distinctly ambiguous. The presentation is scholarly but light enough for the general but interested reader, and it is lavishly illustrated with colour copies of documents from the time, in particular the originals of soldiers' letters home, which makes it all pretty immediate. The original cover price of £15.95 must have been way below cost for RTÉ and the RIA. I hope it was offset by a government grant; money well spent if so.
A lovely book of essays on various aspects of Ireland's engagement with the first world war; I'm familiar enough with the subject from my own work (my PhD thesis was on Irish science from 1890-1930 and the effects of the war were pretty significant), but even so I learned a few things, including the fact that the British government made it illegal to buy a drink for someone else in pubs. Topics address include specifics on the roles of women and of the labour movement, and on the wider societal impact of a war whose legacy in Ireland was distinctly ambiguous. The presentation is scholarly but light enough for the general but interested reader, and it is lavishly illustrated with colour copies of documents from the time, in particular the originals of soldiers' letters home, which makes it all pretty immediate. The original cover price of £15.95 must have been way below cost for RTÉ and the RIA. I hope it was offset by a government grant; money well spent if so.
May 9, 2018
I liked this book purely for the high-quality visuals and would recommend its purchase for anyone with a casual interest in Irish history or history of WW1. However, the essays left something to be desired.
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March 23, 2026SM
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews