Ireland's Role In The First World War

In summer 1914 Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, stood on the brink of civil war. Parliament had voted for Home Rule - limited self-government - for Ireland, a controversial and divisive policy.

One result of this was that both those in favour of Home Rule and those against it organised their own armed forces: the anti-Home Rule Ulster Volunteer Force and the pro-Home Rule Irish Volunteers.

Here’s how a divided Ireland ended up supplying 200,000 men to fight Britain's cause against Germany.

Some of the items below are on display in our First World War Galleries. You can use this article to guide you to their location in the galleries. We have also included additional information that sheds light on the story of the Ireland's contribution to the war effort.

Estimates of how many Irish men fought in the First World War vary, but it is now generally accepted that around 200,000 soldiers from the island of Ireland served over the course of the war. The majority of them would not be the professional soldiers and Territorials who fought in those first clashes in 1914, but volunteers.

The 10th Division was involved in the chaotic Suvla Bay landings in August 1915, and its attacks on Turkish positions at 'Chocolate Hill' and Kiretch Tepe Sirt ridge led to significant casualties. Lack of water and the fierce Turkish summer sun also took their toll on the men. After just two months, half of the 10th Division’s 17,000 soldiers were dead, missing, injured or sick.

At 7.30am on 1 July 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the soldiers of 36th (Ulster) Division began their advance towards the German lines. Their objective was the capture of the Schwaben Redoubt, a German defensive structure built to withstand heavy artillery attack. Colonel William Savage, who commanded 13th Royal Irish Rifles - one of the battalions which made up the Division - reported that, 'Directly the start was made the German MGs could be heard firing at once. From this time I received no messages, & the Companies were lost.' One soldier from the Division man described how bullets could be seen in the air looking like a 'fine shower of hail'. The Division nonetheless managed to seize its objective, one of the few to do so. Yet lacking support and running out ammunition, it was forced to withdraw.

That day, over one in three of the 15,000 soldiers in 36th Division became a casualty and 2,000 lay dead. Four Victoria Crosses were awarded to officers and men of the Division for their gallantry in the attack on the Schwaben Redoubt, two of them posthumously.

The 16th (Irish) Division drew many of its recruits from the Irish National Volunteers, which was created before the outbreak of war to counter any armed opposition to the implementation of Home Rule. The Division landed in France in December 1915 and was in action two months later. In September 1916 on the Somme, it suffered over 4,000 casualties - of which 1,200 were killed - in ten days of fighting at Guillemont and Ginchy. Of Guillemont, one Irish officer wrote, 'There is nothing but the mud and the gaping shell-holes - a chaotic wilderness of shell-holes, rim overlapping rim - and, in the bottom of many, the bodies of the dead.'

The 16th (Irish) Division’s capture of Ginchy deprived the Germans of observation posts, from which they could observe the whole battlefield. It also eliminated the salient at Delville Wood, which had been subjected to German artillery fire from three sides as well as counter-attacks by German infantry through July and August.

State munitions factories were also established employing around 2,100 people, mostly women, in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Waterford. Although Irish women did not work in munitions factories in the numbers seen in Britain, their numbers were sufficient to raise a moral panic about their behaviour which led to the setting up of patrols to police the off duty conduct of the women. One patrol member claimed, 'I have turned my flashlight into dark doorways and corners in laneways and disclosed scenes that are truly indescribable'.

Irish women also took on jobs traditionally done by men such as working as bus conductors, farm hands and office clerks. Many women were also involved in voluntary roles such as fundraising and preparing comfort packages for troops.

The Royal Navy had intercepted the rifles and guns which Germany had sent to arm them, and many people in Ireland opposed armed revolt or were reluctant to take part. The result was that the Easter Rising was confined to Dublin, with only around 1,000 rebels taking part.

Britain sent troop reinforcements into Dublin and a week of fierce street fighting followed. An estimated 300 civilians, 60 rebels, and 130 British soldiers and police were killed or wounded. On Friday 28 April, vastly outnumbered, the rebels surrendered.

The following month, 90 participants in the Rising were court-martialled and sentenced to death. Fourteen were executed by firing squad. One of them, James Connolly, had been badly wounded and was unable to stand. He was shot whilst tied to a chair. Many other rebels, including future Taoiseach and President Eamonn de Valera, were imprisoned without trial in Britain. The brutality of Britain’s response to the Easter Rising would generate much sympathy in Ireland for the rebels and their cause.

More objects and photographs about the Easter Rising can be seen in the 'At All Costs' area of our First World War Galleries.

The execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising had swelled support for a republican movement that demanded complete independence from Britain. In the general election of 1918, the Irish republican party - Sinn Fein - won a majority, set up their own parliament in Dublin and proclaimed Ireland a republic. When Britain tried to suppress the republicans, the situation in Ireland rapidly became a bloody guerrilla war, with both sides resorting to brutal tactics and atrocities.

Widespread revulsion in Britain forced the government to negotiate. In December 1921, the Anglo-Irish Treaty was signed. It saw the establishment of an independent Irish Free State, while six northern counties with a strong Protestant majority remained part of the United Kingdom. It was not, however, the end of the violence. From 1922 to 1923, anti-Treaty republicans, who demanded independence for all Ireland, fought a bitter civil war against the forces of the Irish Free State, which emerged victorious.

In July 2014 Irish President Michael D Higgins attended the dedication of a cross of sacrifice at Ireland’s Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin. In his address, President Higgins said, 'We cannot give back their lives to the dead, nor whole bodies to those who were wounded, or repair the grief, undo the disrespect that was sometimes shown to those who fought or their families. ... To all of them in their silence we offer our own silence, without judgement, and with respect for their ideals, as they knew them, and for the humanity they expressed towards each other.'