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Experience and Legacy of WWI

Picture: Village of Wytschaete as seen on 8 June 1917

6932-Irish_PolConf_WW1_2015_Final_Layout 1 28/04/2015 10:24 Page 1

Experience and Legacy of WWIPage 2 April 2015

As trade unionists, workers and citizens, our presenthas been shaped by our past. That is why, duringrecent years, Unite has published pamphlets markingthe 1907 Belfast Strike and the 1913 Dublin Lockout –events which helped pave the way for the rights weenjoy today, as well as reminding us of the rights westill have to fight for.

This year, on the occasion of our Third Irish PolicyConference, we are publishing a short brochure onthe First World War. World War I was, of course,very different from the great labour struggles of 1907and 1913 – but its impact was felt in every workingclass community in Ireland. And that is why we askedthe oral historian Mary Muldowney, who has asympathetic understanding of trade union history, tointerview Unite members for an oral history projectexploring that impact.

This project, which was necessarily on a small scale,involved interviews with six retired members of ourunion, from North and South and from differenttraditions.

World War I was an imperialist war fought – like allwars – by working people. While there is noagreement on the total number of soldiers fromIreland who served in the British Army and Navy,Professor Keith Jeffery gives a figure of 210,000, ofwhom between 35,000 and 50,000 were killed.

In terms of the number of participants directlyinvolved, and their families, WWI thus had a greaterimpact on communities than the other seminal eventsduring those years such as the 1907 Belfast Strike orthe 1913 Dublin Lockout.

To quote one of those interviewed for this project,Jimmy Nixon:“There wasn’t one townland in Ireland, north, south,east or west that didn't lose people”.

Those affected were overwhelmingly working class.Growing up in Waterford, I remember hearing aboutlocal boy John Condon – the youngest member of theBritish army to die in the war, aged just fourteen whenhe was killed at the second battle of Ypres almostexactly 100 years ago. The story went that he walkedbarefoot to the recruiting place and was happy to getsupplied with a pair of boots. While a sense ofadventure might have prompted some under-ageboys to enlist (Jimmy Whelan’s great-uncle was justfifteen when he joined the army), there is no doubtthat there was also an economic imperative, asexplained again by Jimmy Nixon: “a lot of people joined the Army because there was nowork and because they needed to feed the houseanyway. Some of them maybe even thinking, some ofthe younger ones thinking ‘well if I’m not in the houseit’s a mouth less to feed and I might be able to sendback a few bob’.”

It is unfortunate that no women members cameforward to be interviewed for this project – butperhaps not entirely surprising. Not only wereUnite’s predecessor unions largely organised in male-dominated trades; the business of war is also seen aspredominantly male, while it is disproportionately

women who cope with the devastation left behind.

Liam Murray’s mother had to cope with thepsychological after-effects of the war on her husband,whose depression resulted in the loss of the familyincome – so it is understandable that (referring to hismother’s role as transmitter of the family history) Liam says:“My mother – in terms of the War – my mother wasn’tinterested in the War, I was”.

Those interviewed for this project come fromdifferent jurisdictions, communities and traditions –but they have one trait in common. They are staunchtrade unionists with a history of activism andawareness that gives them a unique perspective notonly on historical events, but also on the history ofour union.

As Jimmy Whelan points out, the history of our unionstretches back over 150 years, while Daniel Lee notesthat:“I’ve seen more general secretaries than Tommy Liptonhas got tea-leaves because I'm 63 years a member –well it was the ETU, then there was the EPTU, thenthere was the AEEU and then there was AMICUS andthen the Transport and General and now there’sUnite”.

Our members are repositories not only of the historyof our union, but of the history of working peoplethroughout this island. I would like to thank all thosewho contributed to this project – not only thosequoted in this pamphlet (Fergus Farrell, Eric Harvey,Daniel Lee, Liam Murray, Jimmy Nixon and JimmyWhelan), but also those who gave advice and helpedsource artefacts, especially Brian Nelson and RobertScott.

Jimmy KellyIreland SecretaryUnite the Union

Preface

Contents

Page 2: Preface – Jimmy Kelly writes

Page 3: Irish trade unions and the FirstWorld War

Page 4: Why the men joined up

Page 6: Women and trade unionsduring the First World War

Page 8: Comrades and friends –recruitment in Ireland

Page 10: Trauma and silence

Page 12: Sharing the loss


Page 3Experience and Legacy of WWI April 2015

When the First World War commenced inAugust 1914, Ireland was part of the UnitedKingdom and there was every expectation thatthe country would be involved to the sameextent as England, Scotland and Wales despitethe political situation here.

In the years preceding the outbreak of war, there wasa danger that the Home Rule crisis would escalatefrom political conflict to outright violence. In theautumn of 1914, the first Irish men to enlist in theBritish Army were members of the unionist UlsterVolunteer Force and the nationalist Irish Volunteers,who had been ready to fight each other onlymonths previously.

Army reservists or ex-soldierswere called up when war was declared and it has beenestimated that approximately 57,000 Irishmen wereserving in the Army or the reserves in 1914. The call-up of the reservists was based on the requirementthat enlisted men who had completed military serviceshould be on reserve for twelve years after theirdischarge. There was no allowance made for theneeds of the industries in which reservists worked andthe immediate result was disruption of employment asshort hours, lay-offs and pay cuts were introduced inthe sectors from which men were called up.

The Irish Trade Union Congress and Labour Party(ITUCLP) had an affiliated membership of 110,000 in1914, mainly comprised of craft unions but includingthe general workers of the Irish Transport andGeneral Workers’ Union (ITGWU). Many otherworkers belonged to unions that were not membersof the ITUCLP. Initially there was widespread supportfor the war, which the Westminster governmentclaimed was to be fought for the right to self-determination of small nations like Belgium.

The recruitment campaign that was launched as soonas war was declared in 1914 was met with enthusiasmin the early months. There is evidence that employersencouraged their workers to enlist in the armedforces by promising that their jobs would still be

available to them when they returned from the war.

Liam Murray’s father, Martin enlisted in the RoyalDublin Fusiliers in 1915. Martin had a steady job withHill & Sons, flour millers in Lucan, County Dublin andwould not have thought of joining the Army if it hadnot been for the war. He responded to JohnRedmond’s call to his followers to enlist so that HomeRule for Ireland would be secured after the war butlike many others, the attitude of Martin’s employerswas an important consideration for him. MartinMurray was a member of the ITGWU but that union’sopposition to the war does not seem to have affectedhis thinking.

“The other reason why my father would have joined,apart from being a Redmondite. They were influencedby their employers who had Anglo-Irish sentiments.… A lot of people who worked on landed gentry landhere, also joined up to curry favour with theiremployers. … He was getting away from the routineof the village, he was getting a trip down toButtevant in Cork. Where he was being instructedin the use of arms such as trench mortars and thestandard rifle. He joined with friendsso there would have been a greatspirit of adventure.”

From its earliest stages, the Irishtrade unions warned that thewar would not be in the bestinterests of Irish workers. The

National Executive of the ITUCLPreminded Irish men and women ofhow the British Empire had treatedthem in the past:

“IRISH WOMEN, it is you who willsuffer most by this foreign war. It isthe sons you reared at your bosomthat will be sent to be mangled byshot and torn by shell; it is yourfathers, husbands and brotherswhose corpses will pave the wayto glory for an Empire thatdespises you; it is you and yourchildren who will starve at homeif the produce of Irish soil is sentout of the country. TO YOU WEAPPEAL TO AID US IN THISSTRUGGLE TO SAVE IRELANDFROM THE HORRORS OFFAMINE.

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN, ifwe allow the farmer to sell hiscrops for export our peoplewill starve; if we allow theprofit-monger to sell theproducts of our land to beexported to foreigncountries our people will die

of hunger. Already we are threatened with famineprices; already the gaunt frame of hunger looms largein the outlook because the people think that you willdo in 1914 as your fathers did in 1846-7-8. Is it notbetter to take the risk and responsibility of preventinga repetition of this than to die as our fathers died ofhunger and of fever begotten of famine? And you canprevent it. To the men of our class who are armed wesay, Keep your arms and use them if necessary.

If God created the fruits of the earth He created themfor you and yours. Do not allow our crops to begleaned for any other country.

They are yours. KEEP THEM AT HOME, WE SAY! KEEPTHEM AT HOME BY THE STRENGTH OF YOURRIGHT ARM!”

The ITUC’s attitude to the war was quite different tothat of the British trade unions, who supported thewar and soon after its commencement negotiated anindustrial truce with the government. An agreementwas signed in March 1915 suspending all ‘trade

Irish trade unions andthe First World War


Page 4

practices’ for as long as the war lasted. This wasfollowed by the Munitions of War Act in July 1915,which banned strikes and lockouts in war-relatedindustry, particularly munitions. On the other hand,procedures were set in place that recognisedcollective bargaining (although subject to a system ofcompulsory arbitration) and this had the effect ofencouraging trade union membership andorganisation.

Other repressive legislation and increased inflationthroughout the war undermined the enthusiasm thatwas evident in 1914, contributing to the massivesupport for the anti-conscription movement in 1918.

In Ireland, by 1915 there were frequent complaints totrade unions that employers were forcing men intothe army. This was especially true of unskilled generalworkers who were sacked from theirjobs and left with no

choice but to enlist. James Connolly’s WorkersRepublic described this practice in unambiguousterms:

“Dismissing men of military age from theiremployment, both married and single, andendeavouring to stare themselves and their families, isa very obnoxious form of Conscription, as it enablesthe well-to-do and upper classes to evade their duties.Nearly all the employers are doing it.”

Such coercion applied much more to unskilledworkers than to tradesmen, who were frequentlygranted exempt status to continue their work inessential industries and not have to worry about beingcalled up for military service.

Public sector employers were proactive in promotionrecruitment in the workplace. The Belfast Post Office,for example, gave a financial allowance to employeeswho enlisted and guaranteed to keep their jobs openwhile they were in the armed forces. BelfastCorporation favoured office staff who joined up bysubsidising them to a higher level than manualworkers.

Wartime necessity had an impact on the success rateof strikes. The terms of the Munitions of War Actwere intended to discourage industrial disputes andthe conciliation process was an obstacle tospontaneous protests and withdrawal of labour.

However, workers who did strike were generallysuccessful, not least because there was a much greaterlikelihood of negotiation. Before the war, manyemployers were confident that the highunemployment rates and widespread povertyguaranteed them a docile workforce. In the course ofthe war, between 1915 and 1918 Irish strike activitygrew in intensity throughout the country. Disputes

were not solely about wages and included demandsfor trade union recognition.

In the last year of the war, the casualties in the BritishArmy had reached such a level that the governmentprepared to impose conscription in Ireland. Due tothe hardship imposed by the rising cost of living, aswell as the numbers of casualties, an attitude ofdefiance was prevalent and the trade unionsresponded to the threat of conscription with animmediate call to organise against it.

A general strike was called for 23rd April 1918 and itwas widely supported, with the exception of north-east Ulster. There were also plans for boycotts,passive resistance and industrial espionage ifconscription was introduced, which it was not. Themilitant stance of the labour movement cannot beseparated from similar activities taking place at thetime across Europe in anger at the scale of theslaughter that had taken place in the previous fouryears.

There were many reasons why Irishmenenlisted in the British Army to fight the war.Some of them were persuaded by politicianslike Edward Carson and John Redmond whobelieved that the British government wouldreward them at a later stage for theirassistance.

Unionists would be demonstrating their loyalty totheir king and underlining the advantages to Britain ofmaintaining the union. Nationalists could show thateven a more independent Ireland would continue tobe a British ally. Both sides were prepared to sacrificethe lives of their followers for future benefits. On amore fundamental level, many men were motivatedby the need to earn a steady wage at a time whenwork was scarce and families were often hungry.

There is also the inescapable fact that armies havealways attracted adventurers, for whom wartime is anadditional attraction to enlist.

Liam Murray’s father Martin was probably typical ofthe men who enlisted, in that he had no previousknowledge of warfare and what it would mean. Hewas a Redmondite who believed that his enlistmentwould ultimately benefit Ireland. That is the context inwhich he was prepared to fight, with what he thoughtwould be the added benefit of leaving home for awhile but accompanied by childhood friends from hishome town of Lucan, Co. Dublin. Liam believes thatMartin had no real conception of what he would bedoing in the army.

“They went out to kill the sons and daughters of

German parents. I mean it was kill or be killed so youknow my father went out to kill Germans and he hadno hatred in his heart for Germans. He was in asituation where he was conditioned to do it by socialindoctrination and by the training.

They had no idea they were going to fight in the firstindustrial war. The equipment they used had thecapability to inflict massive loses on both sides. Theyhad Lewis guns, improved machine guns and otherheavy guns and gas. This resulted in people beinginjured or killed on an industrial scale. … This was anew rate of killing much greater than the Boer War orC rimean War.”

It was not unusual to find young men lying about theirage so that they could enlist. Jimmy Nixon’s

Anti-conscription pledge. An Phoblacht, 17 April 2008

Experience and Legacy of WWIApril 2015

Why the men joined up


Page 5

James Lee (on the front horse) on the Western Front c. 1918

Experience and Legacy of WWI April 2015

grandfather was one of them. Born in 1899, GeorgeRobinson was only fifteen when he joined up but heclaimed to be older when he joined the Royal IrishRifles. During the Second World War, he reversed hisactions and claimed to be younger than he was so thathe could join the Army again. This time he went toEngland to join the Royal Warwickshire Regiment,where they would not have a record of his true age.Daniel Lee’s father enlisted in 1915 at the age of fifteenbut his demobilisation papers show that he was“deemed to have enlisted” in 1918.

“That’s why the authorities didn’t put it down because theyweren’t really allowed to take him at that age.”

James Lee served in the Theatre of the Rhine duringthe War. On discharge, he was charged the sum ofone pound in respect of his army greatcoat, whichwould have been deducted from his “war gratuity”.

This was a standard payment for lower ranks, many ofwhom came from poverty stricken backgrounds andwould have gained weight and stature during theirtime in the army. As a result their civilian clothes

would often not fit any more and the gratuity wasintended to facilitate their buying new ones. As therewas a shortage of new clothing, many soldiers optedto take the greatcoat, which was of good quality,instead of the money.

Many soldiers were kept on in the Army Reservesafter the war, as James Lee was, and as a result theywere liable to call-up when the Second World Warwas declared. James was conscripted in 1939, at theage of forty and it took nearly a year for the Armyto declare him unfit for duty on healthgrounds and to discharge himpermanently.

Jimmy Whelan’s grand-uncle Michaelwas proud of the fact that he was notone of “Kitchener’s men”, the manysoldiers who responded to theexpansion of the British Army whenwar was declared in 1914. FieldMarshal Horatio Kitchener wasmade Minister for War in August1914 and he immediately

implemented a call for volunteers toexpand the existing regular army, whichwas significantly smaller than itsequivalents in other European countries.Michael Reddy’s determination to be asoldier was not deterred by his age orhis size.

“My father told me that when hesigned up he was under age but hehad been sent home previous to thatfor trying to sign up and they said hewas too small. He used to hang out ofthe door frame trying to make himselftaller to get into the Army.”

Family traditions of military serviceand public service often influencedyoung men. Eric Harvey’sgrandfather had been a member ofthe Royal Irish Constabulary inDublin before he moved to Belfast.

William Harvey went to war as a civilian contractordoing building work and Eric told a family story abouthis grandfather’s arrival in France with a group ofworkers who were frightened by the shelling and

scattered, forcing him to spend his time rounding upthe men rather than getting on with the job. Williamhad two sons who joined the British Army in Dublin.

David survived the war but his brother Jimmy, whomust have lied about his age to enlist, was killed. Eric’sfather Edmund joined up in the Second World Warand fought at Dunkirk, before his capture andincarceration in difficult circumstances as a prisoner of war.

The contributorsFergus FarrellFergus is a Dubliner and a lifelong trade unionist.He was a young child during the Second WorldWar and it left him believing that it is wrong toglorify war.

“There is something, I believe, in the humanmakeup that in a lot of people gives them thatattitude that they want to fight, they want todestroy everything and take over everything andthere are people who get like that – once they’vebeen in a peaceful situation for maybe tenyears, they’re not happy. They want to be fightingwith somebody.”


Page 6 Experience and Legacy of WWIApril 2015

Women and tradeunions during theFirst World WarThe First World War brought many womeninto their first contact with highly organised,militant workers from whom they could learnabout the advantages of trade unionprotection.

However, the opposition of several labourorganisations to women’s membership also taughtsome of these women to equate trade unionism withgender discrimination. During the war, opportunitiesfor women’s paid work expanded significantly,although not to the same extent in Ireland as in Britainand other western nations. This was mainly becauseconscription was not extended here and for the mostpart jobs that were vacated by men were filled byother men.

There is a long history of women participating in tradeunions but until the early 20th century it was mainly insupporting roles, as the mothers, wives, sisters anddaughters of male trade union activists. This wasnothing to do with the women’s lack of interest orcapacity to organise but resulted mainly from thenature of their work.

In the First World War the impetus to employwomen in ‘non-traditional’ areas in Britain andelsewhere came from the labour shortages that

developed as early as the autumn of 1914 but even asincreasing numbers of men joined the armed forces,many employers were still reluctant to employwomen in their place. Trade unions were alsoconcerned about the diluting effect of female labouron wages and security.

The Irish Trades Union Congress was dominated bycraft unions at that point and the majority of themtraditionally excluded women. Where women didwork in large enterprises, such as the linen mills inNorthern Ireland, there was generally strictdemarcation between men and women in terms ofthe jobs they did while the women earned half or lessof the rates paid to men. Nevertheless, the linenworkers were the largest group of trade unionisedwomen in the country.

In 1914, women linen workers were mainlyconcentrated in the Textile Operatives Society ofIreland (TOSI) and the Flax Roughers and YarnSpinners (FRYS), both Belfast unions. By 1916 womenin the textile and shirt factories saw their workforceincrease by nearly 20 per cent in 1916 compared to1912. This was due to the heightened demand fortextiles generally and for items such as tents,haversacks and aeroplane cloth specifically. When thewar started, the TOSI and the FRYS had a combinedmembership of 3,000 but by 1918 membership of thetwo unions had risen to roughly 20,000.

The clothing trade had a mainly female workforce,especially in the shirt factories of the north-west. TheBritish-based Amalgamated Society of Tailors andTailoresses (ASTT) organised the Irish clothing tradebut it was a craft union with a predominantly malemembership. During the war a rival British union, theUnited Garment Workers began to recruit factoryworkers, who were mainly women and the ASTT,was forced to recruit female members. Themembership of the Derry branch of the ASTT grewand by the end of the war it had increased from12,000 in Britain and Ireland in 1914 to 27,000 in 1918,two-thirds of them women.

The Irish Women Workers Union (IWWU)organised a variety of different workers and in 1914 itwas still suffering in the aftermath of the 1913 Dublin

Lockout, with half of its members unemployed. In1915 James Connolly appointed Helena Molony toreorganise the union, following the departure toEngland of Delia Larkin. Molony’s involvement in theEaster Rising in 1916 and her subsequentimprisonment caused her to step aside in favour ofLouie Bennett. By 1918 they had around 5,500members and mainly organised what were describedas general, unskilled workers. What is now the IrishNurses and Midwives Organisation was part of theunion through its first decade and psychiatric nursescontinued to be organised by the IWWU. Its mainareas of activity included the box making, printing andlaundry trades while an effort to organise domesticworkers was largely unsuccessful.

The railway industry was one of the industries thatresisted hiring women workers until forced to do soby the wartime conditions. In Ireland, while theproblems caused by enlistment in the armed forceswere never as acute as in Britain, there was anincrease in the number of women hired by railwaycompanies during the war years, mainly in the limitedareas in which women had worked in the industrybefore 1914 – cleaning, catering and some office work,with the exception of eight ticket collectors who wereappointed by the Cork Blackrock and Passage Railway.

The contributorsDaniel LeeBorn in Leeds, Daniel was a union activist inEngland all his working life. He moved toArmagh in retirement. His grandfather was ofIrish extraction and was a devoted follower ofJohn Redmond. His two sons, one of themDaniel’s father, joined the British Army.

“I left school at fourteen, and I joined the Unionat fifteen and I’m still a member. … So I’ve beenthrough all of them since 1947, that’s when Ijoined. I left Leeds and went contract and allsorts of things, as one does – and whenever Iwent home and started to go out for a pint orwhatever, I’d start talking unions.”

Mary Galway, Secretary of the Textile Operatives' Societyof Ireland, 1897-1928



The role of ticket collector was one that wascontested bitterly in Britain when the issue ofemploying women was discussed. The National Unionof Railwaymen (NUR) agreed with both the Board ofTrade representatives and railway management thatwomen would not be capable of doing the job. Forexample, a writer in the NUR’s Railway Reviewremarked:

“The ticket collector is often exposed to thecalumnies of a rough element which passes throughthe ticket gates, and this is the objectionable part ofthe position, unsuitable to the fair sex.”

The rates of pay given to women varied fromcompany to company, as indeed they did for maleworkers. There was no national pay rate and eachcompany set its own grades and related pay.However, what was consistent was the disparitybetween male and female rates for the same work.Although the unions had argued that women taking uptemporary employment during the war to substitutefor men should be paid the same rate, this was on thebasis of protecting the terms and conditions for themen when they returned from war, rather than a bidfor equality.

The solution agreed was that the women would bepaid as ‘temporary’ workers, which would allow adifferentiated pay rate. In any case, women were paidsignificantly less than men even when they were doingthe same work.

Women recruited to the Irish munitions factorieswere unionised by the British-based NationalFederation of Women Workers. They had membersin Dublin, Cork, Galway, Derry, Waterford andWexford. This union and its members forced Irishemployers to adhere to the government regulation ofa minimum wage of £1 per week for women ingovernment-controlled employment. This was nosmall achievement, since under the Munitions of WarAct 1915—which covered all munitions companies,public and private, producing material for the army—strikes, lockouts and stoppages were banned.

One of the union’s most significant successes was theSpecial Arbitration Tribunal for Women Employed onMunitions Works, held at the Shelbourne Hotel,Dublin, in April 1918, which raised rates and war

bonuses not only for shell workers but also forcanteen, cloakroom and cleaning staff. By November1918 the women were earning £1-4-0 per week, andsome earned more. Young Florence Lea was fifteenand earning two shillings per week as an apprenticedressmaker when the war started in 1914.

When it ended in 1918 she was earning 50 shillings fora 48 hour week as a munitions worker. However,there was significant social commentary on thewomen’s increased earnings, which were seen as adanger to their morals because they might be temptedto spend the money drinking. It was only working classwomen who were subjected to this sort of scrutiny.

Conscription was introduced in Britain in 1916 but inthe final year of the war there was considered to be aneven greater need to increase recruitment to thearmed forces and the government proposedextending conscription to Ireland.

Many loyalist employers had already co-operated bysacking their workers, an act which served two ends:men were forced through lack of alternativeemployment into the army and women, a cheapersource of labour, could be installed in their place.

In the spring of 1917 agovernment decreeinstitutionalised thispractice by barringemployers from fillingvacant positions withmen aged between 16and 62, which the Irishunions dubbed‘economic conscription’.

An opposition campaignwas organised, whichwas supported by tradeunionists andnationalists, churchleaders and members ofpublic bodies. Womenworkers’ support forthis campaign wascrucial to its success.

In the aftermath of the

war, women were largely replaced by returningsoldiers taking up pre-war jobs, but in some sectors,the women consolidated their position and officework in particular saw the employment of largenumbers of women. The existence of marriage bars inmany jobs in which women were employed meantthat female employees were mainly young and/orsingle but they were joining unions in increasingnumbers.

Helena Moloney, responding to the Commission ofEnquiry set up by the Irish Trades Union Congress in1936 and with the authority of many years workingfor the IWWU, pointed to the reality of the situationfor her union and others who representedpredominantly female workers:

“The organisation of this Union was not a deliberatepursuit of a policy of organising women on sex lines,which would be theoretically wrong, but was, and stillis, a temporary necessity owing to the fact that womenare a separate economic class.”

Women Workers’ Union members on the steps of Liberty Hall

National Shell Factory, Dublin

The contributorsLiam MurrayLiam’s family has lived in Lucan, Co. Dublin forseveral generations. Liam grew up near WestonAerodrome and was always fascinated byaircraft and the physics of flying. He went toEngland in the 1950s to join the RAF BoyService when he was sixteen and trained as anaircraft engineer. He returned to Ireland in the1960s and was employed by Aer Lingus wherehe first became interested in trade unionactivism. Liam admires people who areprepared to fight for a principle.

“I knew a veteran friend of my father whoserved in the International Brigade in Spain in1936. A man called Farrell from Leixlip. Again,because that was voluntary, going off to fight fora principal, except that he was in theInternational Brigade, which was trade unionbased, like the miners from Wales and theyactually fought.”


When the United Kingdom declared war onGermany on 4 August 1914, the Minister forWar, Field Marshal Kitchener started animmediate recruitment campaign.

He said he needed a minimum of 100,000 volunteersbecause at the beginning of the war, the British Armywas badly equipped and comprised just 450,000 menand roughly 250,000 reservists. This was significantlysmaller than the standing armies of continentalEurope, where conscription was standard practice.

The government in Westminster was reluctant tointroduce conscription and various inducements weredevised to encourage men to volunteer once thesupply of reservists had been called up. Initially, one ofthe most successful initiatives was the notion of thePals’ Battalions. This was based on the idea that menwere more likely to sign up if they could be sure theywould be serving alongside people they knew already,such as friends, workmates and members of their localcommunities. In many cases, employers were urged toguarantee that men who enlisted in the armed forceswould have their jobs back when they returned fromthe war. This was an important promise for manymen, although it was one that was not always kept.

In Ireland, the Pals’ Battalions mainly drew theirmembership from the north-east of the country. The

battalions formed by the Royal Inniskilling Fusilierstended to draw recruits mainly from members of theUlster Volunteer Force (representing the unionistcommunity) in Counties Derry, Donegal, Fermanaghand Tyrone.

The 9th, 10th and 11th Service Battalions wereformed in Omagh in September 1914 and theiroriginal assignment was with the 36th (Ulster)Division. The 12th Reserve Battalion was formed inEnniskillen in July 1915. In Omagh, there was a jointguard of honour for reservists from the UVF and theIrish Volunteers (who were drawn from nationalistand Home Rule supporters). It was delivered by theirrespective brass and pipe bands playing together.

The Royal Irish Rifles formed the 8th to 16th(inclusive) Service Battalions in September 1914 andfour further Reserve Battalions between March andNovember 1915. The Service Battalions werecomprised of men from the Ulster Volunteer Force(mainly from Belfast). The Reserve Battalions in bothregiments were formed from depot companies of therespective battalions.

Ulster Volunteer Force members from Armagh,Cavan and Monaghan joined a Service Battalion ofPrincess Victoria’s Royal Irish Fusiliers in September1914 while a Reserve Battalion was formed inSeptember 1915.

Although the men who joined these Battalions wereoriginally motivated by their membership of the UlsterVolunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Force, theircommunities suffered great losses because they weredeployed in some of the worst carnage of the war andmany of them were killed together.

After the Battle of the Somme, which lasted from Julyto November 1916, the losses were so great in thevarious divisions involved that they were oftenredeployed with members of other regiments to formnew units. On the Western Front, men from stronglyunionist battalions could find themselves fightingalongside men from battalions formed from membersof strongly nationalist groups as well as soldiers fromother nationalities. In 1917 the Battle of Messineswitnessed the engagement of both the 10th and the36th Divisions (the former drawn primarily fromsouthern Irish units and the latter from the North)playing a crucial role together. They went forwardagainst the German lines at the Messines Ridge inBelgium, supported by tanks but mainly by each other.John Redmond’s brother Willie was killed during thebattle.

Jimmy Nixon grew up in a working class area of Belfastwhere work was often scarce and the armed forcesoffered a steady wage and the chance to learn a trade.The infantry tended to be the destination of choice,mainly because before the First World War the AirForce did not really exist and the higher standards ofphysical fitness demanded by the Navy made it anoption outside the reach of many poorly nourishedmen from low income backgrounds.

“There would have been a history within our area ofpeople going into the Army and Air Force and Navy butmainly to the Army. To get into the Navy you wouldhave needed a better person generally - a harderinterview and stuff like that and the Air Force maybesimilar, so most working people went into the Army.”

The linen industry was a major source of employmentin Belfast but it had been affected by the loss of somecontinental markets on the outbreak of the war.Several foundries laid off their workers or went onshort hours although many of those workers weretaken back within a month as orders recovered butmany of the laid off men had already enlisted. Belfasthad more voluntary recruits per head of populationthan any other part of Ireland.

In the aftermath of the 1913 Dublin Lockout, somemen were blacklisted by employers and never gotback to work. Employment generally was scarce andhard to find and joining the British Army probablylooked like a good alternative to starvation for themen and their families, particularly before war wasdeclared in August 1914. Men who enlisted after thatdate would still have been led to expect that the warwould be over by Christmas of that year.

The 2nd battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers was aregular army battalion and it was reported that at thesecond Battle of Ypres in 1915 the men were roused


The contributorsJimmy WhelanJimmy has a strong sense of the history of tradeunion organisation and why it has been soimportant to working people. He was born inBirmingham but his family came back to Dublinin 1963 and when he went to school he beganto sense that relations between Britain andIreland were complex.

“I went to school then in Coolock and I gotbashed up in the schoolyard for having anEnglish accent. … In 1966 everything in theprimary school was totally geared to 1916. Iremember the Proclamation was up and therewas posters of all the commandants and thesignatories all around the school and it was allthat. … As I got older I saw the attitudes to thewearing of the poppy and things like that, whichI didn't understand.”

Comrades andfriends

‘Pals’ from the 7th Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers


by three cheers for Jim Larkin, suggesting that manyformerly locked out workers had enlisted in its ranks.The 7th Battalion belonged to ‘Kitchener’s Army’ andwere nicknamed the ‘Larkinites’ because of theirprevious membership of the Irish Transport andGeneral Workers’ Union. Over a thousand ITGWUmembers had been called up because they werereservists and a further 1,500 enlisted. This meant thatnearly half the union’s membership in 1915 was in theBritish Army. They fought alongside ‘Pals’ from rugbyclubs, schools and colleges and middle-classrepresentatives of many professions. As the warcontinued, fewer salaried professionals joined up,particularly in proportion to unskilled labourers, whowere still attracted by regular pay and separationallowances for their wives and families.

Martin Murray had a steady well paid job and was notdriven by economic necessity to join the Royal DublinFusiliers, although he was probably encouraged by hisemployer, whom his son Liam recalled had ‘strongAnglo-Irish sympathies’. He remembered that Martinrallied to John Redmond’s call to his followers tosupport the war effort but he was also excited by theprospect of going away with his friends.

“He was a member of the Irish Transport and GeneralWorkers Union, it was very active in the Mill in termsof pay and conditions. He was conscious of the factthat there was people for and against going to the War.Now his brother joined as well, his brother was in India.He joined with friends so there would have been agreat spirit of adventure.”

When Martin was captured after the Battle of Loos,the separation from his friends was devastating for him when they were sent to different prisoner of warcamps in Germany.

“That was probably one of the worst things for himbecause he was with his companions all his life. Theyattended school together and worked together andjoined the Army together. At the time he was capturedthey had been at war together for a few years. Theshock of sudden separation, being suddenly on his ownalso being with prisoners who didn't speak English.Now he didn't tell me he cried, somebody else told mehe cried when he was separated.”

The strength of the relationships thatcould be formed by the stresses of beingat war was evident in the friendship thatdeveloped between Daniel Lee’s fatherJames and another soldier. James was inthe Northumberland Fusiliers where hedrove artillery and John was a memberof the Royal Field Artillery and theymet in the course of their duties.“What happened was that UncleFrank and my father met as a result ofthe War, because they were bothserving and as a consequence of that,my father met my mother, her beinghis sister. Why we can conclude thatis because my Uncle Frank and myAuntie Rhoda, his wife, my AuntieRhoda was my father's sister. Mymother and my father - it soundsconfusing - what happened was abrother and a sister married abrother and a sister.”

During the First World War,nationalist Ireland contributedalmost equally to unionists interms of enlistment and themotives for Irish soldiers who joined theBritish forces were generally similar tothose from other parts of the UnitedKingdom.

The fact that the war lasted for more thanfour bitter years, when initially it had beenexpected it would be over by Christmas1914, contributed significantly to disillusionabout the value of involvement.

While the Rising in 1916 and its aftermathwas a vital element for the increasingdissent of nationalists, culminating in theAnti-Conscription Campaign in 1918, nomatter which side of the political divide (ornone) soldiers came from, there was nohappy ending for those who survived orfor the families and loved ones of thosewho did not come home.


Village of Wytschaete captured on 7th June 1917 by the 16th(Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Division. 8 June 1917.

A ration party of the Royal Irish Rifles in a communications trench on 1 July 1916, the first day of theBattle of the Somme.

Researcher and authorDr Mary MuldowneyDr Mary Muldowney is an independentresearcher and writer who has publishedextensively on labour and women's history. Sheis the founder and director of the AlternativeVisions Oral History Group and a foundingmember of the Oral History Network ofIreland. Mary also works as an educationconsultant, designing and delivering courses forcommunity and trade union activists.



Trauma andsilenceVeterans of the First World War sometimessuffered from psychological trauma that was asdamaging as physical injury but too frequentlythey were met with a refusal to recognise theconnection between their experiences andwhat we now understand to be post-traumaticstress.

The term “shell shock” emerged during the earlyyears of the war as soldiers tried to describe how theyfelt when under fire, trapped in the trenches butunable to hit back. During training, they had beeninstructed to conceal their fears because panic wasknown to spread rapidly through battalions.

From having been told initially that the war would beover by Christmas 1914, many frontline soldiers wereworn down by the emotional demands of trenchwarfare and by the constant uncertainty over whenthe conflict would come to an end.

In the aftermath of the Battle of the Somme (whichcontinued from July to November 1916, killing morethan one million men) shell shock became a militarypriority as a flood of psychiatric casualties eroded thestrength of front-line units. Specialist centres were setup within the sound of the guns to provide rapidtreatment and to discourage soldiers from thinkingthey had found a way to escape military duty.

Some doctors recognised that shell shock was alegitimate illness requiring expert treatment butothers took a very hard line and refused to admit thatit was just as much an injury as physical wounds. Suchdoctors were taking their lead from the militaryauthorities. In the course of the war, over 300 Britishand Commonwealth soldiers were shot on the ordersof senior military personnel, who accused them ofdesertion, cowardice and insubordination.

The generals believed that anyone suffering from shellshock was malingering and young soldiers were shot“as an example to others”. It is only recently thatposthumous pardons were granted to these men.

Jimmy Nixon’s two grandfathers, Charlie Nixon andBertie Robinson, went to the First World War withthe Royal Irish Regiment. His wife Kathleen’s twograndfathers also joined the armed forces. Jimmyconsidered that the family was fortunate that all fourmen survived the trench warfare.

“My Granddad Nixon was buried in a trench. Thetrench that he was in was hit by heavy artillery fire. Thetrench caved in and he was buried in the trench andhe was alive. A few days later, when the trench was dugback out he was lifted out of the trench. He survived,but he finished up with a plate in the head, but hewent back. He didn’t come out of the Army until 1919.January 17th 1919 he was honourably discharged.”

At least 250,000 servicemen suffered from some formof psychosomatic illness related to the conflict. Manyfailed to recover once peace had been restored. Atfirst, the government funded treatment for veteransand set up specialist clinics but these soon closeddown due to lack of resources. Jimmy pointed to acommon phenomenon, observed after the FirstWorld War but not confined to that conflict.

“My Granddad Robinson came home what seemed tobe unscathed but funny enough, he never talked aboutit. He’d talk about anything else, there was no problemabout it but never talked about that, about the War, theFirst or the Second War. … Kathleen’s grandfather wasgassed and had the same experience as many of goingto hospital and then back to fight again, her GranddadAllister.”

Liam Murray’s father enlisted in the Royal DublinFusiliers and Liam remembers questioning him withgreat interest about his wartime experiences. As ayoung boy Liam thought that fighting in a war musthave been exciting and did not see it in the contextof the suffering Martin Murray had undergone, bothin the fighting and later as a prisoner of war.

He was not emotional during the questions;however, eventually it did get to him. Accordingto the professional opinion of the day he wasdepressed. He said “I can’t go to work anymore. I justcan’t, he couldn’t face it. …According to thepsychiatrists who would have interviewed him, theysaid it was due to the war.”

Martin had been a prisoner of war in Germany afterthe Battle of Loos, when he got shrapnel in his ankleand was unable to escape.

He was taken prisoner with a lot of other DublinFusiliers. They treated him badly because when hewas lined up with the other prisoners, he got a fewkicks and punches from the German troops andthen he found out that it was the emblem on his armwhich indicated that he was a trench mortarspecialist. The Germans didn't like this because theyprobably had suffered injuries themselves.

It was not until the 1950s that the trauma caught upwith Martin but it left him unable to work and in adepressed state for the rest of his life.

Soldiers’ families also suffered in the aftermath ofthe war. Fergus Farrell’s grandfather John enlisted inthe Argyle and Sutherland Highland Regiment inGlasgow, where the family had emigrated fromSligo. Because John’s wife had died and there wereno other family members in Scotland, the six or Jimmy Nixon’s Robinson grandparents



seven year old Fergus Farrell was sent to live inDublin with his aunt and was not reunited with hisfather until he was an adult himself. His son, alsoFergus met his grandfather when he visited Ireland inthe late 1940s. His grandfather did not speak at allabout his experience as a soldier but nearly thirtyyears later he was still suffering the effects of hisexperience in the trenches.

“He still had quite a lot of shell shock. He was veryshaky at times and you had to be absolutely quietwhen he was shaving himself because he shavedhimself with one of those open blades.”

Some years ago Unite members took part in a trip tothe battlefields in Belgium and France as part of acommemoration project that enlightened peoplefrom Northern and Southern Ireland about theimpact of the First World War on communities inevery part of Ireland. Jimmy Whelan was one of thegroup and he thought about how his grand-uncleMichael would have felt, even though he had alwaysbeen eager to be a soldier.

“We went to a lot of the graveyards and all that and withknowing that Micky had been there it kind of brought areal sense of the horror of what these people wentthrough and it just was unbelievable. We were told that atone stage it was very wet weather and basically theground was just gone to like muck and marsh and theywere told, ordered, that if one of them dropped theyweren’t to pick them up, just leave them there.”

Michael Reddy had joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliersbefore the war, following in a family tradition ofmilitary service. He was wounded in the course of thewar because Jimmy remembered that when there wasdamp weather, Micky would complain that theshrapnel that he still carried in his leg would cause himpain. It is not clear whether it was war trauma orsomething else that caused him to go absent withoutleave in 1917, but in December 1917 he was inMountjoy prison in Dublin.

“Well he was a corporal in the Army and I don’t knowwhether it was anything to do with what happened inIreland in 1916 but he went AWOL. But he went backto the Army and I think he lost his stripes when hewent back. But he did finish out his term in the BritishArmy and as I say, he always wanted to be in the Armyand my father told me that his – what would havebeen my father's grand-father on his mother’s side –he was a colour sergeant in the British Army.”

Whatever the reason for Micky’s defection, when thewar ended he was awarded his service medal andhonourably discharged.

One of the important things to remember about theFirst World War is that it had a devastating effect onall the countries involved, regardless of whether theywere in a combat area. Jimmy Nixon emphasised themisery inflicted on ordinary people as a result of thewidespread slaughter.

“We have cities, we have towns, we have villages butwe’re unique here in many ways and one of the waysthat we’re unique is that we have townlands. Myunderstanding, growing up as a boy, coming from astaunch Protestant, Loyalist community, myunderstanding coming from there wasn’t that therewas no Catholics killed in the war. It was this: therewasn’t one townland in Ireland – north, south, east orwest – that didn’t lose people.”

The awful impact of losing a family member in the waris undeniable but Liam Murray also pointed to aconsequence that is less frequently considered.

“The people who survived the War, they’re forgotten.Even in the local church here, the local Protestantchurch, I happened to be a Catholic myself but Iattended the service because the service was for thedead of the First World War. There was no mention ofthe survivors, who returned badly injured, eithermentally or physically. No mention of the families orhow they coped with the injured.”

The collective amnesia was encouraged by agovernment that was responsible for sending youngmen to the conflict in the first place and then avoideddealing with the aftermath, primarily because to do sowould have involved significant expenditure. As FergusFarrell noted when considering the lessons we mighttake from remembering the First World War:

“I've no time for war really but I think thatit's unavoidablebecause it’s part ofsome people's natureto go to war to - andpart of people whorun countries – to goto war to gainadvantage and all thecountries seem to bestricken with that.There are very fewcountries that youwould say aredefinitely pacifists.”

There is no evidencethat Irish soldierswere any more likelyto suffer from shellshock or other

psychiatric illness as a result of their militaryservice during the war, but old prejudices aboutthe predisposition of the Irish (particularly fromthe south of the country) to insanity wereapparent in the attitudes of the pensioningauthorities. It was accepted that the post-warcircumstances and the political situation in Irelandwas likely to lead to an increase in claims for war-related neurasthenia.

In some ways, the senior military authorities whobelieved that shell-shocked soldiers weremalingering were more realistic, if cynical. Itmakes a great deal of sense that frightened menshould feign madness or even ‘really’ becometemporarily insane given the levels of slaughterthat faced them.

Martin Murray in RDF uniform

The contributorsJimmy NixonJimmy was born in his grandfather’s house inMatilda Street, in the Sandy Row area of Belfast.He became a union member at the age ofeighteen when he joined James Mackey’sengineering company, which made textilemanufacturing machinery. Jimmy’s family wereall union members and activists. He wasparticularly guided by the advice of his first shopsteward.

“One of the things that old fellow said to mestuck with me and that’s what kept me in theunion. What old Bob said all those years ago, hesaid: ‘I want you to remember something.Tradesmen, a lot of tradesmen didn’t treat non-tradespeople right. That’s putting no bones on it.Their heads got too big – oh I’m better thanhim.’ Now he said to me ‘do you see the peoplebrushing the floor, Jimmy, and do you see thefellow who carts the stuff into you, the labourer?’And I says ‘aye’. He says ‘well, it costs him thesame for a loaf as it does you. And I want younever to forget that’.”

The Silver War badgewas first used in 1916,although it was latermade retrospective tomen who had enlistedin 1914 and 1915. Itwas awarded to menwho were honourablydischarged but is oftenknown as the ‘SilverWound Badge’ becauseit was awarded to sol-diers who had beenwounded in the courseof their service. It had apin on the back of it toallow it to be used likea brooch.


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Experience and Legacy of WWIApril 2015

Sharing the lossDuring the century since the start of the FirstWorld War, how it was remembered has beenone of the key differences in the participantnations.

The unprecedented mass death and the scale of themobilisation on several continents underpinsremembrance and certainly contributed to the extentof political and social change that followed in the wakeof the war, regardless of whether nations consideredthemselves to have been victorious or defeated. Themap of the world that emerged after 1918 was re-drawn again in 1945 and indeed by other turningpoints in history, such as the collapse of the old SovietUnion or the growth of global capitalism, particularlyin Asia.

Remembrance of the First World War in Ireland hasbeen shaped by forces other than the war itself, whichcontributed in turn to the division between two mainstrands of how the conflict was commemorated untilrelatively recently. The motivations for engagement inthe war were many but two main themes werecrucial: defence of the British Empire and King andCountry was the main principle for unionists whiledefence of the rights of small nations linked to theaspirations of Home Rulers to secure a measure ofself-determination as their reward for coming to theaid of the United Kingdom.

When Jimmy Whelan took part in the trip to the warmemorials of France and Belgium, he was remindedthat the story was never as black and white as the wayit was taught on both sides of the Border in Ireland.“We would have been told a lot about the history ofRedmond's men and Carson's and they were bothbasically fighting for a promise; that they were told ifthey helped out they'd get their way and I think inparts of the war they actually were close by oneanother fighting and that.”

The itinerary of the trip included a visit to the MeninGate where the Hall of Memory is engraved with thenames of tens of thousands of soldiers who diedduring the battles of the Ypres Salient, who have noknown graves. The slaughter was such that somebodies are still being found in the course of roadbuilding and other construction projects in the area. The loss of Irish lives is enumerated in war memorialsthroughout the country, although there is still debateabout the actual numbers. The Irish National WarMemorial Gardens in Islandbridge in Dublin isdedicated “to the memory of the 49,400 Irish soldierswho gave their lives in the Great War, 1914–1918”.

There were estimated to be 300,000 Irish soldierswho fought in various armies, not just the Britishwhen the Memorial was built in 1921. While the WarMemorial and the surrounding parkland is now abeautiful oasis near the centre of Dublin city, for manydecades during the 20th century it was neglected,mainly due to the same attitude to the First WorldWar that Fergus Farrell described, when heremembered how he learned about it in school.

“They never mentioned the world war, any of the worldwars, but there was one particular Brother, BrotherAllen and he was a grumpy so and so too but he usedto give us lectures every now and again on theimposition of British rule on the Irish and the way wefought and won our freedom and got away fromBritain altogether. He’d labour on that from 1916 upto 1921 but he never went past it into the Civil War. Sohe wasn't showing his colours but at the same time hewas supporting the IRA up to the hilt.”

There was a similarly one-sided remembrance inunionist accounts of the war and the sacrifices of theUlster Volunteer Force in particular. This viewpointoften celebrated the war for the glorious showing ofthe brave (Ulster) Irish soldiers and did not deal withthe disproportionate extent to which that sacrificewas driven as much by economic and social inequalityas it was by a belief in a system that facilitated thewaste of so many lives.

Liam Murray’s father believed he was saving ‘littleBelgium’ just as fervently as Jimmy Nixon’s fourgrandfathers. Thankfully, all five men survived the warbut the shared experience that their silence on thesubject suggests they remembered all too vividly wasof suffering and death on an industrial scale, as humaningenuity was turned to the development ofincreasingly sophisticated methods of killing. Liam’smemories of the damage done to his father aretempered by his belief now that we must learn fromwhat happened.

“We mustn’t be hard on people when we look back.You can only be a doctor of your age, a soldier of yourage. The horrific thing for me that happened in Irelandat the time was the subservience of the ordinarypeople towards the so-called professional classes.”

Working people have always been exploited by rulerswho justified their ill treatment by reference tonational pride andpatriotism.This is not asingularly Irishexperience but as itapplied to Ireland’sinvolvement in the FirstWorld War it has ledto the wide disparitybetween remem-brances of the war as itwas deliberately shapedby the ruling classes inwhat was initially theIrish Free State (and isnow the Republic) andin Northern Ireland.What we shouldresolve in thesecentenary years of thewar is to create a worldin which war has noplace and workingpeople can truly claimthe earth.

The contributorsEric HarveyThe Harvey family moved to Belfast around thebeginning of the First World War but Eric’s twouncles joined the British Army from Dublin,where they had been living.

Their younger brother was Eric’s father, whosestories of being captured after Dunkirk and keptas a prisoner of war in Poland during the SecondWorld War made a major impression on hisson. Eric’s father was an active member of thePost Office Executives Union and created afamily tradition that Eric has been proud tofollow.

Centre Rose Garden, Irish National War Memorial Park, Islandbridge

The Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, Ypres, Belgium

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