European University Institute Library

The disparity of sacrifice, Irish recruitment to the British armed forces, 1914-1918, Timothy Bowman, William Butler, and Michael Wheatley

Classification
1
Mapped to
1
Label
The disparity of sacrifice, Irish recruitment to the British armed forces, 1914-1918, Timothy Bowman, William Butler, and Michael Wheatley
Language
eng
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Illustrations
maps
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Main title
The disparity of sacrifice
Nature of contents
bibliography
Oclc number
1120969738
Responsibility statement
Timothy Bowman, William Butler, and Michael Wheatley
Sub title
Irish recruitment to the British armed forces, 1914-1918
Summary
During the First World War approximately 210,000 Irish men and a much smaller, but significant, number of Irish women served in the British armed forces. All were volunteers and a very high proportion were from Catholic and Nationalist communities. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Irish recruitment between 1914 and 1918 for the island of Ireland as a whole. It makes extensive use of previously neglected internal British army recruiting returns held at The National Archives, Kew, along with other valuable archival and newspaper sources. There has been a tendency to discount the importance of political factors in Irish recruitment, but this book demonstrates that recruitment campaigns organised under the auspices of the Irish National Volunteers and Ulster Volunteer Force were the earliest and some of the most effective campaigns run throughout the war. The British government conspicuously failed to create an effective recruiting organisation or to mobilise civic society in Ireland. While the military mobilisation which occurred between 1914 and 1918 was the largest in Irish history, British officials persistently characterised it as inadequate, threatening to introduce conscription in 1918. This book also reflects on the disparity of sacrifice between North-East Ulster and the rest of Ireland, urban and rural Ireland, and Ireland and Great Britain. --, Provided by publisher

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