This pioneering study, first published in 1995, retains its rank as one of the most powerful histories ever written about Irish involvement in World War 1. This year, the centenary of the war, sees its timely re-publication as the Irishmen who fought in that war re-enter the national memory after decades of indifference and hostility. The gradual softening of attitudes over the last twenty years amid great historic change on the island of Ireland, is due in no small part to the efforts of historians, such as Myles Dungan, to tell thousands of forgotten stories. Drawing on the diaries, letters, literary works and oral accounts of soldiers, Myles Dungan tells some of the personal stories of what Irishmen, unionist and nationalist, went through during the Great War and how many of them drew closer together during that horror than at any time since. This volume deals with a selection of the most important battles and campaigns in which the three Irish Divisions participated.

The Western Front concentrates on the personal stories of Irish soldiers who fought in World War One, chronicling the experiences of officers and soldiers who served on the Front from recruitment, through training, to their experiences on the battlefields. These individual experiences are set within the wider context of the service and the military experiences of the various Irish regiments of the British Army to give a fascinating picture of life on the front line. This is the human story at the heart of a war that cost the lives of 35,000 Irishmen. From the Introduction 'This book seeks to free from archives ... the voices of officers and men who served in the Irish regiments, both Northern and Southern, in the First World War. The goal is to give readers an insight into the experiences, thoughts, hopes and fears of those who served ... It attempts to take the reader through the experience of enlistment and training, of life behind and in the trenches, and of the battles fought and losses mourned. This book is about the experiences of ordinary Irishmen in an extraordinary and terrible war.'

The British army was almost unique among the European armies of the Great War in that it did not suffer from a serious breakdown of discipline or collapse of morale. It did, however, inevitably suffer from disciplinary problems. While attention has hitherto focused on the 312 notorious ‘shot at dawn’ cases, many thousands of British soldiers were tried by court martial during the Great War. This book provides the first comprehensive study of discipline and morale in the British Army during the Great War by using a case study of the Irish regular and Special Reserve batallions. In doing so, Timothy Bowman demonstrates that breaches of discipline did occur in the Irish regiments but in most cases these were of a minor nature. Controversially, he suggests that where executions did take place, they were militarily necessary and served the purpose of restoring discipline in failing units. Bowman also shows that there was very little support for the emerging Sinn Fein movement within the Irish regiments. This book will be essential reading for military and Irish historians and their students, and will interest any general reader concerned with how units maintain discipline and morale under the most trying conditions.

This volume brings together new research whilst re-evaluating older assumptions about the immediate and continuing impact of World War I on Ireland. It explores some lesser-known aspects of Ireland’s war years as well as including studies of more traditional areas. Individual articles cover military, social, cultural, political, and economic aspects of the Great War, as well as reflecting on continuity and change within Irish historiography. In doing so, they analyze how the experience and memory of the War have contributed to identity formation and the legitimization of political violence.

This compilation brings together a selection of speeches, sermons and addresses from some of Ireland's greatest statesmen and women over the last 1,000 years. They are arranged in chronological order, with an introduction giving the background to each one.

"This book, written by some of our leading historians, tells the story of the Great War in Irish history which saw over 200,000 Irish soldiers fighting. It relays the experience of ordinary Irish people during the war and chronicles the effect this war had, and still has, on Irish society. Soldiers in the trenches, volunteer nurses, politicians, women and the workforce are all examined. Archival letters, diaries, wills and illustrations are reproduced which document the pride, fear, anxiety and sorrow felt by soldiers, nurses, sweethearts, families and friends."--BOOK JACKET.

The dawning of peace in Northern Ireland has not brought with it much truth about what happened during ‘the long war'. Very few of the paramilitary leaders on either side have ever spoken candidly about their role in that bloody conflict. But here, in a dramatic break with the unwritten laws of paramilitary omertà, two leading figures from opposing sides reveal their involvement in bombings, shootings and killings and speak frankly about how differently their wars came to an end. Brendan Hughes was a legend in the Republican movement. An ‘operator', a gun-runner and mastermind of some of the most savage IRA violence of the Troubles, he was a friend and close ally of Gerry Adams and was by his side during the most brutal years of the conflict. David Ervine was the most substantial political figure to emerge from the world of Loyalist paramilitaries. A former Ulster Volunteer Force bomber and confidante of its long-time leader Gusty Spence, Ervine helped steer Loyalism's gunmen towards peace, persuading the UVF's leaders to target IRA and Sinn Fein activists and push them down the road to a ceasefire. In extensive interviews given to researchers from Boston College on condition that their stories be kept secret until after their deaths, these men spoke with astonishing openness about their turbulent, violent lives. Now their stories have been woven into a vivid narrative which provides compelling insight into a secret world and events long hidden from history. Voices from the Grave is the inaugural publication. of the Boston College IRA/UVF Oral History Project of which Professor Thomas E. Hachey and Dr Robert O'Neill are the General Editors.