Irish society and the military
This chapter will show that the war was a period in which people’s perception of the soldier and his family was irreversibly altered, and that Irish people partook in this social movement as much as their peers in Britain through widespread charitable activity. It will also provide detailed analysis of charities’ organisations and lives of the soldiers’ wife. This chapter will also discuss the motivations of the men and boys who enlisted or obtained commissions in the land and naval forces between 1854 and 1856, the recruitment strategies employed by various state agencies and the effectiveness of the same. To all this will be added the geographical and social disposition of recruits and the fluctuations in recruit numbers. This chapter will show that due to the politicisation which Irish population and the army underwent in the subsequent decades the Crimean War represents the last popular surge in Irish recruitment as well as enthusiasm for the military before the First World War.