Conscription, rural populations and the dynamics of war and revolution in Ireland (1914–18)

Drawing on secret witness reports from Intelligence Officers of the Royal Irish Constabulary, and diplomatic correspondence from France’s representatives to Dublin and London, this article seeks to complement recent historiography and qualify our understanding of the period 1914–18 by engaging fully with the issue of compulsory military service from the outbreak of the conflict. It contemplates how fears of conscription contributed to the radicalisation of rural communities and demonstrates that opposition to conscription formed a solid political foundation for Sinn Féin. Britain’s determination to implement conscription to Ireland frightened civilian populations, gave rise to nationwide discontent, and attracted towards Sinn Féin populations likely to be drafted into the British Army. That study seeks to be a re-examination of the dynamics between the Irish revolution and the conscription scares and maintains that fears of compulsory service in Ireland significantly contributed to the victory of Sinn Féin candidates during the four electoral contests in 1917.

Loyalists in a Garrison County: Kildare, 1912–1923

This chapter explores the experiences of loyalists in County Kildare during the Irish Revolution. Up to 1922, loyalists and Unionists in Kildare until 1922 enjoyed a level of security experienced in no other county outside Ulster due to the presence of British army barracks, which included the Curragh camp. Persistently anti-Home Rule, the loyalist and Unionist population – ably led by Lord Mayo and William Goulding – initially resisted concessions to nationalist aspirations. Developments such as the threat of partition resulted in a more compromising viewpoint regarding self-determination. However, fears expressed in 1920 by Lord Mayo that the community would be left to the ‘mercies of a Sinn Féin parliament’ came to fruition. While loyalists and Unionists in Kildare did not experience the same level of violence as loyalists in neighbouring counties, some high-profile incidents occurred during the Civil War. In post-independence Kildare, despite a decline in population, former unionists in the county continued to play a disproportionate role in large scale farming and the professions.

Southern Protestant Voices during the Irish War of Independence and Civil War: Reports from Church of Ireland Synods

This chapter records the experiences of southern members of the Church of Ireland, the largest protestant denomination, during the period of the Irish revolution, 1919–23. The main source is one that has been rarely used in the past. It involves the speeches of Church of Ireland bishops at annual local and national diocesan synods during these tumultuous years. As both leaders and observers of their dioceses, the bishops' comments reflected many of the concerns and anxieties of their community. They recorded the violence which forced many members of the church to leave Ireland at this time. They also spoke of efforts to maintain good relations between denominations.

Defying the Partition of Ulster: Colonel John George Vaughan Hart and the Unionist Experience of the Irish Revolution in East Donegal, c.1919–1944

Colonel John George Vaughan Hart resided in his large ancestral home of Kildery (Muff, Co. Donegal) during the partition of Ireland. This chapter highlights the experiences of a Southern Unionist who found himself on the wrong side of the border and explores the possible reasons as to why the Colonel decided to move a few miles, to Londonderry, to a simpler home. The chapter draws primarily on Hart’s carbon copy letter books which have been deposited at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The seventy letter books comprise a small part of a much larger Hart family collection.

Southern Irish Loyalists and Imperial Service

This chapter examines the enlistment of southern Irish loyalists into the British Colonial Service during the Irish Revolution and its aftermath. First, it assesses the revolution’s impact on their decisions to enlist, focussing on the way in which colonial service provided a convenient route out of Ireland for loyalists (Protestant and Catholic) unable or unwilling to remake their lives under the new dispensation. Secondly, it interrogates their loyalist credentials, arguing that while most were loyalist by birth or conviction, a significant minority had loyalty thrust upon them by circumstance. Predominately Catholics born outside the Irish Unionist tradition, they were unwillingly or unwittingly draped in the loyalist mantle despite their indifference or opposition to the loyalist cause. Finally, the chapter examines enlistment in the 1930/40s, when disproportionate Irish Protestant enlistment derived from a sociocultural communal identity steeped in imperial affinities, and a Colonial Service recruitment policy favouring Ireland’s former loyalist class.