Irish Civil War Research Paper

Ireland, On the Verge of a Civil War: Nationalists and Unionists Joining Forces to Aid Great Britain in World War I In the years before World War I, Ireland was divided. Ireland was under the rule of the British Parliament. This meant that Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom, or European Union. In 1878, Charles Stewart Parnell was elected to be a Parliament representative from County Meath. His main reason for being elected was because of his support for Irish Home Rule. Home Rule is when a dependent country wishes to form a government of their own citizens. In this case, they were dependent on Great Britain and wished to form an Irish government. His attempts ultimately failed, but many Irish still had hope that one day they would have

By the end of the war, more than half a million Irishmen were participating. Great Britain at the start of the war was lacking in numbers and resources, which led to the beginning of recruitment and propaganda of Irishmen. Campbell explained how the British needed the Irish. They needed to be able to focus all their men along the Western Front, rather than between them and Ireland (258). They couldn’t afford any more men and supplies because they were up against Germany, one of the most powerful nations during the war. Irish propaganda became more common. Enlisting in the British Army was seen as a defense against Germany in the future. Defeating them beforehand would prevent a later situation that was much closer to Ireland. Not only was personal enlistment of Irishmen encouraged, but political encouragement came in shortly after. Richard Grayson, head of politics and senior lecturer om British and Irish politics at the University of London explained how Edward Carson got a pledge from the War Office that if enough men were recruited they could form am Ulster Division. Irishmen who were recruited in close towns could join in the same regiment (Grayson 25). This was a major motivator for Irishmen because they could go into battle with their brothers, friends and fellow Irishmen. Both nationalists and unionists fought side-by-side. Jane McGaughey, an assistant professor of Irish Diaspora Studies in the School of Canadian Irish Studies at Concordia University in Montreal stated that a man from the 36th Division, in respect to Irishmen in the war, claimed that “a finer body of men never lived…they will always deserve our thanks and blessing” (McGaughey 303). The Irish contributed greatly to the British during the war. Most of all, they provided the body pool necessary to fight Germany, and allowed Britain to send more troops to the Western Front and not along the Britain-Ireland