The Irish Revolution, 1916-1923 Read Online Free PDF

of home rule, that the Irish Volunteers mushroomed to 150,000 members. The Irish Volunteers armed themselves in a similar way to the UVF with the importation of arms through Howth in County Dublin in July 1914 (Townshend, 2005: 44; Fitzpatrick, 1996: 386).
    Irish Volunteers (Irish Volunteer Force) : Paramilitary body formed on 25 November 1913 in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers. It split in September 1914 into Redmond’s National Volunteers and MacNeill’s Irish Volunteers, which carried out the Easter Rising. It was rejuvenated in 1917 and 1918 and fought the guerrilla campaign in the War of Independence (1919–21), by which time it was more commonly known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA).
    By the summer of 1914, with home rule set to become law by September, Ireland was on the brink of civil war, with two armed militias ready to use violence to fight for and against home rule and the government unsure of the loyalty of the army in Ireland to deal effectively with any such event. However, a conflict was avoided and the Irish political crisis that had consumed British politics for two years was swept aside almost overnight with the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914. On 18 September 1914, 40 years of campaigning by Irish nationalists finally resulted in Irish home rule becoming law. However, it was accompanied by two provisos – it would be suspended for the duration of the war and part of Ulster would be excluded in some form.

IRELAND AND THE FIRST WORLD WAR
    Six weeks after the start of the war, on 20 September 1914, John Redmond delivered a speech to a gathering of Irish Volunteers at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, urging them to enlist in the army [Doc. 3] . Redmond had succeeded in gaining control of the Volunteer movement earlier in June 1914 to ensure it did not fall too strongly under the influence of radical nationalists and derail the chances of achieving home rule. The support of constitutional nationalism swelled the ranks of the Irish Volunteers, with membership estimated to be over 150,000 by August 1914 (Coleman, 2003: 33).

    Redmond, who was a strong believer in Ireland playing a role in the empire, like Canada or Australia, believed that Ireland should make its contribution to the war effort, and hoped that its support would be rewarded with the implementation of home rule once the war ended. He entertained the hope that the experience of Irish nationalists and unionists fighting together for the same cause might heal the divisions of the preceding years. He was also aware that the UVF would immediately pledge its support and that nationalist Ireland could not afford to ‘allow the Unionists to win all the credit for sacrifice in the British cause’ (Bew, 1996: 38). His support for the war split the Volunteers, with the majority styled the National Volunteers remaining under Redmondite control and many of them (estimated at 24,000) enlisting. A rump of 10,000 Irish Volunteers, who were opposed to the British war effort, coalesced under the leadership of Eoin MacNeill (Fitzpatrick, 1996: 380).
    Redmond’s call to arms and the loyalty of the UVF explain why many young Irish men joined the British Army during the First World War. Enlistment rates were higher in Ulster, from where half of all Irish recruits came. Approximately 45 per cent of Irish recruits were Protestant, a disproportionately high figure given that the Protestant population of Ireland was 26 per cent (Boyce, 2002: 193). Irish recruitment was a noticeably urban phenomenon, possibly because there was greater economic need in cities, but also because farmers benefited economically from the war and did not want to lose their sons or labourers to the army.
    Many joined for reasons other than the influence of John Redmond or the UVF, including the sense of adventure associated with soldiering, the militarism of Irish society at that time, peer influence, family martial traditions and the financial benefits that