The Valley of Death

A fifth of the cavalrymen in the Charge of the Light Brigade, 150 years ago today, were Irish. David Murphy remembers their efforts.

Most people now remember the Crimean War only for the medical mission of Florence Nightingale or the disastrous charge, 150 years ago today, of the Light Brigade. More than 660 men, 114 of them Irish, took part in the Battle of Balaclava's foolhardy cavalry charge. When the roll was taken after their ride through the Valley of Death, later commemorated in Tennyson's epic poem, at least 21 of the Irishmen were dead; others were "missing", wounded or captured.

In 1854 Irish soldiers made up about a third of the British army; it is estimated that more than 30,000 served in the Crimea, a peninsula between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, in southern Ukraine. This was the first war in which the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest medal for bravery, was awarded; Irish-born soldiers and seamen won 28. Master's Mate Charles Davis Lucas, from Poyntzpass, in Co Armagh, was awarded the first Victoria Cross, for throwing overboard a live shell that landed on the deck of HMS Hecla during a bombardment of the Bomarsund fortress, in the Baltic, in June 1854.

Many Irish civilians were also in the Crimea. When the war broke out a call was made for volunteers for the supply service (the Commissariat) and the medical services. Several Irish doctors offered to work in hospitals in Scutari, in Istanbul, where Nightingale was based, and Balaclava; Irish nurses and nursing sisters worked in them too. Several priests, including two Dublin-based Jesuits, Father William Ronan and Father Patrick Duffy, also served in the Crimea, to help alleviate a lack of Roman Catholic chaplains. Irish engineers and navvies built roads and railways on the Crimean peninsula, led by two Irish chief engineers, William Doyne and James Beatty.

One of the most unusual aspects of Irish civilian involvement was the participation of members of the Irish Constabulary and Dublin Metropolitan Police, who worked as military police with the Mounted Staff Corps and with the Commissariat. Hundreds of Irishwomen also travelled to the Crimea, as each regiment allowed a small number of wives to accompany their husbands. They washed and cooked for the men and, after each battle, helped with the wounded.

The Crimean War was the first conflict to be covered by war correspondents, the most prominent being the Dublin-born William Howard Russell. It is unique in the history of war reporting, as the correspondents operated without censorship. Russell's reports in the London Times, which often told of shambolic supply and medical systems, resulted in severe public criticism for Lord Aberdeen's administration and for military commanders.

For the first time the public was given regular information on the management, or in this case mismanagement, of a war. Russell's despatches destroyed the reputation of the British commander, Lord Raglan, and played a part in the fall of Lord Aberdeen's administration, in January 1855. Among the few war correspondents in the Crimea were two other Irishmen: Edwin Lawrence Godkin, born in Moyne in Co Wicklow, and James Carlile McCoan, born in Dunlow, in Co Tyrone. Both wrote for the Daily News.

Irish families followed the war with great interest, as many had relations serving in the Crimea. There were street celebrations every time the newspapers reported a success. When the south side of the city of Sebastapol, home to a key naval base, was captured, in September 1855, there were celebrations around Ireland. These were repeated when an armistice was signed in Paris in February 1856.

Perhaps the most extravagant public celebration was the Grand Crimean Banquet held in Dublin in 1856. On October 22nd that year 4,000 veterans of the war and 1,000 members of the public gathered in Stack A at Custom House Docks for what must have been the largest formal dinner in Ireland. The guests ate three tons of potatoes, 250 hams, 200 turkeys, 200 geese and 250 joints of beef. Each soldier was given a quart of porter and a pint of port or sherry. Such a conspicuous display seems incredible: just 10 years earlier Ireland was being ravaged by famine.

We still have physical reminders of the war, in the shape of monuments and even trophy guns. More than 20 Russian cannons were placed around Ireland after the war, including on the steps of the courthouse in Tralee and on the East Pier in Dún Laoghaire.

Yet although the government hailed the end of the war as a great victory, the Irish had become fully aware of the inadequacies of the army's commanders and organisation. Most of the British army's 21,097 deaths had been caused by disease; only 4,774 soldiers were killed in action or died of wounds. Irish names feature prominently on the casualty lists, more than 7,000 Irishmen dying during the campaign.

Towards the end of the war Irish newspaper reports began to sound war weary, as it became increasingly obvious that thousands of Irishmen had paid for the army's lack of organisation with their lives. Many communities, urban and rural, had been destroyed. The parish of Whitegate in Cork, for example, lost 110 men. Thousands of casualties also returned to Ireland, in many cases to be cared for by their families. In others they were reduced to begging.

The Crimean War was, therefore, more than a footnote in our history: from an Irish perspective it was one of the most important and traumatic events of the 19th century.

David Murphy is author of Ireland And The Crimean War, published by Four Courts Press, €19.95.