Irish soldiers fired some of the first shots in the first World War, a new book tracing Irish involvement in the conflict has revealed.
Irish regiments were recalled from far-flung outposts of the British Empire while reserve forces were also told to report to their commanding officers, according to Our War: Ireland And The Great War.
The 2nd Royal Irish Rifles, who were among 200,000 men from Ireland who enlisted, saw early action at the Battle of Mons in France in early August in 1914.
A battalion of the Royal Irish Fusiliers was summoned from India while the Royal Munster Fusiliers returned from Rangoon in south east Asia.
Ireland And The Great Warhas been written by a team of historians and edited by John Horne to mark the 90th anniversary of the ending of the conflict.
The academics, brought together by the Dublin-based Royal Irish Academy, argue that the war brought massive gains as well as losses to Ireland and that it had a lasting impact on personal, social, economic and political aspects of Irish life.
Ireland fared well from the First World War, according to Trinity College academic David Fitzpatrick. “If the world had remained at peace between 1914 and 1918, the Irish would have been poorer, less employable and more troubled by class and sectarian conflict,” he added.
As the war approached in Europe in the summer of 1914, thousands of restless Irishmen were preparing to enlist at local recruiting offices in search of adventure. Working class recruits included Dublin dockers who had lost their jobs due to pre-war labour disputes while some families with Anglo-Irish links sent several brothers to the front.
A ten-part RTÉ Radio One series and a website are also being unveiled to coincide with the anniversary.
PA