National Volunteers
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The National Volunteers was the name taken by the majority of the Irish Volunteers that sided with Irish Parliamentary Party leader John Redmond after the group split in the wake of the question of the Volunteers' role in World War I.
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[edit] Origins
While Redmond took no role in the creation of the Irish Volunteers, when he saw how popular they had become he realized an independent body of such magnitude was a threat to his authority as leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and therefore sought control of the organization. Eoin MacNeill, along with Sir Roger Casement and other leaders of the Irish Volunteers, had indeed sought Redmond's approval of and input in the organization, but did not want to hand control over to him. In June, 1914 the Volunteer leadership reluctantly agreed, in the interest of harmony to permit to let Redmond to nominate half the membership of Volunteer Executive [1] (as some of the standing members were already Redmond supporters this would have given him control). The motion was bitterly opposed by the radical members of the committee (mostly members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood), notably Patrick Pearse, Sean MacDermott, and Eamonn Ceannt, but was carried nevertheless in order to prevent a split. With the support of the Irish Party the Volunteer organization grew dramatically.
[edit] Great War split
Following the outbreak of World War I in August, and the successful placement of the Third Home Rule Act 1914 on the statute books, Redmond made a momentous speech in Woodenbridge, County Wicklow on September 20, in which he called for members of the Volunteers to enlist in an intended Irish Army Corps of the New British Army's divisions, his motives twofold. Firstly, he felt it was in the future interest of an All-Ireland Home Rule settlement to support the Allied war cause, joining together with the Ulster Volunteers who offered immediate support enlisting in their 36th (Ulster) Division. Secondly, he reminded the Irish Volunteers that when they returned after an expected short war at the end of 1915, they would be an armed army capable of confronting the outcome of the partition bill forced through by Sir Edward Carson, leader of the Ulster Unionists, as an amendment to the Home Rule Act. Nearly all of the original leaders of the Volunteers utterly rejected this notion, and dismissed Redmond's appointees, who then formed the National Volunteers.
[edit] Irish divisions
The vast majority of the membership remained loyal to Redmond, keeping some 175,000 members, leaving the Irish Volunteers with an estimated 13,500. Most members of the National Volunteers as well as many other Irishmen following the call of their parliamentary leaders, such as William O'Brien MP and Joseph Devlin MP. Five other MPs, J. L. Esmonde, Stephen Gwynn, Willie Redmond, William Redmond and D. D. Sheehan as well as former MP Tom Kettle enlisted in Irish regiments of the 10th (Irish) Division and 16th (Irish) Division, as part of the British Expeditionary Force.
Redmond's hopes were however overtaken by events to follow, the denied Irish Army Corps replaced by the New Army 16th (Irish) Division, with the disadvantage that most experienced Irish officers had already been posted to the 10th (Irish) Division. The few trained officers still available Carson had drafted into his 36th (Ulster) Division. As Irish recruits with potential to becoming officers had no previous military experience, the War Office had no option but to have the 16th Division led at first by English officers, a not at all popular decision, with the exception of Irish General William Hickie. In addition, Redmond's earlier statement that the Irish New Army units would return armed and capable of enforcing Home Rule, aroused War Office suspicions[2].
[edit] Severe losses
In the end any of Redmond's remaining expectations were dashed by the severe losses suffered by the numerous battalions of these Irish divisions, the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers, the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and the Royal Irish Regiment, during the failed Battle of Gallipoli and the V beach Landing at Cape Helles, the unexpectedly prolonged war on the Western Front, as well as after the Easter Rebellion and the unnecessary Conscription Crisis of 1918 which finally culminated in the results of the general elections in December 1918.
After the Armistice in November 1918 the five Irish regiments with their remaining members of the National Volunteers who joined at the outbreak of the war were disbanded in 1922 under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty, many re-enlistng in the newly formed Irish Free State Army Defence Force .
[edit] Notes
- ^ Irish Volunteer Soldier 1913-23, p.8, ISBN 1-84176-685-2
- ^ Irish Regiments in the Great War, Timothy Bowman, Manchester University Press (2003), Ch. 3: Raising the Service battalions, pp. 61-99. ISBN 0 7190 6285 3
[edit] Reading References
- Thomas P. Dooley: Irishmen or English Soldiers: ?
the Times of a Southern Catholic Irish Man (1876-1916).
Liverpool Press (1995). - Terence Denman: Ireland's unknown Soldiers
the 16th (Irish) Division in the Great War.
Irish Academic Press (1992), (2003) ISBN 0-7165-2495-3. - Desmond & Jean Bowen: Heroic Option: The Irish in the British Army
Pen & Sword BooKs (2005), ISBN 1-84415-152-2.
[edit] Great War Memorials
Those who died in the Great War are commemorated at the:
- Irish National War Memorial Gardens Dublin.
- Island of Ireland Peace Park Messines, Belgium.
- Menin Gate Memorial Ypres, Belgium.
[edit] External links
- Read: A Tribute and a Claim to the National Volunteers
- Department of the Taoiseach - Irish Soldiers in the First World War
