Ireland and World War I

Ireland And World War I

During World War I (or the Great War) (1914–1918), Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which entered the war in August 1914 as one of the Entente Powers, along with France and Russia, when it declared war to halt the military expansion of the Central Powers, consisting of the German Empire, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria.

The Irish experience of the war was complex and its memory divisive. At the outbreak of the war, most Irish people, regardless of political affiliation, supported the war in much the same way as their British counterparts, and both nationalist and unionist leaders initially backed the British war effort. Their followers, both Catholic and Protestant, served extensively in the British forces, many in three specially raised divisions, others in the Imperial and United States armies. Over 200,000 Irishmen fought in the war, in several theatres and just under 30,000 died. A small, more radical element of Irish nationalists took the opportunity of the war to launch an armed rebellion against British rule, with some German help. In addition, Britain's intention to impose conscription in Ireland in 1918 provoked widespread resistance and as a result remained unimplemented.

Finally, the Great War was immediately followed by the Irish War of Independence (1919 – 1922) and the Irish Civil War (1922 – 1923) after which Ireland was partitioned and much of it left the United Kingdom as the Irish Free State. For this reason, many nationalists were reluctant for many years to recognise the part that Irishmen had played in the world war on Britain's side.