Ireland and World War I - Recruitment

Recruitment

A total of 206,000 Irishmen served in the British forces during the war. Of these,

• 58,000 were already enlisted in the British Regular Army or Navy before the war broke out -
  21,000 serving regular soldiers, 18,000 reservists, 12,000 in the Special Reserve, 5,000 Naval ratings and 2,000 officers.
• Another 130,000 men were volunteers recruited from Ireland for the duration of the war.
• Of these 24,000 originated from the Redmondite National Volunteers.
• 26,000 joined from the Ulster Volunteers.
• 80,000 of the new recruits had no experience in either of the paramilitary formations.
• Of the wartime recruits, 137,000 went to the British Army, 6,000 to the Royal Navy and 4,000 to the Royal Air Force.

The voluntary recruitment figures were: 44,000 Irishmen enlisted in 1914, 45,000 followed in 1915, but this dropped to 19,000 in 1916 and 14,000 in 1917. The 1918 figure has been given as between 11,000 and 15,655, Between August and November 1918 alone 9,845 were recruited.

The recruitment rate in Ulster matched that of Britain itself, Leinster and Munster were about two thirds of the British rate of recruitment, while Connacht lagged behind them.