Counter-recruitment - Resistance To Military Recruitment in Ireland

Resistance To Military Recruitment in Ireland

Military recruitment and resistance to it has historically been a significant political issue in colonies of the British Empire. This is true in Ireland especially as the campaigns for independence from the British Empire intensified. The British Army raised many regiments from English colonies to fight in conflicts such as the Crimean War, World War I, and World War II. Irish songs opposing recruitment to the British army that date from the mid-19th century provide some evidence that this colonial policy was resisted - examples include Arthur McBride, Mrs. McGrath, and Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye. However this cultural resistance is itself indicative of just how widespread military recruitment actually was in Ireland at the time. Many Irish people continued to be recruited in Ireland to fight in colonial regiments until World War I. The Irish Home Rule Movement decided to support English military recruitment in Ireland in the hope that by acting as loyal subjects of the empire the empire would feel indebted to Ireland and grant it independence. As the Irish independence movement shifted from parliamentary to extra parliamentary channels after the 1916 Rising, and moving towards the Irish War of Independence, there was a shift away from the earlier strategic support for recruitment to the British Army. The Irish War of Independence targeted police stations and this led to the replacement of colonial law enforced by the Royal Irish Constabulary with martial law enforced by the British Army. In this context, joining the British Army was no longer joining an army to fight wars overseas but joining an organisation that was actually fighting a war in Ireland. A cultural understanding of joining the British Army as a kind of collaboration with an oppressive Empire then developed. This opposition to military recruitment was more motivated by nationalism than pacifism or opposition to militarism per se and often coincided with support for Irish para-military organisations such as the Irish Volunteers and Irish Republican Brotherhood. After the Irish War of Independence the British Army no longer operated in the Southern Republic of Ireland and Irish people continued to join the British Army for economic reasons as they had done when Ireland was still part of the British Empire though now they had to first travel to England in order to do so. The continued presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland meant, especially during the height of "the troubles" between the 1970s and 1990s, meant that military recruitment to the British Army was still a highly political issue. Depending on your point of view, there was either widespread popular resistance to the British Military in Northern Ireland or the Irish Republican Army violently enforced non-cooperation with all aspects of the British government in the nationalist communities they controlled.

There has been little or no opposition in Ireland to recruitment for the official Irish army known as the Irish Defence Forces which are often described primarily as peacekeepers despite their participation in dubious UN interventions in recently liberated former colonies such as the Republic of the Congo (Léopoldville) in the 1960s.