Irish POWs in the Great War

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Irish POWs in the Great War

An Ethical Retrieval of Neglected History

John Fitzsimons

M. Litt.

Irish School of Ecumenics

Trinity College

January 2019

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Declaration

I certify that this dissertation, submitted in fulfilment of the

requirement for the degree of M. Litt. has not been submitted

for a degree at any other university, and that it is entirely my

own work. I agree that the Library may lend or copy the

dissertation upon request.

Signed………

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Acknowledgements

I would like to thank a few people. I wish to thank my supervisor,

Dr. Gillian Wylie, ISE for her advice and re-assurance and Dr.

Carole Holohan of the History Department for facilitating my

attendance on the Archives course. Thanks to the

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Abstract

Irish POWs in the Great War

An Ethical Retrieval of Neglected History

The thesis turns on the central question: ‘What were the experiences of Irish POWs during and after the Great War?’ – placing them in their historical context, examining the knowledge gaps and rectifying the historical memory. Their support from the home front and their repatriation to Ireland after the war is also considered. Finally, I look at how they are commemorated and how all this new information could allow their ethical remembering.

In order to answer the research questions, I proceed by consulting a range of primary and other sources and the overall approach is qualitative. Three main research methods will be used in this thesis, each of which offers a unique approach to generating answers regarding the research questions. The first involves research in a variety of archives in Ireland, the UK, Switzerland and Germany. This in-depth analysis of primary source material will form the backbone of the information gathering. Secondly, an interview approach complements the archival work. Finally, secondary sources such as history texts are used to help answer the questions.

A literature review tries to answer the second research question, ‘What is currently known about Irish POWs and what are the knowledge gaps about them in existing historical accounts of Irish soldiers in the Great War?’ As this review reveals, much recent historical work pays attention to the experiences of Irish soldiers in combat, but POW experiences are rarely dealt with.

The third research question, ‘What happened to Irish POWs during their

incarceration?’ is then addressed. This chapter includes qualitative archival research in the National Archives Kew, the Imperial War Museum, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Bureau of Military History (BMH), and the Bundesarchiv (BA) in Freiburg and also interviews with representatives of Irish Regiments such as the Connaught Rangers.

This fourth question is ‘What support did POWs receive from the home front during the war?’ To answer this, chapter four examines supports for POWs, mainly from their families but also from voluntary committees and regiments. Therefore, using newspapers, archives and interviews with regimental historians, the research looks at levels of home front support and assesses the effects of separation on POWs and their families.

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remembered in their context, so I suggest that the 1916 revolt and subsequent political events impacted on their return, as it did for all Irish soldiers.

The sixth question is, ‘How does the recovery of the stories of POWs contribute to a project of ethical remembering?’ First, I look at how a national amnesia was applied to Irish soldiers and POWs and how their commemoration became contentious. But, sometimes imagination can do a better job than bare facts, and I explore how reflected voices of plays and literature help us recall the period. Then, I reflect on how soldiers and particularly POWs in the Great War are publicly commemorated.

Conclusions

Recent historical accounts of Irish soldiers are also complemented by public

commemorations of the Irish in the Great War. However, despite the large number of Irish POWs, published secondary accounts of their experiences during and after the war are rare.

Overall, treatment of Irish POWs was similar to that of other British soldiers in Germany. The exception was for a time in 1914-1916 when Irish prisoners were brought to Limburg camp with a view to setting up an Irish Brigade to fight with Germany. The plan to form an Irish Brigade from Irish POWs in Germany was ill-conceived (few soldiers joined) and contributed to Roger Casement’s treason trial and execution in 1916.

Because of the conditions for POWs, support groups mainly led by titled ladies, became very important in providing parcels and letters and middleclass women also undertook support. Regiments such as the Royal Dublin Fusiliers also offered support and were led by army officers. Finally, families also sent letters and parcels. Separation was a key experience of war for soldiers, parents, siblings, wives and children but families could have adjustment problems when the soldier returned home.

Following repatriation, the reception for POWs was mixed. While some veterans may have been better off because of pensions, disability allowances, regimental support and even houses, they formed a marginalised and unwelcome group in Irish society. They suffered from republican hostility, although some joined the IRA and many joined the National army, especially at the outbreak of the civil war.

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Abbreviations

BA Bundesarchiv (Freiburg), BEF British Expeditionary Force BMH Bureau of Military History Bn Battalion

Capt Captain Comdt Commandant Cpl Corporal

CR Connaught Rangers

DWUA Dublin Women’s Unionist Association ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross IV Irish Volunteers

IWM Imperial War Museum

IPOWA International Prisoner of War Agency IRA Irish Republican Army

IRB Irish Republican Brotherhood IWA Irish Women’s Association Lt Lieutenant

LR Leinster Regiment MI5 Military Intelligence MIA Missing in Action MF Munster Fusiliers NV National Volunteers NCO Non-Commissioned Officer OC Officer Commanding POW Prisoner of War

PRONI Public Records Office Northern Ireland RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps

RCScI Royal College of Science Ireland RDF Royal Dublin Fusiliers

RIC Royal Irish Constabulary RIR Royal Irish Regiment RMF Royal Munster Fusiliers Sgt Sergeant

SSFA Soldier’s and Sailor’s Families Association TCD Trinity College Dublin

TNA The National Archives UV Ulster Volunteers

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Appendices

1. Pte John Byrne at Soltau POW camp, 1916

2. Ethics Statement for Interviews and Key Questions

3. Main International Law Articles (Hague and Geneva) on the treatment of Prisoners of War.

4. Statementto Government Committee on the Treatment by the Enemy of British Prisoners of War

5. Notice to Irishmen, Prisoners of War, which issued at Limburg camp, encouraging Irish soldiers to join the Irish Brigade.

6. Diet Sheet for Prisoners at Limburg Camp.

7. Prisoner Parcel Guidelines from the Irish Women’s Association

8. Letter given to ex-POWs in 1918 by King George, welcoming them on their release

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1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction

There is now a widespread belief that the idea of war is an unacceptable means of political action.1_{However, in 1914 turning readily to war and bloodshed to settle}

disputes was more common than it might be in this age of diplomacy and regional and world governing bodies such as the UN. Many Irishmen served in units of the British army in the Great War.

By the mid nineteenth century, perhaps 30-35 per cent of the British Army was composed of Irish soldiers.2_{At the outbreak of the Great War, the majority of the Irish}

regiments could trace their origins back to the 17th_{and 18}th_{centuries. In 1914 there}

were 13 Irish regiments in the British Army, as well as Reserve and Territorial units.3

Although Irishmen were periodically in a state of rebellion against British forces, many different factors drove Irishmen to enlist - most commonly, simple economic necessity. The background to the lives of Irishmen who took part in that war is considered in a number of publications, including Yeates.4_{He looks at the lives of the soldier class in}

Dublin. Men of the lower classes joined out of economic necessity, while for the upper classes, it was a privilege and an obligation. Dublin had always been a fertile ground for recruitment to the British army and a major reason was the high level of

unemployment among unskilled workers who provided a traditional source of recruits.5

From 5th_{August 1914, 40,000 Irish soldiers including 10,000 reserves, left by boat as}

part of the British Expeditionary Force sent to Belgium. Reports of German atrocities in

1_{Jay Winter, ‘1916 and the Great War’, lecture Royal Irish Academy, 21 January 2016} 2_{David Murphy (2007)}_{Irish Regiments in the World Wars}_{, Osprey, Oxford, p.3} 3_{Ibid p.5}

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Belgium had reached Ireland and there was general support for the war.6_{In 1914,}

there was not much acceptance of dissident arguments against war recruitment. In proof of this, 30,000 of the Irish Volunteers7_{actually joined the British army and}

overall 144,000 Irishmen joined the army throughout the war. This means that about 200,000 Irishmen served in the Great War, with the balance already enlisted in the British Army or reserves before the war started.8

During the Great War, many of these Irish soldiers became Prisoners of War (POW). Although the term POW was not officially used in the Great War (it was an

abbreviation introduced by the US army in WW2), I will use POW for simplicity and clarity in the thesis. Furthermore, I will use the term the Great War throughout, as this description was used at that time. An exact breakdown by regiment has never been done, but a conservative estimate is that at least 10,000 Irishmen spent all or some of the war in a German POW camp.9_{The names of German prisoner of war camps were}

as familiar to many serving Irish men in the British army as were their own home towns. Limburg, Sennelager, Zossen and Giessen were among the places where thousands of Irishmen were detained during the war. However, up until now their experiences as POWs and returnees have been little documented. This thesis seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge.

6_{Catherine Pennell, ‘Ireland’s Entry into War 1914’, lecture to Military History of Society Ireland, 10}

October 2014

7_{The Irish Volunteers was set up in 1913 in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers which}

was established in 1912 to fight against Home Rule for Ireland.

8_{Catherine Pennell, ‘Ireland’s Entry into War 1914’, lecture to Military History of Society Ireland, 10}

October 2014

9_{http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/}

savageryandbrutalityoftheworstkindstoriesoftheirishheldingermanpowcamps1.2156512. accessed 20 May 2016

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1.2 Aims

The period 1912-1922 is a complicated and controversial one in Irish history. At its centenary, some have called for an 'ethical remembering' of the decade10_{– and by}

focusing on the largely forgotten stories of Irish POWs this thesis attempts to

contribute to that approach. This project will try to understand why these men joined the British Army, how they were captured, and their experiences afterwards. I will examine the experiences of Irish soldiers who became POWs in the Great War, placing them in their historical context, and detailing their incarceration and life in German prison camps. Their support from the home front and their repatriation to Ireland after the war will also be considered. Finally, I will look at how they are commemorated and how all this new information could allow their ethical remembering. By writing up the history of Irish POWs, this thesis will make a contribution to the historical narrative of Irish soldiers in the Great War and help explore the records in relation to this

neglected part of Irish history.

1.3 Hypothesis

Political changes in Ireland in the late 20th_{century have led to greater}

acknowledgement of the role of Irish soldiers in the Great War, as reflected in recent historical works. However, my hypothesis is that this new historiography continues to neglect the experiences of Irish POWs in that war and that as part of a project of ethical remembering of this period in Irish history their stories should be retrieved and retold.

10_{Johnston Mc Master, Cathy Higgins, Maureen Hetherington (2010)}_{Ethical & Shared Remembering}_,

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Research Questions

1. The thesis turns on the central question: What were the experiences of Irish POWs during and after the Great War?

Subsidiary Questions are:

2 What is currently known about Irish POWs and what are the knowledge gaps about them in existing historical accounts of Irish soldiers in the Great War?

3 What happened to Irish POWs during their incarceration?

4 What support did POWs receive from the home front during the war?

5 What happened to Irish POWs on their repatriation?

6 How does the recovery of the stories of POWs contribute to a project of ethical remembering?

1.4 Justification: Neglected History and Ethical Remembering

In this decade of reflection,11_{we, the Irish public, need a re-evaluation of history to}

challenge accounts which have offered narrow perspectives on Irish history and so ‘to read history against the grain’.12_{As Kearney reminds us, if ‘the past is … taken for}

granted, it is robbed of its critical potential to challenge the imposing ideologies of the present’.13_{So, this re-evaluation requires a fuller, moral and political reclamation that}

acknowledges the complexities and ambiguities of the past.

11_{Broadly reflecting the period 1912-1922/23 - also called: 'decade of centenaries', ‘decade of}

commemoration’

12_{Emmanuel Levinas (1999) as quoted by Simon Critchley in}_{Ethics, Politics, Subjectivity}_:_{Essays on}

Derrida, Levinas and Contemporary French Thought, Verso, London, p.155

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The issue is timely and of importance, given the current centennial commemoration of the Great War and the relatively recent political and social acknowledgement of the participation by Irishmen in that conflict. Prior to the more recent historical accounts, there was what has been described by historians as 'amnesia', i.e. the forgetting of Irish soldiers of the Great War.14_{Although there have been recent moves to remember}

Irish soldiers in historiography and commemoration, a review of existing literature undertaken for this thesis shows that there is an on-going gap in the literature in relation to accounts of and remembrance of POWs. They were often less recognised and very little is written about these men and their experiences. In this thesis, I will consider why this is the case and what I can do to fill the gap through my research.

Writing in the context of the 'decade of centenaries', McMaster, Higgins and Hetherington suggested that Irish historians need to engage in a project of 'ethical remembering'.15_{They make this proposal because they are wary of the ways that}

historical events and their commemoration can be used to support hegemonic versions of the past that serve political ends in the Irish context. Instead they suggest that we require a fuller, moral and political discourse that acknowledges the

complexities and ambiguities of the past. Researching the stories of Irish POWs can be understood as part of this project of ethically remembering the controversial decade of 1912-22 in Irish history. The research will add to and deepen the recent

historiographical trend which accepts and acknowledges the complex relationship of Irish men to the British military. By undertaking a critical analysis of the events of the Great War period, and taking a sensitive approach to remembering the experiences of Irish soldiers and POWs, this research will enable that 'fuller' account of the past that McMaster and others propose.

14_{F.X. Martin, ‘1916 – Myth, Fact and Mystery’}_{Studia Hibernica}_{(1967) pp.7-126}

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The key principles of an ethical remembering approach are:

(1)Remembering in context - because to remember the past as though it was the present is to delude ourselves and is an irresponsible way of remembering. It is

important to remember that the world of the Great War belonged to a different era of imperialism, late 19th_{century nationalism and high-profile religion;}

(2) Remembering the whole decade and not just selectively focusing on events which 'suit' particular views of the past. This was a decade of multiple significant events including militarised politics in Ireland, the Ulster Covenant, the Dublin Lockout of 1913, the 1916 Rebellion, the War of Independence, etc.

(3) Remembering through a prism of future vision - ethical remembering is not about going back to the past in condemnation, nor to indulge in a blame game. Uncritical remembering is a failure to learn from history and underlines the need for hospitality. Richard Kearney calls this 'remembering forward' (alert to futures of the past).16

(4) Remembering together - because in remembering solo we will distort the decade, skew memory and risk yet another replay of political violence.17

Using this ethical retrieval approach, it is important to tell the stories of groups who have been marginalised because their stories may not fit the grander narratives. This research will therefore bring into a critical light the forgotten stories and difficult experiences of ordinary men who lost up to five years of their lives to captivity and their feelings of guilt, their bad treatment, facing an unknown future, illness or even death. It will also consider how their captivity was responded to, with support from their regiments in Ireland, from their families and friends, while at the same time part of the Irish population, the new ‘revolutionary classes’ and nation-builders ignored their experiences. However, the sharing of moments of grief at a distance may allow us to remember both the Great War and 1916 in a manner that can deepen reconciliation and lead to forgiveness:

16_{Richard Kearney (2016) ‘A Year of Double Remembering’, The Irish Times, July 16, 2016, p.4}

17_{Points 1-4 are paraphrased from, Johnston. Mc Master, Cathy Higgins, Maureen Hetherington (2010)}

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Imagine Dublin of those years where conspiracy for revolution is fomenting on the very same streets where telegrams and the feared for messages they are bringing are arriving from the front…as the horror behind the rhetoric of the recruiting posters becomes apparent.18

Overall, this thesis will bring out their under-represented history and try to fit POWs in the context of everything else happening at the time. We should allow them their place in a rounded understanding that looks back at all Great War soldiers who survived and died, along with nationalists and unionists of the same period.

1.5 Methodology

In order to answer the research questions, I adopted a qualitative research

methodology, beginning by reviewing the existing historical literature on the period, particularly publications focused on the role of Irish soldiers in the Great War.

Thereafter, two main research methods are used in this thesis, each of which offers a unique approach to generating information regarding the research questions. The first involves research in a variety of archives in Ireland, UK, Switzerland and Germany. This in-depth analysis of primary source material is the backbone of the information

gathering. Secondly, an interview approach complements the archive work. The reasons why I chose these particular procedures are outlined below. These are methods which should produce reliable results and, as a consequence, support the value of my interpretations of the findings. The information and data was collected in a way that is consistent with accepted practice in this field of study and should be appropriate to fulfilling the overall aims of the thesis.

1.5.1 Archives

18_{President Higgins (2015) ‘1916 and the Ethics of Memory’, speech at Glencree Centre for Peace and}

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Archival research is a type of primary research which involves seeking out and

extracting evidence from original records. Primary sources are held in archives, Special Collections Libraries, or other repositories. The archival sources I consulted were mainly on manuscripts and documents, as well as electronic records, but they could include photographic materials. A primary source would have been produced by a contemporary of the events it narrates. In other words, primary sources are tangible materials that provide a description of an historical event and were produced shortly after the event happened – i.e. they have a direct physical relationship to the event being studied. Other examples of primary sources include newspaper reports, letters, public documents, court decisions, personal diaries, autobiographies, photographs and eyewitness’s verbal accounts.19_{Historians rely on careful research and documentary}

evidence to support their arguments, and depend on various kinds of archives for access to primary source collections. Fortunately, in most cases I rarely had to confront a mass of information unaided, as I relied on archivists to help me access to the

collections mentioned below.

The empirical heart of the thesis is gained from this archival research on POWs, to build knowledge of their experiences. Archival research is a chosen method for this project because I needed to seek out and extract evidence from original records. From these, I tried to obtain documentary evidence to support my arguments and answer the research questions in the thesis. Data on Irish soldiers in the British army is abundant but the archival trace of Irish POWs remains sporadic.

Archival research is a chosen method for this project because I needed to seek out and extract evidence from original records. From these, I tried to answer the research questions in the thesis and to obtain documentary evidence to support my arguments. The archival material researched for this thesis does reveal new material on the Irish POWs’ experiences. The list of archives chosen was based both on my readings and by recommendations of historians.

One key archive is that held in the International Prisoners-of-War Agency (IPOA) based in the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva. It takes in the main

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public repository of official records, as well as official camp inspection reports. The origins of this archive arose from the work of the ICRC on the rules of war and the need for humane treatment of captured soldiers. The IPOA was founded in 1914 to keep contact between prisoners and their families. The card index data covers two million prisoners. Other archival files at IPOA include diplomatic inspection reports and reports from neutral country inspections (ICRC). In addition, the many private letters archived there enable consideration of the individual experiences of the POWs during their captivity.

I also identified further archival sources in UK, Ireland and Germany. These included the Imperial War Museum, London (IWM) which has an extensive collection of private papers and published material on the First World War; the Irish Bureau of Military History (BMH) which contains 1,773 witness statements on the history of the period 1913-21; the National Archives, Kew (TNA) containing records on all British soldiers and unit logs; the Public Record Office Northern Ireland (PRONI) which includes private letters and material on First World War; the Bundesarchiv, Freiburg (BA) where the military archives of the Prussian army evaluations on prisoners in Cambrai and other camps are housed; and finally, published primary sources on First World War held in the Trinity College archives. As will be shown, these archives all reveal POWs stories, including their experiences of being housed in camps across Germany, their physical conditions, work, leisure activities and health. In relation to gathering information about home front support, I also examined newspaper accounts from the time and the records of support committees. Bringing all this source material to bear on the

questions formulated at the outset, allows them to be consecutively answered across all chapters.

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translations. I used keywords in French and German to access relevant records and where necessary, used Google Translate to translate these records.

Terms used in searching in archives such as the IPOA included: ‘reports on visits to prison camps by neutral state embassy staff’, ‘prison camps’, ‘working camps’, ‘treatment of prisoners’, ‘food’, ‘clothing’, ‘housing’, ‘letters’, ‘parcels’, ‘health’. The names of Irish regiments were also used to focus on Irish soldiers and particularly the prison camp at Limburg where Irish soldiers were concentrated in 1914-1916. These terms were chosen to help answer the central research question, ‘What were the experiences of Irish POWs during the War?’ and also the subsidiary questions.

1.5.2 Interviews

The second research method used in this research was interviews with representatives of Irish regimental units such as the Royal Dublin Fusiliers (RDF). Other regiments interviewed were: the Leinster Regiment (LR), Royal Munster Fusiliers (RMR) and Connaught Rangers (CR). These regiments were chosen because large numbers of men from these units were captured after the BEF landed and engaged with the enemy in Belgium in August 1914. This thesis does focus on regiments from the south of Ireland, due to the fact that I am based in the Republic with access to the regimental

associations. However, those who fought in the Ulster regiments would have had similar experiences during the war apart from the attempted formation of an Irish regiment in Limburg (as will be explained in chapter 3.6). Differences would have arisen on repatriation, given the differing political contexts they returned to.

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listening were designed and conducted with research ethics considerations in mind, such as anonymity, if required and informed consent. A semi-structured interview guide included a set of questions that aimed to build rapport and a reciprocal relationship. While there may well be practical limitations that affected my

information, such as time lapse, faulty memories and bias, the information gained by pursuing this methodology outweighed the risk of these problems cropping up.20

Overall the interviews helped answer the research questions.

1.5.3 Ethical issues

Throughout my research, I took steps to treat the research archive material and interview participants with care, sensitivity and respect.21_{Principles followed included}

informed consent, anonymity and confidentiality, following interview ethics and TCD Ethics Procedures.22_{Problems I anticipated in research included difficulties in getting a}

balanced view, accessing data and arranging interviews. For example, I was aware that the passage of time may lead to issues in identifying regimental members with strong knowledge of POW's stories. My motivation for this research arises from my grand-father’s experience, as a British soldier in the Connaught Rangers, who was captured in 1914 and was imprisoned as a POW in Limburg, Soltau, and elsewhere until 1919 – see Appendix 1 - photo of Pte John Byrne at Soltau POW camp in 1916. However, I was mindful that this inspiration for the thesis may introduce a personal sympathy for soldier and POW experiences which might lead to an over-interpretation of the view that they have been neglected in Irish historical accounts of the Great War. So I tried to take account of my own bias as well as some bias in the reports from the POW camps and from interviews. Overall, I aimed to take a balanced view for issues which may arise. I will return to these in my Conclusions chapter. Appendix 2 outlines the Ethics Statement and Key Questions for interviews.

20_{Paul Oliver (2008)}_{Writing Your Thesis,}_{Sage, London, p. 90} 21_{Ibid, p. 115}

22_{Trinity College Dublin, School of Religions, Peace Studies and Theology (2014) Procedures for Research}

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1.6 Structure

Following this introduction, the thesis is structured in six more chapters as outlined below. The central research question, ‘What were the experiences of Irish POWs during and after the Great War?’ is addressed in all chapters.

1.6.1 Literature Review

This chapter undertakes a literature review to answer the second research question, ‘What is currently known about Irish POWs and what are the knowledge gaps about them in existing historical accounts of Irish soldiers in the Great War?’ A general survey of books on Irish soldiers' involvement in the Great War and the experience of POWs in particular (for example, Jones23_{and Lewis-Stempel}24_{on POWs, Horne}25_and

Richardson26_{on Irish soldiers, generally) forms the basis of this literature review of}

what is already known in the existing historical accounts about Irish POWs in that war.

As this review reveals, much recent historical work pays attention to the experiences of Irish soldiers in combat, but POW experiences are rarely dealt with, so the chapter concludes by identifying knowledge gaps, where they apply.

1.6.2 Background and POW Incarceration

This chapter turns to look at the core empirical material – POW incarceration and narratives. The third research question, ‘What happened to Irish POWs during their incarceration?’ is addressed in this chapter. The chapter includes qualitative archival research from the IPOA, BMH, TNA, IWM, BA and Trinity College. The information in the archives includes reports written by international monitoring visitors to POWs

23_{Heather Jones (2011)}_{Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War}_{, Cambridge University}

Press, Cambridge

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during the War. For example, Daniel McCarthy, a US diplomat, published a report on his and other diplomats work in visiting POW camps. McCarthy was allowed to converse with the prisoners alone and out of hearing of the camp authorities.27_He

estimated that in August 1916 there were 30,800 British POWs in 105 prison camps in Germany, out of a total POW population of 1.6 million including 1.2 million Russians. It is records such as these that will be used in this chapter, alongside letters sent by POWs to family members etc. to create a historical account of the incarceration experiences of Irish soldiers including their treatment and experiences in the camps (regime, work, punishment, health, food etc.) and their links to the outside world (letters, parcels, and international inspections). Also covered is the transfer in

1914/1915 of Irish POWs to try to create an ‘Irish Brigade’ at Limburg Camp, with the involvement of Sir Roger Casement.

1.6.3 Home Front Support

This fourth question is, ‘What support did POWs receive from the home front during the war?’ To answer this, chapter four examines supports for POWs, mainly from their families but also from groups such as regiments and voluntary committees. The separation of POWs from their families was a key experience of war, as it was for most soldiers and had profound effects on wives, children, parents and siblings, as reflected in letters exchanged and family memories. Therefore, using newspapers, archives and interviews with regimental historians, the research examines levels of home front support and assesses the effects of separation of POWs and their families.

1.6.4 Repatriation to a Changing Ireland

Following release from captivity after the war, Irish soldiers returned to a changing Ireland. This chapter deals with the fifth question, ‘What happened to Irish POWs on

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their repatriation?’ As the ethical remembering approach requires, events need to be remembered in their context, so I suggest that the 1916 revolt and subsequent political events impacted on their return, as it did for all Irish soldiers. The growth of cultural nationalism in Ireland consequently led to a changed view of the Great War and those who participated in it. This was part of the growing sentiment that later may have led to the ostracising of Irish soldiers in the British Army and Irish POWs when they returned home, and a subsequent silencing of their stories. Nevertheless, many ex-soldiers took part in the War of Independence and later, on both sides in the Irish Civil War. Sources covering repatriation experiences include newspapers of the time, secondary sources and interviews again inform this discussion.

1.6.5 Ethics of Memory and Commemoration

This chapter deals with the sixth question, ‘How does the recovery of the stories of POWs contribute to a project of ethical remembering?’ First, I look at how a national amnesia was applied to remembrance of Irish soldiers and POWs. However, sometimes imagination can do a better job than bare facts, and I explore how reflected voices of plays and literature help us recall the period. Then, I reflect on how soldiers and particularly POWs in the Great War were publicly commemorated.

The contribution that this study makes to the project of 'ethical remembering' will be addressed. Together sharing moments of grief even at a distance allows us to

remember both the Great War and Easter 1916 in a manner that can deepen

reconciliation. Ethical remembering requires remembering through a prism of future vision to help both the descendants of the people who fought in 1916 and of the Irishmen in the British army who fought in the Great War (some of whom were

prisoners) be generous and open to each other, to dialogue, to hear each other and be prepared to walk through contested histories together.

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may open space for engagement with this plurality and openness to dialogue. Chapter 6 summarises these strands to answer the research question.

1.6.6 Conclusions

This chapter offers a brief summary of the main findings of the dissertation, as critical retrospectives on the hypothesis. The conclusions reached in relation to each research questions are reiterated with emphasis on answering the central research question as to what this thesis has revealed about the experiences of Irish POWs during and after the Great War. The implications of this research and its findings for further study and research will also be outlined.

2 Literature Review

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2.1 Introduction

Historical accounts of the role of Irish soldiers in the Great War were thin on the ground until recent times. However, thanks to the work of contemporary historians working in a wider political context intended to establish peace across divided communities on the island, a new wave of historical writing has produced rich

accounts of those from Ireland who soldiered for Britain. This chapter reviews some of this material in order to establish how the POW experience is covered in these works, what is known and what knowledge gaps persist in relation to this history of the Irish in the Great War. This chapter therefore focuses on the second research question, ‘What is currently known about Irish POWs and what are the knowledge gaps about them in existing historical accounts of Irish soldiers in the Great War?’

The remembering of all Irish involvement in the Great War is timely and of importance given the centennial commemoration of the Great War and the relatively recent political and social acknowledgement of the participation by Irishmen in that conflict. As the next section below will show, there was a long period post the 1920s, when few historical accounts or public commemorations of the Irish as combatants for the British state in the Great War were written or undertaken. The fact that so many Irish men fought for Britain was an inconvenient truth for post-independence Ireland and ‘the high profile given to this issue indicates the prominent role the army occupied in Irish life, as employer as well as symbol’.28_{Great War history became the preserve of the}

Unionist community or those from a Protestant background and was seminal to Unionist construction of them-selves after the battle of the Somme. However, in the context of building peace in Ireland, a greater openness to such suppressed histories has emerged. All this can be understood as an 'ethical retrieval' of neglected history based on recognising all the complex stories of Irish people’s past. This challenge has

28_{R.F. Foster (2014}_{) Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland 1890-1923,}_{Allen Lane, London,}

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also been advocated by President Higgins.29_{In addressing the need to remember}

ethically, he turned to the writings of Hannah Arendt, Paul Ricoeur, Richard Kearney and others, including the contemporary work of Johnston McMaster. He said:

What to remember, and how to remember it, carries the inescapable implication of ethics. But unsustainable amnesia is not only counterproductive but, in its

consequences for victims and their relatives, would even constitute an amoral position. In facing up to the challenge, let us at least ensure that our approach is characterised by a will to remember ethically.30

All of this is reinforced in McMaster and Higgins book, War and Memory, which states that, ‘War narratives require an ethical perspective which is about robust critical thinking’. 31_{Such thinking requires including all the complex stories of Irish soldiers’}

Great War experiences into historical accounts. In following this approach, I will first examine the literature that seems to illustrate the general forgetting and amnesia in relation to Irish soldiers, then survey recent writings on the Irish in the Great War and then bring a particular focus to what is recorded and what is missing in relation to knowledge about Irish POWs. So this chapter leads with three sections which are organised according to the following themes:

Amnesia – this refers to a long period following 1916 onwards which was marked by the apparent historical forgetting of Irish soldiers, including the POWs of the Great War, induced by the politics of nation-building.

Recovery – this section covers recent moves to remember Irish soldiers in

historiography and commemoration. It explains why this is happening in the context of changing politics of peace, reconciliation and projects of 'ethical remembering'. POWs – this deals with POWs’ presence and absence in history, memory and commemoration. I will review the secondary sources to assess what is already covered in relation to Irish POWs in historical accounts of Irish soldiers in the Great War and so identify knowledge gaps and areas requiring further research.

2.2 Amnesia - historical forgetting of Irish soldiers of the Great War

29_{President Higgins (2015) ‘1916 and the Ethics of Memory’, speech at Glencree Centre for Peace and}

Reconciliation, 27June 2015, www.president.ie/en/media-library/speeches (accessed 4 April 2016)

30_{Ibid, p.3}

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At the onset of the war, Irishmen from the south of Ireland volunteered in large numbers and marched off accompanied by cheering crowds and the promise of a hero’s welcome home. But although many Irish men served in the British army in the Great War, their stories were written out of history for many decades - it is only more recent historiography that pays attention to their experiences (as will be detailed in section 2.3 below). In relation to a concern with 'ethical remembering', there is a particular need to critically review why they were written out of history.

The Great War started in the context of an era of imperialist rivalry across Europe and late 19th_{century nationalism.}32_{According to Pennell, in Britain's Irish colony in 1914}

there was not much acceptance of dissident arguments against war recruitment. As mentioned in the introductory chapter, there was a long association of Irish men of all classes with the British military and the Irish regiments were inevitably called up as the war began. However, by 1916/17, there was a change of view, influenced by the loss of lives in 1915 on the Western Front and in Gallipoli and the sinking of the Lusitania.33_Of

course, in Ireland the 'blood sacrifice' of the Easter 1916 rebellion had a major effect as did the conscription threat in 1917.34_{In 1916, while its soldiers fought in the British}

army, Ireland witnessed a nationalist insurrection against British rule, the Easter Rising. Although not immediately politically successful, the Rising and Britain's suppression of it bolstered nationalism in the longer term

As a consequence, Ireland’s soldiers returned to a much-changed country, which no longer recognised their motives for fighting and which was at war with the country in whose army they had served. Subsequent developments are discussed by Foster: ‘Between the Easter Rising and the end of the world war, the face of Irish politics had changed and the surviving revolutionaries had taken charge’.35_{The 1916 revolt led to}

the construction of national identity, and national myth-making and had an impact on

32_{Johnston Mc Master, Cathy Higgins, Maureen Hetherington (2010)}_{Ethical &Shared Remembering}_{, The}

Junction, Derry, p.5

33_{C.L. Pennell (2014)}_{A Kingdom United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in} Britain and Ireland, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.175

34_{Note: Conscription was introduced in Britain in 1917 but it was unacceptable to political opinion in}

Ireland and was not imposed here.

35_{R.F Foster (2014}_{) Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland 1890-1923,}_{Allen Lane, London,}

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the marginalisation of returning British soldiers, including POWs. But in both the Great War and the 1916 Rebellion, there was a belief that peace could only be achieved through violence. This was deeply rooted in a combination of mythology and theology, believing that blood sacrifice would bring redemption36_{and we need to be aware of}

this to understand the history of the period.

After 1916 there was a political hostility to acknowledging Irishmen's service for Britain and this was reflected in the politics surrounding commemoration. As Foster confirms, ‘any attempt to mark the deaths of 50,000 Irishmen who had fought for the Allies in the World War was furiously derided by irreconcilable republicans such as the MacSwiney sisters’.37_{Using a different headcount, Patsy Mc Garry comments,}

‘Ireland’s forgetting of the 35,000 men who died in WW1 has to rank as one of the great feats of ideologically driven collective amnesia in history ’.38_{Heather Jones states}

that,

Until recently, to discuss the Irish and the Great War from whatever background -was to subvert the dominant narrative that hero-ised 1916 and largely ignored the experience of the Irish Great War soldiers. Experience in the Great War blurred in folk memory with the subsequent turmoil of the War of Independence and Civil War.39

The connection between the Great War and 1916 is also commented on by Hanley: I also had to accept that the Great War and the Irish Revolution could not be discussed separately. The Rising took place because Britain was at war and any hopes of military success that the rebels had were dependant on German aid.40

The Junction, Derry, p.10

37_{R.F. Foster (2014)}_{Vivid Faces: The Revolutionary Generation in Ireland 1890-1923,}_{Allen Lane, London,}

p. 290

38_{Patsy McGarry, ‘Belgium gave Irishmen reason to enlist and fight’ The Irish Times, 26 August 2014,}

p. 8

39_{Heather Jones (2013) ‘Church of Ireland Great War Remembrance in the South of Ireland’ in John}

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Thus the memory of the Great War was a major source of division. In the later Irish Republic, there was a willed amnesia over the level of participation in the war by ordinary Irish people and the consequent national amnesia was identified by F.X. Martin in a famous essay.41_{Explicitly linking the Great War with the Easter Rising,}

Martin observed that in independent Ireland, it was difficult to find men and women who would acknowledge that they are children of men who served in 1916 in the British Army. This, he wrote, was the ‘Great Oblivion’ but according to Jeffery, the amnesia which may have existed in the Republic of Ireland in the 1960s when Martin was writing, was by no means a consistent or constant feature of Irish public and community life from the 1920s onwards.42_{In Northern Ireland, the war was largely}

‘owned’ by the Protestants43_{, but in the south, small scale commemoration always}

continued in the minority Protestant tradition and there were some more public events such as Armistice Day celebrations by the British Legion. However, overall there was little public space for such commemoration and, according to Dungan, in his recent book which deals with Irish soldier voices and the disappearance of commemoration of the Great War, ‘The experience of Irish veterans of the 1914-1918 war was the subject either of an ideologically driven culpable amnesia or of what Professor David Fitzpatrick has memorably described as “aphasia’’’.44

However, at the end of the twentieth century, political changes occurred in Ireland which would challenge the prevailing amnesia and allow for a whole new tranche of historical writing and public acknowledgement of complex histories to emerge

2.3 Recovery - Irish soldiers in recent historiography and commemoration

Within the context of late 20th_{- early 21}st_{century peace-building across Ireland, a}

transformation in relationships between these islands has enabled a shared

40_{Brian Hanley (2013) ‘Charley Bourne, Jack Forde and the Green Fields of France’ in John Horne &}

Edward Madigan (eds.) Towards Commemoration: Ireland in War and Revolution 1912-1923,Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, p.110

41_{F.X. Martin, ‘1916 – Myth, Fact and Mystery’,}_{Studia Hibernica}_{(1967) pp.7-126, p.68}

42_{Keith Jeffery (2013) ‘Irish Varieties of Great War Commemoration’ in John Horne & Edward Madigan}

(eds.) Towards Commemoration: Ireland in War and Revolution 1912-1923, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, p.117

43_{Fintan O’Toole (ed.) (2016)}_{Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks}_{, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, p.208}

44_{Myles Dungan (2014)}_{Irish Voices from the Great War}_{, Merrion Press, Kildare, p.xi}

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remembering of Irishmen in the British Army. In the paragraphs below, I review a number of books and articles published over the last ten years which all bring fresh attention to the role of Irish soldiers in the Great War and their commemoration.

John Horne’s book provides an Irish perspective on the Great War and relays the experience of ordinary Irish people during the conflict and chronicles the effect this war had and still has on Irish society. The lives and deaths of soldiers in the trenches are examined and prisoners’ experiences are briefly mentioned.45_{Farmers and farm}

labourers generally did not join up. David Fitzpatrick, in a book review states:

the southerners who had answered “Ireland’s call” after August 1914 were mainly Catholic supporters of Home Rule, but by 1918 Sinn Fein’s ascendancy had prompted most nationalists to repudiate Irish participation...46

However, the middleclass ‘Pals’ battalion in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers which included, doctors, solicitors, businessmen and students received the greatest send-off of any British Army contingent from the capital in September 1914.47_{They were mainly}

recruited from the Dublin rugby clubs, including Lansdowne and five hundred of them were to die in the fiasco at Gallipoli. Ferriter says that hardly a family in Dublin was unaffected by the Great War and 30,000 Dubliners were in the British Army.48_The

reasons why men went to war and their experiences in the trenches are commented on by Richardson:

Why these Irishmen chose to go is worthy of mention, but when the order was given to fix bayonets, those reasons melted away leaving each man – idealist, pauper or idiot - exposed as mere mortal. Therefore, the details that are really significant in any First World War story are who the men are, what they experienced, what they saw and what it did to them afterwards. 49

Confirming this view, Paul Fussell in an earlier text claims that the Great War conflict marked a watershed in European conceptions of war, where the old certainties and

45_{John Horne (ed.) (2008)}_{Our War: Ireland and the Great War,}_{Royal Irish Academy}_,_Dublin

46_{David Fitzpatrick, ‘Home from the front to face another war’,}_{The Irish Times}_{, October 17, 2015, p.10} 47_{C.L. Pennell (2012 )}_{A Kingdom United: Popular Responses to the Outbreak of the First World War in}

Britain and Ireland, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.42

48_{Dermot Ferriter (2016)}_‘_{Roundtable discussion’ in ‘Globalising the Rising’ Conference UCD, 6 February}

2016

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formulaic language of duty and heroism were replaced by ironic, negative and darker visions of the human spirit.50

The return to a changing Ireland at war’s end was also traumatic for many soldiers. Paul Taylor’s recently published book examines the experiences of Irish soldiers who had fought with the British army in the Great War on returning home to what became the Irish Free State.51_{Some recent literature has also focused on the repatriation}

experiences of returning soldiers. James Durney, a local historian from Kildare, writes of the demobilised men who returned home to economic and political uncertainty, while another 70,000 opted to stay in the armed forces or make their home in Britain. The vast majority of Irish soldiers in the Great War managed to survive the bombs and bullets emotionally and psychologically intact. But a significant proportion became psychiatric casualties.52_{Richardson says that tramps wandering around the country}

were Great War veterans, men suffering from shell-shock, incapable of returning to society.53

Employment was scarce for returning servicemen and various committees, groups and organisations were set up to try and integrate returning soldiers into society.54_These

issues are also dealt with by historians such as Heather Jones, Jane Leonard and

others. Leonard's study shows that though reconstruction plans had been drawn up by the British government long before the war finished, their implementation in Ireland was chaotic. Also, in local authorities controlled by Sinn Féin, ex-soldiers were discriminated against. 55

However, also according to Leonard, many thousands re-enlisted in the new army and armed police forces.56_{She says that only a tiny proportion of ex-servicemen were}

50_{Paul Fussell (1975)}_{The Great War and Modern Memory}_{, Oxford University Press, New York, p. 36} 51_{Paul Taylor (2015)}_{Heroes or Traitors: Experiences of Southern Irish Soldiers Returning from the Great}

War 1919-1939, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool

52_{James Durney (2014)}_{In a Time of War: Kildare 1914-1918}_{, Merrion, Kildare, p.152}

53_N_eil_{Richardson (2010)}_{A Coward If I Return: A Hero If I Fall}_{, O’Brien Press, Dublin, p.306}

54_{James Durney (2014)}_{In a Time of War: Kildare 1914-1918}_{, Merrion, Kildare, p.167}

55_{Jane Leonard (2008) ‘Survivors’, in John Horne (ed.)}_{Our War: Ireland and the Great War,}_{Royal Irish}

Academy, Dublin, p.215

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involved with the IRA.57_{But the later recruitment of former soldiers to the National}

Army meant that they fought against Anti-Treaty forces in the civil war and were particular targets for Republicans. So, many ex-British soldiers were involved in the War of Independence and on both sides in the Civil War and these events will be commemorated over the next few years.

New historical accounts are also complemented by public commemorations of the Irish in the Great War. Efforts to remember Irish Great War soldiers have been made in the context of anniversaries of events one hundred years ago. 58_{This recovery has been}

helped by the changes in the British-Irish relationship arising from the peace process. An example is the joint unveiling in 1998 by former president Mary McAleese and Queen Elizabeth of a memorial in Belgium to all from Ireland who died in the Great War. Then, Queen Elizabeth laid a wreath in Islandbridge War Memorial during her visit to Dublin in May 2011. Symptomatic of this political sea-change are the words of Tom Hartley, a Catholic from Belfast, whose family kept their British military history quiet without any form of external, public recognition. But he hopes that, ‘In the process of remembering, the sense of loyalty to one’s own political view of history will be challenged by the task of taking ownership of the totality of our history’.59

The role of historians in the recovery of history in this time of commemoration and the politics of remembrance is worth considering. Tom Dunne, in his reflection on the 1798 centenary suggests that historians have equally long been complicit with states in promoting dominant political mythologies. For the ‘decade of centenaries’ he says historians can come under intense pressure to prioritise contemporary political

concerns over their primary duty to engage critically with the sources.60_{This is echoed}

by Diarmaid Ferriter in his book on the Irish revolution:

57_{Ibid p.218}

58_{http://centenaries.ucd.ie/events/}_{(accessed 6 April 2017)}

59_{Tom Hartley (2013) ‘The Long Road’ in Horne, John & Madigan, Edward (eds.)}_Towards

Commemoration: Ireland in War and Revolution 1912 -1923, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, p.90

60_{Tom Dunne (2013) ‘Commemorating Shared History: a Different Role for Historians’, in}_{History Ireland}_,

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Remembrance of the revolution from the outset had been influenced by

contemporary politics and coloured by who was in power. But another aspect of commemoration has involved historians highlighting new perspectives and new sources.61

Recent efforts to remember Irish soldiers in the Great War acknowledges hidden histories, complex identities and the political shaping of history-telling in order to read the past in ways that allow for reconciling relationships. Historians have a critical role to play in this regard and history writing and commemoration are about the future as well as the past. But in the literature recovered and remembrance efforts, what attention has been paid to POWs?

2.4 POWs - presence and absence in history and commemoration

As mentioned in the introductory chapter, it is estimated that up to 10,000 Irish men were taken as POWs in the Great War.62_{Being taken into captivity was a traumatic}

experience for most prisoners. Foucault, writing on incarceration provides a theoretical background to trauma of POW’s. He considers punishment, discipline and prison and their precise form and function in our society, laying bare the reasons for prisons’ continued use.63_{Although imprisonment has been constructed as the central means of}

criminal punishment, it has also become used in military conflict to remove captured soldiers from the enemy war effort. As well as diminishing the strength of the ‘enemy’, the taking of Prisoners of War had other aims too. For example, Prussian army records from the Great War show how interrogation of prisoners of war for gathering

immediate intelligence regarding the battlefield was used by the German army and probably by all sides in the conflict. 64

61_{Diarmaid Ferriter (2015}_{) A Nation and not a Rabble}_{, Profile, London, p. 397}

62_{http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/}

savageryandbrutalityoftheworstkindstoriesoftheirishheldingermanpowcamps1.2156512 (accessed 20 May2016)

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A few primary sources written during the Great War give accounts of the experiences of POWs in general, including the Irish. In 1918, Daniel McCarthy, the US diplomat, published a report on his and other diplomats work in visiting POW camps.65_{The US}

Ambassador to Germany, J.W. Gerard also visited POW camps and tried to secure good treatment for British subjects in Germany (prior to US entering the war in April 1917)

John Lewis-Stempel, a British historian, has recently published a book on the life of British prisoners of war and his account focuses on the psychological impact of imprisonment on the soldiers. Eventually, the medical profession categorised this collapse of the soul as ‘barbed-wire disease’: a form of neurasthenia.66_{Suicide was not}

unknown. French sociologist Emile Durkheim was the first to notice the close relationship between suicide and military service, proposing that the men whose sense of honour was most acute were the likeliest to take their own lives; when honour was tainted by surrender and the life of service thwarted by captivity, the conditions for suicide were rich.67_{According to Doegan, a German post-war historian of the camps,}

seventeen British POWs committed suicide during their captivity in Germany, five of whom were officers.68_{This disproportionately high percentage of officers, who tended}

to be more influenced by notions of honour than other ranks in this tally, bears the French sociologist out.

While the experiences of Irish soldiers taken as POWs would be the same as that of any soldiers, the archival material to be studied in the next chapter suggests that there were some differences, for example religious observation was very important to the Irish soldiers. More importantly their treatment in captivity was shaped by their captors’ awareness of political developments back in Ireland. Interrogations sought to exploit political divisions between the soldiers and there was one instance in which the fates of Irish soldiers diverged radically from others in the British Army. This was in the attempt to attract Irish soldiers to fight for the Germans by trying to play on assumed

65_{Daniel McCarthy (1918)}_{The Prisoner of War in Germany,}_{Skeffington Ltd, London}

66_{John Lewis-Stempel (2014)}_{The War behind the Wire}_{, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, p.116} 67_{Emile Durkheim (1952)}_{Suicide: a study in Sociology}_{, translated by J.A. Spaulding and G. Simpson,}

London, original publication 1897

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nationalist leanings. The plan to create an ‘Irish Brigade’ at Limburg Camp, with the involvement of Sir Roger Casement does feature in some accounts of Irish soldiers in the war. In 1914/1915 over two thousand Irish prisoners were moved from other camps in Germany to apparently better conditions in Limburg and separated from other POWs for the attempt at setting up the Irish Brigade. According to Lewis-Stempel:

One nation the Germans did un-contestably favour was the Irish. Over the winter of 1914, Irish prisoners were siphoned off to a special deluxe camp at Limburg, with the intention of recruiting them into an ‘Irish Brigade’ commanded by the nationalist politician, Sir Roger Casement. In return for service under the Imperial Eagle, the Irishmen were promised a ticket to the USA at the war’s end and a thousand dollars in their pocket.69

This attempt ended in failure, however, and one of the few literary references to Irish POWs was made by Vargos Llosa70_{who commented on Casement’s disappointment}

when comparing the prisoners of war in Limburg POW camp in Germany with the 1916 rebels in Dublin.71

Turning to other contemporary accounts, Heather Jones is one of the few recent historians to deal with the experiences of POWs during the Great War.72_{Though her}

writing focuses on Britain, Germany and France, Irish imprisoned soldiers would have formed part of the British cohort she discusses. Writing about another war, Hannah Arendt remarked that one definition of a war crime was the ‘factor of gratuitous brutality’.73_{Jones makes the case that the violence, both physical and psychological,}

including exposure of French and British prisoners to shellfire, was anything but gratuitous – it was a calculated policy.74_{Also, civilian violence directed at POWs is}

corroborated by Jones who notes popular hatred and anger in Germany was greatest

69_{John Lewis-Stempel (2014)}_{The War behind the Wire}_{, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London, p.101} 70_{Mario Vargas Llosa (2012)}_{The Dream of the Celt}_{, Faber and Faber, London, p.398}

71_{Casement’s Limburg story will be detailed in chapter 3}

72_{Heather Jones (2011)}_{Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War: Britain, France and} Germany. 1914-1920, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.161

73_{Hannah Arendt (2006)}_{Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil}_{, Penguin, London, p.256} 74_{Heather Jones (2011)}_{Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War: Britain, France and}

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toward British POWs in 1914.75_{But despite this book, published primary and secondary}

accounts of POW experiences during and after the war are rare. There appears to be very little written about those men and their experiences. Nevertheless, the historical works by Richardson76_{and Horne}77_{do make limited references to the experiences of}

Irish prisoners. The first book notes the efforts of Roger Casement to form an Irish Brigade from POWs in Limburg camp and in the second, Philip Orr recounts the capture and imprisonment of numerous troops, Irishmen among them, after the German Spring offensive of 1918.

With respect to their return to Ireland, according to Sarah Patterson, at the end of the war, prisoners were repatriated from a chaotic Germany. On arrival in Britain, there was likely to be some coverage in the local press about returning POWs, and some communities threw big homecoming events for the men.78

Many prison camps erected memorials to men who died including a memorial at the predominantly Irish Limburg camp. However, as Jay Winter has argued, there were many different ‘memory sites’, both public and private, through which the war was understood in the interwar years.79_{Jones concurs, ‘Given these hidden connections, it}

is clear that the interwar amnesia on captivity, masked the survival of private

memories, even if prisoner treatment disappeared from public debate’. The memory of violence against prisoners of war became increasingly marginalised in interwar Britain, France and Germany, leading to all three countries ultimately repressing the broader history of wartime captivity by the 1930s.80_{The emphasis shifted to promoting}

European reconciliation, not pursuing war-crimes issues.81_{These events took place}

75_{Ibid p.56}

76_{Neil Richardson (2010)}_{A Coward If I Return: A Hero If I Fall}_{, O’Brien Press, Dublin, p.71}

77_{Philip Orr, ‘200,00 volunteer soldiers’ in John Horne (ed.) (2008),}_{Our War: Ireland and the Great War,}

Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, p.74

78_{Sarah Paterson (2012)}_{Tracing your Prisoners of War Ancestors: The First World War}_{, Pen & Sword,}

Barnsley, p.55

79_{Jay Winter (1995)}_{Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning}_{, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.1} 80_Heather_{Jones (}₂₀₁₁_{) Violence against Prisoners of War in the First World War: Britain, France and}

Germany 1914-1920, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, p.319

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outside Ireland but here too, for different reasons, it seems from the lack of historical accounts or commemoration, that there was little or no recognition of, or debate about POWs.

2.5 Conclusions

The prevailing amnesia about Irish soldiers in the British Army has been challenged by political changes and new historical writing. Recent historical accounts are also

complemented by public commemorations of the Irish in the Great War and can be seen as part of ethical remembering. Welcome though the recent ‘recovery’ literature on the stories of Irish soldiers in that war is, what is striking is that there is a continuing gap in relation to historical accounts, remembrance and commemoration of Irish soldiers who were POWs in the Great War. It is difficult to find public

acknowledgement of the Irish POW experience or references to them in the historiography of the period. Moreover, despite the large number of Irish POWs, published secondary accounts of their experiences during and after the war are rare.

For these men, was there a double forgetting, firstly as Great War soldiers and secondly as POWs who may have had a less heroic time. Nevertheless, their experiences deserve to be written into history now. In the subsequent chapters, through further literature research but mainly through archival material and

Irish POWs in the Great War

Irish POWs in the Great War

An Ethical Retrieval of Neglected History

John Fitzsimons

M. Litt.

Irish School of Ecumenics

Trinity College

January 2019

Declaration

I certify that this dissertation, submitted in fulfilment of the

requirement for the degree of M. Litt. has not been submitted

for a degree at any other university, and that it is entirely my

own work. I agree that the Library may lend or copy the

dissertation upon request.

Signed………

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank a few people. I wish to thank my supervisor,

Dr. Gillian Wylie, ISE for her advice and re-assurance and Dr.

Carole Holohan of the History Department for facilitating my

attendance on the Archives course. Thanks to the

Abstract

Irish POWs in the Great War

An Ethical Retrieval of Neglected History

Abbreviations

Table of Contents

Appendices

1 Introduction

2 Literature Review