ISBN-13: 978-0717147861Publisher: Gill and Macmillan Ltd
Over 200,000 Irishmen served in the British armed forces during the Great War and countless others who were born in Great Britain served in one of the British Army's many Irish regiments. The majority of these men fought on the Western Front and it their experiences in this theatre of the war that form the basis of ‘The Western Front: Irish Voices of the Great War', the new book by Dr William Sheehan.
Dr Sheehan is one of Ireand's leading military historians and he is also a member of the Cork Branch of the WFA. He has taught at NUI Maynooth, and University College, Cork, and his previous books were: ‘Fighting for Dublin: The British Battle for Dublin 1919-1921'; ‘Hearts and Mines: The British 5th Division, Ireland 1920-1922'; ‘British Voices: From the Irish War of Independence 1918-1921' and ‘A Hard Local War: The British Army and the Guerrilla War in Cork 1919 - 22'.
In his new book Sheehan tells the story of the Irish soldier on the Western Front through the diaries and personal papers of thirty-two officers and men who served there between 1914 and 1918. These men came from different parts of Ireland and Britain. Some made their way up through the ranks, one was taken prisoner, others were wounded and five were ultimately killed in action. Their individual accounts cover all aspects of their military experience including recruitment, training, deployment and combat. They also graphically describe the impact that serving in the trenches of the Western Front had on themselves and their comrades
The euphoria that greeted the outbreak of the war in many parts of Ireland is evident from the words of Private J L Stewart Moore of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles, who wrote that his unit ‘had a tremendous send off from Ballymoney Station - half the countryside seemed to have gathered on the platform to say goodbye'. However, soon after they arrived in France, Moore and his fellow Irish soldiers were confronted with the harsh reality of war. The following account of the aftermath of one battle in was written by Second Lieutenant Neville Woodroffe of the 1st Battalion Irish Guards in 1914:
'We had a small patrol out in front of our trenches yeaterday and it was awful to see the massacres and refuse which a wood to our left disclosed. Dead Germans and a few of the Wiltshire Regiment, which had been there fully a fortnight ago, unburied and in terrible condition - legs, stuck in boots, lay out in the open and corpses shattered from shell fire lay at short intervals. Kits and rifles, ammunition, helmets, boots etc, all lay in heaps. The stench was awful. We buried what we could, but most one could not touch.'
The strain of war and the effect it had on the men in is also covered. Some men failed to cope with the pressure and many were executed or ‘shot at dawn' after being tried for cowardice or desertion. In his description of one such incident Private David Starret of the 9th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles wrote that ‘...in the snow, just after dawn, our man was filled up with rum before being filled up with lead' and how that evening the men of his unit ‘sat about silent or loud in argument, steadily lowering the drink'.
A number of the accounts are grouped together to provide detailed descriptions of some of the war's great battles such as Loos, the Somme, Messines and Passchendaele. Describing the first day of the Somme, Lieutenant Edwin Godson of the 9th Battalion, Royal Irish Fusiliers, wrote, ‘Our artillery bombardment seemed to have affected nothing. A man or two may have got into the Hun's front line and were instantly killed. About 1 man in 10 got back unscathed and none out of the 16 officers'.
In his introduction Sheehan stated that his goal was to give readers an insight into the experiences, thoughts, hopes, and fears of the Irish soldiers who served in Irish regiments. In providing us with this book he has succeeded admirably.
Reviewed by: Gerry White.
