Irish Voices from the Great War

321 Pages·1995·8.416 MB·English

by  Myles Dungan

Irish Voices hardback_Layout 1 07/07/2014 20:11 Page 1
Myles Dungan is an historian and More than 200,000 men left Ireland
broadcaster. He is the presenter of The between 1914-18 to play a part in the
History Show on RTÉ Radio. In 2007 he slaughter of the Great War. This
became a Fulbright Scholar to the pioneering book takes the written
University of California, Berkeley. He memories of a cross-section of those
holds a PhD from Trinity College, who joined up and skilfully creates a
Dublin. He is the author of Mr Parnell’s narrative of Irish involvement in some
Rottweiler: Censorship and the United of the major engagements of the war.
Ireland Newspaper, 1881-1891 From the early reverses of the British
(Irish Academic Press). Expeditionary Force in 1914, through
the abortive 1915 Gallipoli campaign,
Jacket front is a photograph of J.P. O’Reilly, from the the Somme offensive of 1916 and on to
author’s collection. Recruitment poster reproduced the successes of Messines and the
courtesy of the National Library of Ireland (EPH F96b).
failures of Passchendaele in 1917, the
memoirs, diaries and letters of Irish
servicemen convey the horror, heroism,
tedium and even the humour of the first
great global conflict and how it
impacted on ordinary Irishmen.
This ground-breaking and highly
influential book, first published in
1995, is extensively revised and
includes new material on Ireland and on
the music of the wartime period.
Also Available
Reflecting much of the new scholarship
In a Time of War: Ireland’s Unknown Soldiers of the last ten years, its timely re-
Tipperary 1914-1918 The 16th (Irish Division) in the publication to coincide with the
John Dennehy Great War centenary of the beginning of the Great
In a Time of War: Terence Denman War is a powerful testament to the
Kildare 1914-1918 Neither Unionist or Nationalist forgotten stories from Ireland’s soldiers.
James Durney The 10th (Irish) Division in the
Great War
Out of the Dark, 1914-1918
Stephen Sandford
South Dubliners Who Fell in the
Great War
Ken Kinsella
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9 781908 928818
www.iap.ie
Irish Voices Hardback Cover.indd 1 08/07/2014 10:08
IRISH VOICES
fr om
THE GREAT WAR
To Oliver and Sadie Fallon
– two very welcome and adorable grandchildren
IRISH VOICES
fr om
THE GREAT WAR
MYLES DUNGAN
First published in 2014 by Merrion
an imprint of Irish Academic Press
8 Chapel Lane
Sallins
Co. Kildare
© 2014 Myles Dungan
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
978-1-908928-80-1 (paper)
978-1-908928-81-8 (cloth)
978-1-908928-82-5 (PDF)
978-1-908928-83-2 (epub)
978-1-908928-84-9 (mobi)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved
alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced
into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means
(electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without
the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above
publisher of this book.
Printed in Ireland by SPRINT-print Ltd.
I call
And shorten your way with speed to me
I am love and hate and the terrible mind
Of vicious gods
Fragment from War, an uncompleted poem by Francis Ledwidge

Contents
Acknowledgements – viii
Abbreviations – ix
Introduction – xi
1. The Old Contemptibles – 1
2. Gallipoli: The V Beach Landings – 24
3. The 10th Division at Suvla Bay – 47
4. The Drury Diaries – 92
5. 1 July 1916: The 36th (Ulster) Division
and the Battle of the Somme – 115
6. The 16th (Irish) Division at the Somme – 150
7. 1917 – 177
8. 1918: From Calamity to Closure – 212
Afterword – 246
Notes – 265
Bibliography – 289
Index – 295
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To Conor Graham and Lisa Hyde of Irish Academic/Merrion Press for
their faith that a project begun almost twenty years ago was worth reviving
in a changed context.
To Martin Harte of the Temple Bar Company for forcing me to pay
more attention to the music of the Great War and to Niall O’Flynn, John
O’Keeffe, Jonathan Creasy, Sadhbh Burt Fitzgerald and the Brook Singers
for making the music real.
To my five children Amber, Rory, Lara, Ross and Gwyneth Owen for
their unstinting and unavailing scepticism (as Gwyneth Owen isn’t quite
three years old I’m paying this one forward)and to my grandchildren
Oliver and Sadie Fallon for being just fabulous.
A number of people are also due my renewed gratitude owing to their
contribution to this volume in its first incarnation.
To Kevin Healy, then Director of Radio Programmes, RTÉ for
permission to use material from the Sound Archive, to Kieran Sheedy
(from whose work in 1973 the bulk of the taped recollections comes), Joe
Little and Jim Fahy for allowing me to use material from programmes they
have compiled over the years and to Ian Lee, then of RTÉ Sound Archives,
for patiently winkling out what was there and copying it for me.
VIII
ABBREVIATIONS
ASC Army Service Corps
Bn. Battalion
BEF British Expeditionary Force
DCM Distinguished Conduct Medal
DSO Distinguished Service Order
IWM Imperial War Museum
MC Military Cross
MM Military Medal
RA Royal Artillery
RAMC Royal Army Medical Corps
RAP Regimental Aid Post
RDF Royal Dublin Fusiliers
RIF Royal Irish Fusiliers
RIR Royal Irish Rifles
RMF Royal Munster Fusiliers
UVF Ulster Volunteer Force
VC Victoria Cross
Ix