1916 Centenary: Ireland and a world at war - ‘A test to search men’s souls’

Ireland was not included in Britain’s conscription bill of January, 1916, but by then 90,000 Irishmen had volunteered, as many more would before 1918.

ON New Year’s Day, 1916, Ireland was involved in what John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, had described as a “test to search men’s souls”. That test was the war being waged to decide the future of Europe.

As the year began, Irishmen serving in the ranks of the British and imperial armed forces were fighting on the battlefields of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. They were also fighting in the skies above those battlefields and on the high seas.