Irish fighting in the trenches believed they were consolidating a freedom already won
How else can we hope to understand the complexity of Ireland’s history and resolve present disagreements and differences of perspective? It is a hard matter indeed to put ourselves in the hearts and minds of the Irish on V beach on April 25, 1915 and in the GPO on April 24, 1916.
As an Englishman I try to form a sympathetic insight into the events of 1914-15 and 1916 alike since these have determined for better or for worse our present view of Ireland in 2010. I would ask Dr Walsh what he thinks patriotic Irishmen and women ought to have done in 1914 and 1915 with no sense of an Easter Rising to come in 1916?
It is clear that after September 18, 1914 and John Redmond’s speech at Woodenbridge in its immediate wake the Irish who fought in the 10th and 16th Divisions believed they had already secured their freedom by an act of the Westminster parliament and were fighting to consolidate that freedom as independent Irish allies of the British and French cause in World War I. After all, it was Germany that had initiated the war by its invasion of an independent and sovereign Belgium in 1914 and to this day the memory of Willie Redmond (Clongowes) is honoured in the village of Loker where he is buried.
My own regret is that it was necessary for the Irish to fight for their freedom at all. The constitutional struggle for Home Rule had been won in the parliament of 1910-14 by the Irish Parliamentary Party under John Redmond in coalition with the Liberals under Asquith (much like the present coalition of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats). Instead of calling into question the patriotism of Irishmen and women in this confused and turbulent period of Irish history we ought to ask the British to explain why they set aside in so disastrous a manner an act of their own sovereign parliament?
Dr Gerald Morgan
School of English
Trinity College
Dublin
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
