Product Description

This book explores the impact, both immediate and in its longer historical perspective, of the First World War upon Ireland across the broadest range of experience - nationalist, unionist, Catholic, Protestant - and in civilian social, economic and cultural terms, as well as purely military. Underscoring the work is a belief that the Great War is the single most central experience in twentieth-century Ireland and that the events of the war years, whether at home in Dublin during the Easter Rising or at the European battlefront, constitute a ‘seamless robe’ of Irish experience. The book also explores cultural responses to the war and its commemoration since 1918, up to the dedication of the Irish ‘Peace Tower’ in Belgium in November 1998. It argues that identifying and exploring the Irish Great War experience can contribute to the contemporary Irish peace process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #307332 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 221 pages

Review
‘… a wise and beautifully researched study into the most sombre period in Ireland’s history of the last century. It is an essential guide which steers a careful political and military path’. Kevin Myers, Irish Times

‘Modern Irish history has been graced by wonderful books which are adaptations of lecture series … This elegant work belongs in that tradition.’ Adrian Gregory, The English Historical Review

‘ … a scholarly contribution … a must read for lovers of Irish history’. Irish Times

‘Keith Jeffery’s pioneering and splendid attempt to resurrect the war as a social and historical phenomenon in Ireland.’ British Army Review

‘These elegant essays bring a sense of gentle closure to an era both tragic and heroic. Ireland and the Great War will occupy a prominent place on the shelf of Irish historical literature.’ Stand To

‘Keith Jeffery’s work is attractively produced and reasonably priced, and is sure to remain the standard work on Ireland and the Great War for many years to come.’ War in History

'… important new book … It is the first book on Ireland and the Great War which can meaningfully serve as an undergraduate textbook or a guide to Ireland's experience of the war for the interested general reader … sure to remain the standard work on Ireland and the Great War for many years to come.' War in History

Customer Reviews

Ireland and its relationship with the First World War
The great Irish historian Roy Foster has argued that the First World War is one of the most decisive events in the history of modern Ireland, one with a profound impact on Ireland's politics, economy, and society. Yet in spite of this the war remains an under-examined event, lacking the attention given to the Famine, the Home Rule campaign, and the Anglo-Irish War.

Given this deficiency, Keith Jeffery's book is a welcome addition to the historical literature. Developed from a series of presentations given in the Lees Knowles Lecture series at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1998, this book provides an examination of a number of aspects of Ireland and the war. In four chapters, Jeffery examines why Irishmen signed up for the conflict, the experience of the war, the impact of the war on Irish culture, and how Ireland has remembered the war. In doing so, he tackles a number of knotty questions and demolishes a few myths, addressing the complicated motivations behind enlistment, the dream of Irish Nationalist politicians to organize distinctively Irish military units, and the political complications within Ireland of honoring a war fought for the British - one that many Irish revolutionaries so resolutely opposed.

Supplemented with a useful bibliographic essay, Jeffery's book is a valuable overview of a frequently neglected aspect of Irish history. Though hardly a comprehensive survey of the subject, it addresses many of the aspects of the war and its role in Irish history. Until the war receives the specialized attention it deserves, this will remain the best starting point for understanding how the war affected Ireland and how the Irish people have grappled with its memory.