Dublin’s Great Wars
The First World War,
the Easter Rising and the Irish Revolution
Richard Grayson
Cambridge:
University Press, 2018
Hardcover. xvi+470 p. ISBN 978-1107029255. £20
(Paperback,
2020. ISBN 978-1108930628. £14.99/€18)
Reviewed by David Durnin
University College Dublin
In Dublin’s Great Wars: The First
World War, the Easter Rising and the Irish Revolution, Richard Grayson deftly
explores the wartime stories of Dubliners who served in the British military
and in the republican forces during the First World War and the Irish Revolution.
Grayson sets the narratives of British soldiers and Irish republicans alongside
each other. Using this framework, he persuasively demonstrates that the history
of those involved in the First World War and the Irish Revolution is best
understood as one narrative, a series of interconnected wars rather than
several separate events. Dublin’s Great Wars is explicitly not a social
or economic history of Dublin or an analysis of Dublin as a home front during
the First World War. However, Dubliners’ wartime experiences are placed within
the broad contexts of Dublin’s strong military and naval traditions in imperial
and political conflict. In this study, Dubliners are not simply those who were
born in the area but rather those with an address in Dublin during the relevant
years or those whose next-of-kin were in the area.
In recent years, Irish
participation in the First World War has been the subject of increased
historical analysis. However, Grayson’s focus extends beyond the stories of the
much studied regiments, such as the Pals of the 7th Dublins, and provides new details
on the wartime roles and responsibilities of Dubliners in other divisions
including the 10th (Irish) Division at Gallipoli, the 16th (Irish) Division and
the 36th (Ulster) Division. It also effectively explores Dubliners’ experiences
beyond the much-studied battlefields in France, Belgium and Gallipoli. In doing
so, this study demonstrates an understanding of the extremely different
conditions and wartime experiences of Dubliners in locations including
Kosturino and Mesopotamia. In the examination of Dubliners’ roles and
experiences in the First World War, this study adopts a broadly revisionist
approach but often acknowledges the inconsistencies in the British Army’s
performance and its subsequent effects on the Dubliners involved in the
conflict.
Grayson’s meticulous linking of
the stories of Dubliners who fought in the First World War with those who
participated in the conflicts in Ireland is evident throughout the book but is best
done during the examination of Dubliners’ wartime experiences in 1916. Here, he
explores the events of the 1916 Rising alongside major First World War battles,
including the Battle of Hulluch in Belgium, where the 16th Division faced a
serious gas attack by the Germans. In an analysis of the week of the Rising in
April 1916, this study details the progression of battles and the daily number
of dead in both the Rising and among Dubliners who participated in the First
World War. This shows that during the week beginning 26 April 1916, almost
three times as many Dubliners died serving in the British Army in the First
World War as the total number of rebels killed in Dublin. Grayson thus posits
that only by connecting the narratives of the events of the Rising with those
at Hulluch can we understand the context and the initial negative reactions of
Dubliners towards the revolutionary events in the city.
In a detailed study
of the aftermath of the battles of the Somme and Hulluch, as well as the Rising,
Grayson explores the several notable effects of these events on Dubliners. The
deaths at the Somme and Hulluch encouraged the renewal of recruiting efforts in
the city to fill gaps in the ranks of the British Army. There was also a
notable shift in Dubliners’ attitudes towards those who participated in the
Rising. At least 300 Dubliners were interned as Republican prisoners in
Frongoch, Wales. Some were released in December 1916 and returned to Dublin.
There, they received a reception that differed significantly from the initial
negative reactions that they had received from locals when the Rising occurred.
Grayson posits that their release, as well as the release of more prisoners
from Frongoch later in the year gave new impetus to republican politics in the
city.
Of course, Dublin’s
Great Wars is not only concerned with First World War and the Rising. It
contains a lively and nuanced study of Dubliners’ roles and experiences in the
Irish War of Independence and the Civil War. Appropriately, there is also a
strong and fascinating analysis of the complex issues surrounding commemoration.
The issue of conflict commemoration in Ireland has been the subject of several high-quality
studies but Grayson differentiates and focuses his gaze firmly on commemorative
activities in Dublin. In doing so, the study focuses on the tensions that
surrounded commemorative events for the Irish participants in the First World
War. Commemorations in Dublin were characterised by controversy and trouble. At
the end of 1918, several organisations and committees proposed ideas for an
all-Ireland memorial in Dublin in memory of those who had died in the First
World War. Negotiations dragged and continued after the Civil War ended, when there
were proposals to combine a memorial and public park in Merrion Square, Dublin.
However, a senate debate in 1927 voiced concerns about it as a site of
conflict. Eventually work started on memorial construction at Islandbridge,
Dublin. Ultimately, this analysis demonstrates the complexity of conflict
commemoration in Dublin and indeed, Grayson posits that remembrance of the
Rising and subsequent events of the Irish Revolution also posed their own
difficulties. These were often beset by partisan rivalry, which marked annual Rising
commemorations in the city from 1924.
Dublin’s Great Wars is a
fascinating study of the history of Dubliners’ wartime experiences during the
First World War and the Irish Revolution. Grayson’s use of the methodological
approach defined as ‘military history from the streets’ ensures that this study
utilises a wealth of source material to detail the street-level effects of the
First World War and the Irish Revolution on Dubliners who participated in these
conflicts. This book will appeal to those interested in the history of war and
revolution in Ireland, the history of Irish involvement in the First World War
and the history of Dublin.
