Ireland

Ireland’s war experience cannot be separated from Irish politics. Indeed, the story is not one of 1914-18 but of 1912-23, as the vast majority of people sought to change Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom, resisted by others who, though a minority, were concentrated in the area that would become Northern Ireland after the war. This article explores how both sides of the divide initially supported the war effort, but that following the Easter Rising of April 1916, opinion changed. Within this political context it considers Ireland’s military contribution, society and the economy, and how the war has been remembered.