The Great War and Memory in Irish Culture 1918 -2010

This book adds a major culture-based study to the field of Irish history. It addresses a topic and touches on themes that continue to be relevant and debated in contemporary Ireland. It makes a major contribution to the “New Military History” of Ireland and adds the memory of the First World War of one of the “small nations” that emerged in the wake of that conflict to the numerous memory studies that exist for the primary combatant nations (Britain, France, and Germany). One of the most useful aspects of the proposed book is that it gives life to the culture of a minority sub-community in Ireland and addresses the challenges this community faced in order to remain active, and the way that community interacted with the majority of Irish people throughout the twentieth, and into the twenty-first century. Therefore, this project is not simply a snapshot of a specific event in Irish history, but examines the way that the memory of the war and those who retained that memory changed and evolved over the course of a century. Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: THE GREAT WAR AND MEMORY IN IRISH CULTURE 1 Irish Politics and the Great War: A Brief Overview 7 Irish Participation in the First World War 12 The British Legion 18 Chapter Organization 20 CHAPTER ONE: NOT A DAY OF REJOICING: THE EVOLUTION OF REMEMBRANCE DAY AND THE POPPY APPEAL IN IRELAND, 1919-1939 29 Introduction 29 Remembrance Day: Dublin 32 Cork 41 Derry 48 Belfast 55 The Poppy Appeal 61 Opposition to Remembrance Day and the Poppy Appeal 79 CHAPTER TWO: BUILDING AN IRISH IDENTITY: WAR MEMORIALS IN IRELAND 1919-1939 88 Dublin 94 Cork 102 Derry 109 Belfast 116 Private War Memorials 122 International Irish War Memorials 127 CHAPTER THREE: KEEPING THE HOME FIRES BURNING: MEMORY AND THE GREAT WAR IN IRISH POPULAR CULTURE, 1919-1939 140 Battlefield Pilgrimage 141 Memory of the First World War in Irish Popular Culture 149 CHAPTER FOUR: SERVICE REWARDS: HOUSING, UNEMPLOYMENT, AND EX-SERVICEMEN IN IRELAND, 1919-1939 178 Housing 182 Unemployment 197 CHAPTER FIVE: “WALTZING” TO A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF THE GREAT WAR 209 Great War Memory during the Second World War 210 Great War Memory after the Second World War 213 The Troubles 228 The War in Popular Culture: Literature 233 Music 240 Education 245 Public Discourse on the Great War in Ireland 248 Drama 254 Academic History 256 CHAPTER SIX: CREATING “A FUTURE TOGETHER”: THE RESURRECTION OF GREAT WAR MEMORY IN IRELAND SINCE 1987 259 Poppies 266 Popular Culture and the Memory of the Great War 271 Literature 288 Academic History 292 CONCLUSION 296 BIBLIOGRAPHY Irish Research Series, No.60

Jason Myers received his Ph.D in History from Loyola University,Chicgo. He is a specialist in modern Irish history/ Irish Studies.