Introduction

Abstract

It is now accepted that the phrase ‘de Valera’s Ireland’ should be treated sceptically and that Ireland in the 1930s and 1940s defies simple labels.1 Similarly, Irish veterans of the British forces rejected the label that they were ‘West British’: that having a positive perception of Britain or serving British interests negated being Irish, indeed that they were ‘anti-Irish’.2 Yet as recently as 2006 one letter-writer to the Irish Times found preposterous ‘the notion that Irishmen in the British army either now or in the past deserve special attention because they claim to be Irish soldiers or to serve Ireland’.3 Such a view does not do justice to the complexities of Irish history. Irish officers regarded themselves as Irish men and women, and enlistment gave no indication of their views of the historical rights and wrongs of British-Irish relations. Among them could be found the sons and daughters of unionists, home-rulers and republicans. Indeed many had had family relations who fought in the Great War and other relations who participated in the 1916 Rising. Similarly, they saw no conflict between joining the wartime British forces and, at the same time, firmly supporting de Valera’s invocation of southern Ireland’s right to remain neutral.KeywordsCatholic SchoolEast India CompanyIrish PeopleIrish TimeBritish ArmyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.