A strange thing happened on the way to the dance

Addressing more recent history, chapters by Dr Michael Kennedy and Dr James McCafferty explore political, diplomatic and military aspects of Ireland's involvement in the UN mission in Congo in the 1960s. Dr Kennedy examines Ireland's experience dealing with the UN secretariat during the Congo Crisis, while Dr McCafferty, a veteran of the UN operation, focuses on the experience of the Irish Army in the Congo from 1960-64, suggesting that the Army's experience there provided the foundation for success in subsequent peacekeeping operations. Abstracts of the research dissertations written by the students of the 72nd Senior Command and Staff Course as part of the MA in Leadership, Management and Defence Studies (LMDS) programme are included in the Review. To view any of the theses listed, please contact the Defence Forces Library at: [email protected].

2014

In the last decade there has been a plethora of books about Irish soldiers in the First World War, yet the fact that recruitment to the British forces continued into the interwar period and the Second World War has received comparatively little attention. Steven O'Connor's work addresses this gap by providing a much-needed assessment of officer recruitment to the British military after Irish independence. Based on archival research, oral testimony and a database of 1,000 officers it examines the reasons why young Irish people took the king's commission. It explores their subsequent experiences and identity in the forces, and places them within the wider context of Commonwealth recruitment to the British forces. Drawing on evidence from police reports, debates in town councils and local newspapers this volume also offers the first comprehensive account of reactions in independent Ireland to British recruitment and the shared military past.

Crime, Histoire & Sociétés/Crime, History & Societies, 2002

Proceedings of Society for Historical Archaeology Conference, Boston , 2020

ABSTRACT In 1983, Paul Karsten refered to Irish soldiers in British military service as the ‘Green Redcoat’; a powerful phrase that has been used by many to identify this large group ever since. In Irish and British military historiography, the concept of national identity and service has long been explored, with a trend in recent years for a re-assessment of Irish participation in the British Army. Equally, within Irish military archaeology, there are a steadily growing number of scholars who are concerned with extracting practical evidence for the Irish soldier in a battlefield context. This paper aims to explore three precise themes and ideas; the issue of archaeologically isolating an ‘ethnic’ group from a ‘regimental’ identity, where this may present concerns elsewhere; using archaeological and historical practice ; and, finally,

‘Manly physique, attractive uniforms, and drill manoeuvres. Kids and boys playing with war. Two cases of study in pre-war Ireland’., 2023

‘Manly physique, attractive uniforms, and drill manoeuvres. Kids and boys playing with war. Two cases of study in pre-war Ireland’. Early XX century Europe saw the establishment of paramilitary bodies as a reaction to what were considered modern social problems such as strikes, individualism, and the loss of physical culture. In Great Britain, Robert Baden-Powell decided to establish a body of scouts. His idea – in reaction to the imperial and military crisis of the Boer War – was to raise and drill a new stronger generation of citizens, loyal imperial soldiers for the forthcoming European war. In reaction and in extension to this body, Ireland witnessed the establishment of two young paramilitary bodies: the nationalist Na Fianna Eireann, and the conservative Young Citizen Volunteers. Na Fianna were founded in 1909 in Dublin as a counterreaction to the imperial Boy Scouts to shape the revolutionary generation, rise up, and establish a free Ireland. They managed to expand beyond Dublin, enlisting some thousands of members. The Young Citizen Volunteers were formed in 1912 in Belfast to continue Baden-Powell’s ideals with the older boys, giving them a sense of discipline and municipal nationalism. They failed to expand and were later incorporated into the Ulster 2 Volunteer Force. This paper will analyse and compare the two movements, considering which role religion, social status, and different backgrounds had in shaping the young Irish generations. It will also be considered their establishment, the propaganda and culture production, the members’ social backgrounds, the relationship with the later adult paramilitary bodies, and their participation in the Irish Revolution and in the Great War.

Australasian Journal of Irish Studies, 2013

This article takes as its subject the Irish-born contingent of the British Section of the Palestine Gendarmerie which accounted for almost 40 per cent of the original draft of the force. Following W. J. Lowe's approach to the Black and Tans, it first examines the collective profile of this contingent in terms of issues such as age, religion, previous occupation and military experience. Using a wide variety of public records and private papers, in addition to information provided by the families of former force members, it then investigates the reasons behind the large number of Irish enlistments with particular focus on the part played by the anti-R.I.C. campaign conducted by Republican elements in the post-Truce and early independence. Finally, it explores the fate of Irish gendarmes post-Palestine.

In The Irish Political Review (February 2008), Jack Lane commented on an RTE 'Hidden History' documentary on the July 1921 IRA execution of Brothers named Pearson at Coolacrease, Co Offaly. Lane observed, ‘The devil is in the detail’ provided by researchers Pat Muldowney and Philip McConway, but largely ignored by the programme makers. Jack Lane goes on to comment on later killings of loyalists in Dunmanway, West Cork, between April 27-29 1922, while the Truce between Irish and British forces was in force. The killings took place four months after a split over the terms of the Anglo Irish Treaty, two months prior to the outbreak of the Irish Civil War. The killings are important to those who suggest that the Irish War of Independence was a largely sectarian or ‘ethnic’ conflict. Jack Lane correctly points to the pivotal role of Peter Hart’s 'The IRA and its Enemies' (1998) in promoting this view, one shared by the historian Roy Foster and some journalists who assiduously promote it. The April 1922 killings in Cork are used to give the impression that the same thing happened elsewhere, for instance the Coolacrease killings in Offaly in July 1921. However, while correctly pinpointing the April 1922 events as ‘the elephant in the parlour’, Jack Lane engages in speculation in which the ‘detail’ is left behind. In this article I look at some of the detail in Peter Hart's analysis in 1998 and compare it to his PhD version some six years earlier. See also: Troubled History A tenth anniversary critique of Peter Hart's The IRA and its Enemies http://gcd.academia.edu/NiallMeehan/Books/75341/Troubled-History--a-tenth-anniversary-Critique-of-Peter-Hart-s--The-IRA-and-its-Enemies-

Since September 11th the United States has undergone fundamental changes in its view of the world. However, contrary to political rhetoric, the global war on terrorism is not the first such war, nor is it likely to be the last. The country with probably the greatest experience fighting terror is the United Kingdom. Shortly after the beginning of the last century Britain was engaged in fighting the IRA 1 amongst others, in a terror war. The Irish example provides a number of 'firsts': the first counter-terror war of the twentieth century 2 , the first successful guerrilla/terror war of that century, and the first formal counter-insurgency training. Indeed Ireland was the first 'colony' of the last century to gain its independence from the 'colonising' power. 3 For these reasons, and because Ireland served as a model for many later such movements and counterinsurgencies, 4 examining the British response to the war proves useful.