by Joe Power
15. CJ, 29 July 1915.
16. SR, 17 July 1915. Blythe was Minister for Finance in the Free State Government between 1922 and 1932.
17. Brennan, Michael, The War in Clare, 1911-1921, Personal Memoirs of the Irish War of Independence (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1980), p.11.
18. CJ, 21 June, 4 October 1915; SR, 31 July 1915.
19. Dungan,Myles, They Shall Not Grow Old, Irish Soldiers and the Great War (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1997), p.26.
20. CJ, 5 July 1915.
21. SR, 20 November, 18 December ; CJ, 13 December 1915. Glynn Papers, Kilrush: C.E. Glynn to Sir Charles Barrington, Baronet, DL, 30 October 1915; Capt. Browning to Mr C.E. Glynn, 3 November 1915; Mr C.E. Glynn to Capt. Browning, 4 November 1915, Sir Charles Barrington, Bart., to C.E. Glynn, 17 November 1915; C.E. Glynn to Capt. Browning, Ennis, 4 November 1915, HQ, Irish Command, Dublin to C.E. Glynn, 8 December 1915; C.E. Glynn to Sir Charles Barrington, 9 December 1915; Col H.V. Cowan, HQ, Irish Command to C.E. Glynn, 8 December 1915.
22. Glynn Papers, H.R. Glynn to Sir Grey Wilson, 19 January 1915; H.R. Glynn to J. Redmond, 4 February 1915; H.R. Glynn to E.C. Blanchflower, Queenstown, 11 March 1915; H.R. Glynn to Director of Contracts, Admiralty, London, 30 March 1915; H.R. Glynn to David Lloyd George, 1 April 1915; H.R. Glynn to Maj. Ivers, 18 March 1915; Maj. Ivers to H.R. Glynn, 20 March 1915; H.R. Glynn to Secretary, Recruitment Department of Ireland, Dublin, 20 November 1915.
23. Grania R. O’Brien, op. cit, pp.208-09; SR, 9 January, 15 February, 28 May; CJ, 4, 11, 14 January, 22 February, 1 April; CC, 9 January, 3 April, 1 May, 1915. See letter by one Belgian refugee, Charles Nissen, who was housed in Clare Castle for some time, describing how he and family escaped from Belgium, in CJ, 11 January 1915.
24. SR, 28 May 1915; Irish World, 23 October 1915, cited in Daniel McCarthy, op.cit., pp.104 and note 43,p. 191.
25. CJ, 22 March; SR, 16 October 1915.
26. CC, 27 November; CJ, 13 December and SR, 18 December 1915.
27. SR, 24 July 1915.
28. M.J. Gardiner and T. Radford, Soil Associations of Ireland and their Land Use Potential, explanatory Bulletin to Soil Map of Ireland 1980, An Foras Talúntais, Dublin, 1980, pp.139-140; also, T.F. Finch, E. Culliton and S. Diamond, Soils of County Clare, soil survey Bulletin no. 23, An Foras Talúntais, Dublin, 1971, p.49.
29. SR, 2, 9, January, 20 February, 29 May, 17 July, 7 August, 20 November and 25 December; CC 9 March, 6 November, 4 December, CJ, 4 January, 1, 4, 18 February, 17 May and 4 October 1915 and 29 January 1916.
30. SR, 30 January, 6, 13 March, 24 July, 6 November, 25 December 1915, CJ, 23 December 1915. The full list of fifty prisoners was included in the SR of 25 December 1915: Royal Munster Fusiliers Sgt Maj. J. Browne, Sgt J. Scanlan, Sgt P. Ryan, L-Cpl John F. Ryan and L-Cpl J. McCarthy. Ptes P. Crowe, John Hynes, T. Costello, Pat Ensko, John Hynes, M. Moroney, T. Timmins, T. Kelly, Ed Moloney, John Hanly, A. Hegarty, James Considine, Martin Kenny, W. Malone, Mat Dynan, D. O’Connor, Joe Manning, W. McCowan, Mat Gorman, John Stafford, John Danaher, John Hogan, P. McSparrow, John Daly, Michael McCarthy, Thomas Cushin, Martin Kelly, D.I. Considine, Pat Burke, P. Collins, J. O’Shaughnessy, J. O’Brien, P. Cullinane and D. O’Connor. Pte P.O’Loughlin, Connaught Rangers; L-Cpl Patrick Connor, Gordon Highlanders; Ptes John Flynn and Mat Griffey, Leinster Regiment; Lance Cpl Mat Leyden and Ptes M. O’Brien and John Thynne, Royal Irish Regiment; Ptes John Mahoney and Pat Roche, Royal Dublin Fusiliers; Pte J. MacNamara, South Lancashire Regiment; Pte George Nolan, King’s Own Royal Lancashire Regiment and Pte Pat Crimmins, Royal Army Medical Corps.
31. SR, 15, 22 May, 25 July 1915; Burnell, Tom, The Clare War Dead, a History of the Casualties of the Great War (Dublin: The History Press of Ireland, 2011), pp.89 and 90; See also www.rmslusitania.info/tag/irish. Dr Garry’s heart-broken mother, Mary Garry, wrote several letters to the mother of another victim Mrs Pritchard: ‘No one feels for you as we do, knowing what it is to lose a darling boy, RIP, our hearts go out to you in sympathy over your great loss …’
‘God alone knows what suffering our darling boy was saved from, for life had plenty of trouble, sooner or later for all that my loved son had signed into going out to Serbia to attend to the typhus patients. This dreadful war will leave no son to father or mother; we have only to console ourselves with the thought that God knows what is best for all, welcome His holy will …’
‘Isn’t the war dreadful? I am always worrying, as I have a daughter at Birkdale Convent. I feel terrified fearing anything would happen to her. One can never know what those terrible Huns might do. They delight in taking the lives of poor innocent people…Yours, Mary Garry.’
The letters are dated, 13 November 1915, 26 January and 23 February 1916, and are located in the Imperial War Museum, London. For a comprehensive analysis of the ill-fated voyage of the Lusitania, see Molony, Senan, Lusitania: an Irish Tragedy (Cork: Mercier Press, 2004), passim.
32. SR, 31 July 1915.
33. SR, 14 September 1915.
34. SR, 14 September 1915; See McCance, op. cit., pp.48-61 for an account of the Munsters in Gallipoli.
35. Burnell, Tom, The Clare War Dead, a History of the Casualties of the Great War (Dublin: The History Press Ireland, 2011), pp.104-109.
36. SR, 20 November 1915.
37. SR, 3 July 1915; Brian Dinan, ‘A town I know so well’, in Power, Joseph (ed.), An Ennis Miscellany (Ennis 750 Committee, 1990), p.198.
38. CJ, 13 September 1915.
39. Taylor, A.J.P, The First World War, an Illustrated History (Norwich: Penguin Books,1963), pp.77-100, passim; the names of the war dead buried in Gallipoli are found in Tom Burnell, The Clare War Dead, passim. Interestingly, one of the great anti-war ballads of the late twentieth century is Eric Bogle’s ‘And the band played Waltzing Matilda’, to the tune of an old Australian ballad, which deals with the sacrifices of the Anzac forces (the Australian and New Zealand soldiers) in Gallipoli in 1915. The lyrics were penned by Eric Bogle in 1971. In one of the verses are the following words: ‘I recall the day in the Hell called Suvla Bay, we were butchered like lambs at the slaughter.’ These words could easily be attributed to all the British troops at Gallipoli and certainly to the Irishmen of the Munster and Dublin battalions, many of whom were from County Clare.
40. Tottenham family records, miscellaneous entries in Rain Gauge book at Mount Callan. I am grateful to Ms Jane Tottenham, who gave me this information on 25 and 29 April 2014.
41. Cooper, Bryan, The Tenth Irish Division in Gallipoli (Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993), pp.14, 37, 87 and 100.
42. SR, 2 December 1915.
43. CJ, 3 June 1915.
44. Lynch, Arthur, MP, Ireland: Vital Hour (London: Stanley Paul and Co., 1915), p.129.
45. CJ, 23, November, 2, 9,16, 23 December; CC, 27 November, 4, 11, 18 December, 1915.
46. CJ, 6 May, 3 July 1915; SR, 14 September, 6 August 1915. Harris, Henry, The Irish Regiments in the First World War (Cork: Mercier Press, 1968), Chapter 4, Gallipoli, described the Gallipoli campaign as ‘useless slaughter of brave men … it cost the British empire, more than 200,000 killed and wounded and it achieved nothing’.
47. CC, 25 December 1915.
48. CJ, 30 December 1915.
49. SR, 22 May 1915.
50. Walker, Stephen, Forgotten Soldiers, the Irishmen Shot at Dawn (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 2007), see chapter on Pte Davis. Incidentally, his brother Francis was a war hero, receiving a citation for bravery. Following a prolonged campaign by relatives of the twenty-six Irishmen shot by the British Army during the First World War for alleged desertion, cowardice, or other reasons, the defence of which was supported by the Irish Government, Pte Tommy Davis was posthumously pardoned by the British Army. The Irish Minister for Defence stated: ‘We believe a great injustice was done to these young men and the Irish Government has given its full support to the “Shot at Dawn” campaign’. See article by Jessica Quinn in CC 18 August 2006; See also CC, 19 October 2001; 16 May, 2003; 26 J
anuary, 2007; 27 January 2006; 5 November 2007; 25 April, 2008; 24 October, 2008.
51. See lists of Clare war dead in, Browne, Burnell, and McCarthy, op. cit.
52. Owen, Wilfred, ‘Dulce et Decorum Est’, in Kindall, Tim (ed.), Poetry of the First World War, an Anthology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp.154-55.
4
RECRUITMENT AND REBELLION
The question of recruitment became more urgent as British losses continued to mount with a war of attrition on the Western Front, and the War Office was planning a major offensive after the disaster of Gallipoli. This turned out to be the notorius Battle of the Somme, with horrific losses. Early in the New Year the recruiting committees established in East and West Clare towards the end of 1915 began their work in earnest. The committees were set up in response to a new recruitment campaign initiated by the Department of Recruitment in Ireland and the Lord Lieutenent, Lord Wimborne, in which significant locals were to be prominent in the campaign. Conscription was introduced in England, Scotland and Wales for all men between the ages of 18 and 45, but Irishmen in Ireland were exempted, thanks to the determined efforts of John Redmond and the Home Rule Party. The Easter Rising of 1916 had a significant impact upon Irish attitudes towards England and the Great War and recruitment slowed down considerably. The Roll of Honour grew longer each year.
The West Clare Recruitment Committee was established at a meeting in Kilrush in early March 1916. This meeting was chaired by J.K. Kett, JP, Kilkee, chairman of Clare County Council. The attendance included: B. Culligan, JP, chairman of Kilrush Urban District Council; W.C. Doherty, chairman of Kilrush Board of Guardians; M. Mescall, chairman of Kilrush Rural District Council (RDC); M. Leyden, JP, chairman of Ennistymon RDC; M. Griffin, JP, chairman of Kildysart RDC; and C.E. Glynn, controller of recruiting for West Clare, who organised the meeting.1
The committee resolved to promote recruitment by setting up sub-committees in the following areas: Kilrush, Kilkee, Cooraclare, Mullagh, Kilshanny, Miltown Malbay, Ennistymon, Kildysart, Kilmihil and Carrigaholt, with important local people involved such as Catholic and Protestant clergy, deputy lieutenants, JPs, town and rural councillors, bank managers, doctors, solicitors, members of the AOH and business people.
Speaking at this meeting Mr Hurley, a government official from Ennistymon, said that over 200 men from Ennistymon had joined the colours, but there were some yet around the district who had not enlisted. Mr O’Dwyer, also from Ennistymon, corroborated what Mr Hurley had stated: ‘The town had done very well and I do not think that there were many more left, but in the outlying districts there were men available and they would do all in their power to get them to enlist.’
Significantly, Mr C.E. Glynn persuaded many parish priests of West Clare, including Canon McInerney, Kilrush; Revd P. Glynn, Kilkee; Revd Fr Hehir, Cooraclare; Revd J. Glynn, Mullagh; Revd McGurran, Kilshanny; Canon Hannon, Miltown Malbay; Revd Cassidy, Ennistymon; Revd P. Barrett, Knock and Killimer; and Revd D. Vaughan, Doonbeg; to head the committees in each parish, as well as several curates. Of all these ‘notables’, the Catholic clergy would probably have had the most powerful persuasive influence over their flock in the matter of recruitment. The Department of Recruitment in Ireland had encouraged all the local recruitment committees ‘to use priests where you can get them’.2
Though the majority of the Catholic clergy in West Clare seemed to be promoting recruitment, some clerical voices were raised in opposition to the war. McCarthy mentions that only four Catholic priests in County Clare, all curates, spoke out openly against recruitment before the Easter Rising: Fr John O’Dea, CC Bodyke; Fr Culligan, CC Carrigaholt; Fr Marcus McGrath, CC Clare Castle and Ballyea, and Fr Maher of Killaloe and Garranboy. Fr John O’Dea advised his parishioners at a Sunday Mass in Bodyke ‘to resist conscription by every means in their power instead of being led like sheep to the slaughter.’ Fr Marcus McGrath told his flock that ‘they should not believe all the stories about German atrocities in Belgium’. De Wiel states that in 1914 only twenty-four out of a total of about 3,000 Catholic priests in Ireland openly condemned the war, and that the role of the parish priest was crucial.3
4 QUESTIONS TO THE WOMEN OF IRELAND
You have read what the Germans have done in Belgium. Have you thought what they would do if they invaded Ireland?
Do you realise that the safety of your homes and children, the sanctity of your Churches depend on our defeating the Germans in Belgium?
Do you realise that the one word ‘Go’ from you may send another man to fight for Ireland?
When the war is over and your husband or your son is asked ‘What did you do in the Great War?’ is he to hang his head because you would not let him go?
Women of Ireland do your duty!
Let your men enlist in an Irish Regiment TODAY.
GOD SAVE THE KING
GOD SAVE IRELAND
Clare Journal, 25 February 1915.
These recruitment sub-committees were for men only, but the ladies of Clare also wanted to play a role in the recruitment campaign. Shortly after the establishment of the West Clare Recruitment Committee the ladies of West Clare held a meeting in Kilrush to promote recruitment in that district. This meeting was held in the Market House, Kilrush. The meeting was chaired by Ms Florence Glynn, with Ms M. Hennessy as hon. secretary. A total of twenty-eight ‘respectable women’ attended the meeting which was addressed by Mr C.E. Glynn, director of recruiting, and by Mr Johnstone from Limerick. All the ladies resolved to promote recruitment in their districts, to encourage young men from West Clare to take their place in the Irish regiments to join their comrades ‘who are fighting gallantly to defend our country and the defenceless women and children who are left behind’. The meeting unanimously resolved to do what they could to encourage recruiting and to look after the interests of the soldiers.4
TO THE YOUNG WOMEN OF IRELAND
Is your Best Boy wearing Khaki? If not, don’t you think he should be?
If he does not think that you and your country are worth fighting for – do you think he is worthy of you?
Don’t pity the girl who is alone – her young man is probably a soldier – fighting for her and her country – and for you.
If your young man neglects his duty to Ireland, the time may come when he will neglect you.
Think it over – then ask your young man to
Join an Irish Regiment to-day
Ireland will appreciate your help
Clare Journal, 1 April 1915.
An East Clare Ladies Recruitment Committee was established at a meeting in Ennis courthouse. Lady Inchiquin was elected president and Mrs Willis became hon. secretary. Sub-committees were established in the following districts: Ballyvaughan, Lisdoonvarna, Dromore, Sixmilebridge, Scarriff, Tuamgraney, Tulla, Killaloe, O’Callaghan’s Mills and Lahinch. More than sixty women attended the meeting, representing many long-established families in Clare, with a mixture of Protestant and Catholic ladies, though mainly Protestant.5
A ‘highly representative meeting’ of the East Clare Recruitment Committee was held at the courthouse, Ennis in March. It was chaired by Sir Michael O’Loghlen of Drumconora, Barefield, HML for County Clare; with Lord Inchiquin as vice-chairman and M.V. O’Halloran, JP, as secretary. About thirty gentlemen attended and they decided to seek the support of local councillors to encourage recruitment in rural areas. There was strong criticism of the farming community, who were said ‘not to be pulling their weight’ in the national crisis.
Col O’Callaghan Westropp said that Ennis had contributed magnificently, ‘this town alone had sent about 800 recruits, which was almost a battalion’, but, he said, ‘for some reason, the farmers’ sons were holding back. That was a fact that no one could deny’. The colonel sought the revival of the old Clare Militia, which had been disbanded about ten years previously, of which he had been colonel, to boost recruitment. Capt. R.J. Stacpoole, DL, of Eden Vale offered the use of his services to travel by motor car around the co
unty to assist in the recruitment campaign.
Mr George McElroy, the resident magistrate for County Clare, complimented the good work by Lt Abrahall and Sgt Connolly. He said that the committee should send local county and rural district councillors to canvass the community. These would be ‘known and trusted men’, who with the assistance of the clergy, would create ‘a healthy public opinion among the farmers’. Mr C.E. Glynn, Recruiting Organiser for West Clare said that he had met all of the parish priests and that every priest he met was ‘willing to give assistance’.
Mr McElroy, RM, who lived in the old barracks at Clare Castle, also suggested using the soldiers who were home on leave to assist in recruiting: ‘Whenever a soldier came home on furlough (leave), to Clare Castle he brought back two or three recruits with him!’
Councillor P.J. Linnane, Ennis UDC, said that ‘Ennis had done its duty by sending more than 800 men, but the farmers of Clare did not realise the gravity of the situation. There were’, he said, ‘terrible scares about conscription, but the farmers had it in their heads that the war would be won without them, however, if their homesteads were in danger they would look upon it differently!’6
At a specially convened meeting of Clare County Council held in April, a County Clare Recruitment Committee, led by Lord Inchiquin, with members including G. McElroy, Resident Magistrate (RM); Dr E. Frost, JP; Col Sir Charles Barrington, of Glenstal, Limerick, the recruitment officer for Clare and Limerick; C.E. Glynn; M.V. O’Halloran, JP; P. Kennelly, JP; J. O’Regan; F.N. Studdert, DL, secretary to Clare County Council, and Mr T. Lynch, sought a resolution of support from Clare County Council in favour of voluntary recruitment. Lord Inchiquin read a letter from Viceroy Lord Wimborne, seeking co-operation from the rural district, urban and county councils for the recruitment campaign.