by Joe Power
Tom Burnell’s, The Clare War Dead, published in 2011 gives a comprehensive list of more than 600 people associated with County Clare who died in the Great War. There are also biographical sketches about those who died, citing among other things, age, rank, military service, regiment, place of death and site of grave or war memorial. It is an excellent reference book.
Burnell’s book has been complemented by Ger Browne’s publication, The Great War 1914-1918, The Clare War Dead World War 1, which classifies the war dead by parish. This booklet was published by the Clare Roots Society in 2014 to mark the anniversary of the war and to highlight the development of a Peace Park in Ennis.
The vast majority of local history books, even those recently published in the county have largely ignored the impact of the Great War in Clare, while most, if not all of them, have a chapter, or more on the War of Independence in the respective parishes. One notable exception is Sean Kierse’s The Killaloe Anthology, published in 2001, which has a chapter listing the casualties of war from Killaloe and district and has a chapter on ‘Soldiers and Sailors Trust Houses’ in Killaloe.
Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Blood on the Banner, The Republication Struggle in Clare, published in 2009, is a study of the rise of the Volunteers from 1913 to the end of the Civil War. It barely touches upon the Great War, but gives good insights, unfortunately without references, into political developments in Clare – the split in the Volunteers after 1914, plans for a 1916 Rising in Clare and the conscription crisis of 1918.
A recent major study, Clare History and Society, Interdisciplinary Essays on the History of an Irish County, edited by Matthew Lynch and Patrick Nugent, series editor, William Nolan, Geography Publications, Dublin, 2008, only mentions the Great War indirectly in one out of twenty-eight chapters – chapter 15 by Brendan O’Cathaoir, ‘Another Clare: Ranchers and Moonlighters, 1700-1945’, pp. 359-424. O’Cathaoir mentions the East Clare election and ‘cattle drives’ after 1916 (see pp. 385-395).
One man who did Trogan work to reclaim the memory of the Great War veterans and victims from County Clare was the late Peadar McNamara of Inch, an art teacher at Ennis Community College. Peadar’s interest was sparked off when he joined a committee, called ‘The Clare Historical Project’, set up by Michael Connolly, an inspector with the Department of Education in 1987, to compile a manual of local history studies in the county. One of Peadar’s areas of specific interest was ‘the involvement of Clare people in the Great War’. Peadar engaged enthusiastically with this project and began to compile a mass of information on the topic. Over the years he even visited the sites of battles and war graves in France, Belgium and Turkey.
One year after the formation of the committee, Peadar organised an exhibition in Clare County Library on the theme of ‘Clare and the Great War’. This was done in conjunction with the Clare County Library Service and the Western Front Association. The exhibition also toured the other libraries in Clare and later went to Dublin.29 Peadar compiled the first list of the Clare war dead, which he published in the Clare Champion of 11 November 1988, on the seventieth anniversary of Armistice Day. Peadar kept up the interest and continued to highlight the war. He published another list of the Clare war dead in the Clare Champion of 2008, on the ninetieth anniversary of Remembrance Day.
Peadar, along with Revd Bob Hanna, Church of Ireland rector of Drumcliffe and Fr Tom Hogan, administrator of Ennis parish, was the instigator of the revival of an ecumenical Remembrance Day ceremony in Ennis in 2008. On that occasion some dissident republicans protested outside Ennis Cathedral. Since then, Remembrance Day ceremonies have taken place annually at Ennis Cathedral.
Other fruits of his work were shown in an article, ‘The Great War (1914-1918) and some effects on Clare’, published in the Other Clare of March 1989. This was in fact the first local historical study of the impact of the Great War in the county published in that journal. Peadar’s article ended with a quote from Ben Johnson: ‘Cursed be he who first invented war!’
Peadar’s written works and the revival of the Remembrance Day ceremonies at Ennis have done much to generate interest in the Great War and the contribution of Clare people to that terrible conflict. Before his untimely death Peadar had a vision of erecting a suitable monument in Clare to commemorate the Clare war dead. Unfortunately, Peadar did not live to see this project brought to fruition, but members of his family are part of a committee set up in 2013 to erect a war memorial in a peace park in Ennis to commemorate the Clare men and women who died in the Great War.
While the general public and local newspapers have, until fairly recent times, largely ignored the men who fought and died in the Great War, there was also a remarkable silence, an historical amnesia, and a seeming lack of interest among local historians in the impact of the Great War in Clare. The major historical journals circulating in the county include The Other Clare, and The North Munster Antiquarian Journal (NMAJ). Other publications have included Dal gCais. There have been remarkably few historical articles on the Great War published in these journals.
The NMAJ which circulates mainly in the old Thomond area of Clare, Limerick and North Tipperary, has been published by the Thomond Historical and Archaeological Society in Limerick since the 1930s. In all that time, in the fifty-three editions up to 2013, only two articles relating to the Great War were published, one about the Belgian refugees in Limerick (Vol. 39, 1989) and the other relating to the economic impact of the Great War in Limerick (Vol. 50, 2010). There was nothing written on the Great War in County Clare.
Dal gCais, published in Miltown Malbay, had only one article on Eamon de Valera in 1917 in Issue No. 4. While the Old Limerick Journal, published in Limerick also had only one article on ‘The Volunteers, the 1916 Rising and afterwards’, in Vol. No. 39 (1993).
In Slieve Aughty, East Clare Heritage, which has been published in Tuamgraney since 1989, there has only been one article relating to the Great War, ‘Willie Redmond, a Forgotten Hero’, in Vol. 10, 2002.
The Other Clare has been published annually by The Shannon Archaeological and Historical Society since 1977. In the thirty-seven publications up to 2013 there has been only one historical study relating directly to the impact of the Great War in Clare out of a total of 686 articles and that was Peadar McNamara’s article in Vol. 13, published in 1989. Eight other historical studies were published about this era (1913-1923), but all of them were related to republican or Sinn Féin activities in the county at this time, dealing with such topics as ‘Sectarianism in Co. Clare during the War of Independence’, Vol. 34 ; ‘The experiences of a Sinn Féin priest, 1919-21’, Vol. 31; ‘The Patrick Hennessy letters’, Vol. 30; ‘Sinn Féin hunger strikers’, Vol. 36; ‘British servicemen secretly buried in Clare during the War of Independence’, Vol. 36; ‘The prison letters of Canon O’Kennedy’, Vol. 37; ‘The Waldron family in Co. Clare’, Vol.17; and ‘Kathleen Talty and de Valera’s escape from Lincoln Jail’, Vol. 12.
Surprisingly, even the thirty-eighth volume of The Other Clare, published in September 2014, on the 100th anniversary of the Great War does not have an article relating to the Great War, but it does have an interesting article on the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. As a matter of interest, Brian Boru did not survive the Battle of Clontarf in 1014, but his direct descendant, the Hon. Donough O’Brien, later 16th Baron Inchiquin, was injured in 1917, while another descendant, the Hon. Desmond O’ Brien, was killed in 1915.
‘History’, it is said, ‘is written by the victors’. The survivors and political heirs of the 1916 Rising and the War of Independence have dominated Irish political life since then the 1918 election. Their struggle has taken priority over the tragic story of those who fought in the Great War. The struggle in the War of Independence in Clare, involving a few hundred Volunteers, has eclipsed the memory of the combatants of the Great War in which perhaps more than 4,000 Clare men and hundreds of women were involved. The Easter Lily has blossomed while the Flanders Poppy has withered.
The republicans who fou
ght for Irish freedom were honoured as patriotic heroes, while the First World War veterans, who fought bravely and courageously in hellish conditions in places such as the Western Front and in Gallipoli were ignored. Those who died in the cause of Irish freedom have been enshrined in the martyrology of Irish patriots. The republican story is celebrated in visual art in works such as Sean Keating’s ‘The Men of the West’), in song and in story. Their deeds are proudly recorded in local history books published throughout the county, while the courageous deeds of the brave men who fought in the First World War were rarely mentioned, or, worse still, ignored. Hopefully, this publication, along with others recently published, will cherish the memory of and acknowledge the bravery and sacrifices of the many thousands of men and hundreds of women from County Clare who served, fought, suffered and died in the terrible Great War of 1914-1918.
Notes
1. McGuane, James, Kilrush in Olden Times (Kilrush: privately published, 1984), p.92.
2. Ó Ruairc, Pádraig Óg, Blood on the Banner, Roll of Honour, pp.25-26, 28.
3. Brennan, Michael, The War in Clare, 1911-1921, Personal Memoirs of the Irish War of Independence (Dublin: Four Courts Press, 1980), pp.20-21; SR, 21 December 1918. See also SR, 4 January 1919 which noted the receptions given to Michael Brennan and Art O’Donnell on their release from prison.
4. Brennan, Michael, op. cit., p.39.
5. Sheedy, Kieran, The Clare Elections (Dún Laoghaire: Bauroe Press, 1993), p.758 and 808.
6. SR, 1 November 1925.
7. SR, 7 November 1925.
8. SR, 6, 13 November 1926.
9. SR, 5, 19 November 1927.
10. SR, 10 November 1928.
11. SR, 9 November 1929.
12. SR, 8 November 1930, 9 November 1931 and 5 November 1932.
13. SR, 18 November 1933.
14. SR, 17 November 1934.
15. CC, 10 November 1945.
16. CC, 6 November 1948.
17. Royal British Legion Limerick, history, in rbl-limerick.webs.com/branchhistory.htm; Also, Sean South of Limerick in Wikipedia.org/wiki/Sean-South.
18. CC, 9 November 1958
19. CC, 9 November 1968.
20. CC, 7 November 1970.
21. Power, Joseph, The GAA in Clare Castle (Clare Castle: Clare Castle GAA, 1987), pp.95-96; Also, Shaw, Eric, Clare Castle and Ballyea, the Parish Remembers (Ennis, 2011).
22. CC, article on Tommy Kinnane, 27 September 1958.
23. CC, 2 August 1985 and 30 December 1988.
24. Brew, Frank, The Parish of Kilkeedy, a Local History (Tubber: 1998), pp.214-216; See also Hawes, Joe, ‘Mutiny Under the Sun,’ passim; Kilfeather, T.P., The Connaught Rangers (Tralee: Anvil Books, 1969), Chapters 12-14 passim; Also O’Muircearthaigh, op. cit., p.47; CC, 4 July 1970, 19 January 1973 and 11 January 2013. Grave at Shanakyle, Kilrush. He is also named on the Connaught Rangers memorial erected by the National Graves Association at Glasnevin, Dublin, in 1983. It seems that there was another Clareman involved in the mutiny in India. A man named Michael Kearney, ‘a native of County Clare’ was sentenced to fifteen years’ penal servitude for his part in the mutiny. He too was released under the amnesty and lived in London up to the 1970s. www.war-talk.com conaughtrangersrsmutiny; History Ireland, Spring 2001, Vol 9.
25. CC, 20 July and 3 August 1990; Also Records of Burials at Drumcliffe, Ennis. See Kierse, Sean, The Killaloe Anthology (Killaloe: Boru Books, 2001), Chapter 17, pp.176-181, for an excellent article on the ‘Soldiers and Sailors Trust Houses’ in Killaloe. He states that thirty-five houses were built for the ex-servicemen in this district. Similar houses were built in Ennis, Kilrush, Ennistymon, Clare Castle, Sixmilebridge,Tulla and Newmarket-on-Fergus and perhaps other places in Clare.
26. See reference note 4 in Chapter Four (Western Front and Gallipoli) on the execution of Tommy Davis.
27. CC, 19 November 1999, Kilrush Notes under a heading ‘War Dead Remembered’, p.14.
28. CC, 12 November and 26 November 1999. See also, a booklet, written by Ger ‘Guss’ O’Halloran, ‘The Men from North Clare and the Great War 1914-1918’, 2012, which has a photograph of the memorial. There is a copy of this booklet in the Local Resource Centre, Clare County Library, Ennis.
29. CC, 4 November 1988.
CONCLUSION
County Clare was one of the most Catholic counties in Ireland, with over 98 per cent per cent of the population of more than 104,000 in the census of 1911 being Catholic. There was a small scattered Protestant community in the county comprising about 1,900 people. Though small in number the Protestants were significant in economic matters in the county, with substantial land holdings. They were also significant in middle-class professions such as law, finance and medicine. Though they had lost political power since the 1870s at parliamentary level and at local level since the Local Government Act of 1898, they were still prominent as deputy lieutenants of the county and as magistrates.
The passage of the Third Home Rule Bill in 1912 was widely welcomed by the vast majority of the people of Clare and the Thomas Davis song, ‘A Nation Once Again’, became almost a national anthem at this time in nationalist circles. However, while the nationalists of Clare were rejoicing at the prospect of Home Rule in 1914, the small unionist community in the county were apprehensive at the prospect of living in a state and county dominated by a large majority of Catholics and nationalists. Some spokesmen for the Protestant community, especially Revd Armstrong, rector of Kilrush and H.V. MacNamara, DL, of Ennistymon, a prominent landlord in north Clare, raised fears of sectarianism in County Clare. There was much controversy and publicity in the local newspapers such as the Clare Journal and the Saturday Record, both owned by the Protestant Knox family of Ennis, highlighting the fears and concerns, whether real or imagined, among the Protestant and unionist community when Home Rule was due to be implemented in 1914. To some extent, the land agitation campaign, a continuation of the Land War in County Clare, was inextricably linked with the Protestant fears, as many of the landlords were Protestant, while the majority of their tenants were Catholic.
However, events in Ireland were significantly transformed in 1914 due to the activities of the unionists in the north of Ireland. Their actions, both legal and illegal, involving such actions as the formation of the Ulster Volunteers, and gun-running at Larne, combined with the ‘Curragh mutiny’ among the Protestant and unionist army officers based at the British Army HQ in Kildare, cast a gloom over the prospects for a peaceful transition to Home Rule for Ireland. Also, political developments in England, granting concessions to the unionists, such as the right of temporary exclusion of six northern counties, further undermined the Home Rule Act. The threat of force by the unionists had paid off.
In response to these developments the National Volunteers were founded after a call by Eoin MacNeill in February 1914. Within a couple of months branches of the National Volunteers were established in almost every parish in county Clare. The Irish Home Rule Party, led by John Redmond, MP, was a significant factor behind the formation of the National Volunteers, along with the AOH, which had branches in many parts of the county. Some prominent local politicians, such as Councillor P.J. Linnane, JP, chairman of Ennis Urban Council, and Catholic clergy, with the encouragement of the Catholic Bishop of Killaloe, Dr M. Fogarty, were active in the formation of the Volunteers throughout the county, to ensure that the British Government would keep its promise and grant Home Rule to Ireland. The main nationalist newspaper in the county, the Clare Champion, also enthusiastically supported the formation of the National Volunteers throughout the county.
Despite the formation of the National Volunteers as a countervailing force to the threats from the Ulster Volunteer Force, there were further disappointments in March. British Prime Minister Asquith granted some concessions to the unionists, allowing them the right to temporarily opt out of a united Home Rule Ireland. Despite these concessions by the Liberal government and by John Redmond, MP, there were still hopes that the unionists were
bluffing and that Home Rule would still be introduced as originally promised under the 1912 Act.
But the unionists were not bluffing and there was much talk about the prospect of civil war in Ireland over the introduction of Home Rule. The Church of Ireland Bishop of Killaloe and Kilfenora, Dr Berry, expressed a sincere wish in July that there would be peace in Ireland and appealed to the Protestants and unionists of County Clare to remain in the county and live in harmony with their Catholic neighbours after Home Rule became law.
In July Asquith made further concessions to the unionists at the Buckingham Palace Conference. John Redmond agreed to the suspension of Home Rule, while Asquith suspended the proposed partition of Ireland to exclude six counties. Thus, in the words of UCD historian Ronan Fanning, ‘Redmond nourished the nationalist delusion that the partition of Ireland was avoidable’.1
With the outbreak of war in early August 1914, the Home Rule Bill was formally passed in September 1914, but its enactment was temporarily shelved until the end of the war. Ironically, the outbreak of the Great War prevented the development of a civil war in Ireland, which many feared over the proposed introduction of Home Rule in 1914.
In 1914 the Home Rule Party and the AOH were the main political forces in County Clare. These political organisations were backed by the Catholic Church and by the Clare Champion. With the outbreak of war there was strong support for John Redmond’s policy committing the National Volunteers to fight with the British Army. However, as the war dragged on and as casualties mounted due to the horrific slaughter on the western and indeed other fronts, support for the war dwindled, as did support for the Home Rule Party.
From a small nucleus of opposition the Irish Volunteers, also known as the Sinn Féin Volunteers, became a significant force in local and national politics, especially after the 1916 Rising, when the leaders were executed and turned into martyrs. Though they numbered only between 300 and 400 men in the county, they were active and vocal in promoting their cause. Men such as the Brennan brothers of Meelick openly defied the British authorities by brazenly parading in uniform even under arms. Some Catholic priests, such as Fr McGrath, CC of Clare Castle, and Ballyea parish and Fr Culligan, CC of Carrigaholt, were also prominent in promoting Sinn Féin in the early years of the war.