Life in Ireland During World War I

Poster from Loyalists Opposing Home Rule

Ireland in Turmoil

There was much turmoil in Ireland as the First World War approached. Labor strife was particularly evident in late 1913. The Dublin lock-out was a major industrial dispute between approximately 20,000 workers and 300 employers that took place in that city. The lock-out affected tens of thousands of Dublin families.The dispute, lasting from 26 August 1913 to 18 January 1914, is often viewed as the most severe and significant industrial dispute in Irish history. Central to the dispute was the workers' right to unionise. Although the workers organizations had been broken, he principle of union action and workers' solidarity had been firmly established. No future employer would ever try to "break" a union in Ireland. 

When World War I began in 1914, there was another festering crisis in Ireland over  Home Rule—a political movement from 1870 to 1922 that aimed to grant Ireland domestic control over its own affairs, such as education, health, and agriculture, within the United Kingdom. Unionists (opposed) and nationalists  (pro-home rule) were on the verge of civil war. Both sides stopped their campaigning for and against Home Rule and supported the British war effort. Ulster Protestants joined the British Army to show their patriotism. In return they expected to remain part of the United Kingdom when the war was over. Edward Carson insisted the Protestant Ulstermen be kept together in one unit. His request was granted and approximately 9,000 men from Ulster formed the 36th (Ulster) Division.

The nationalists hoped for Home Rule as gratitude at the end of the war. The nationalists were not allowed to form a division of their own like the Ulstermen. Not everyone in Ireland agreed with fighting for Britain. Arthur Griffith of Sinn Féin said, "Ireland is not at war with Germany. The only duty we have is to stand for Ireland’s interests." There was a banner in front of Liberty Hall in Dublin saying, "We serve neither King nor Kaiser but Ireland."

Up-Scale Dublin Suburb Rathmines, 
Early 20th Century

1914 was the year after the Dublin Lockout and there was tension in the city. Some nationalists were busy planning a rebellion, seeing England’s difficulty as Ireland’s opportunity. There was also a sense that many people were happy with British rule. In 1911, King George V visited Dublin and thousands lined the streets to view his arrival. Many of the professional people who came out to see him had grown in political importance. Grand houses in places like Fitzwilliam Square were home to leading lawyers, businessmen and civil servants.

As well as that, during the 19th century, the wealthy began moving to suburbs such as Blackrock, Monkstown, and Rathmines. They built their lives around golf clubs, tennis clubs, yachting, and sailing. Houses were run with the help of servants who often lived in. Trams, horses and bicycles dominated transport, but cars were growing in importance.

Slums and poverty 

The former homes of the wealthy, especially on the north-side of the city, became home to thousands of the city’s poorest. These houses became known as tenements. Dublin’s slums were among the worst in Europe with thousands of manual and unskilled workers living in terrible conditions. A third of families lived in one room and in one case, five families were living in one large room.

The slums were disease-ridden and the death rate in Dublin at that time was 75 percent higher than in any British city. Those who had work worked very long hours for low wages. 

Employment

A Guinness Barge on the River Liffey

There was no major industrial area in Ireland at that time except in north-east Ulster. Dublin’s employment depended on administration and commerce. Dublin Port was busy with many British goods imported into the country and the bulk of agricultural goods leaving through Dublin for foreign markets. Up to seven cattle boats a day left Dublin for England. Work in the port, construction and administration could not absorb the huge number of available workers.

Good jobs with employers such as Guinness were dreamed of, but were not a  reality for most people. Employment in Cork centered around the major breweries such as Murphy’s and Beamish and Crawford.  People living in the county depended on agriculture and fishing. Galway was a county in decline with a birth - rate below the average and no industrial base. Waterford was equally poor with evictions of families from their homes commonplace. It was a mainly rural county with only Dungarvan and Waterford City having a population greater the 2,000. Belfast was booming due to the shipyards, the linen mills and associated industries.

Irish Soldiers at War

Men of the 36th Ulster Division, 1917

The conflict saw over 200,000 Irishmen join the British forces. Official estimates put the number of Irish dead at about 35,000. The vast majority died in their prime on French and Belgian battlefields. World War I wiped out an entire generation of young men. The war was fought on a huge scale and the armies were vast with millions of conscripts. The Irish came from every Irish county and many villages and towns. Men from the working classes joined in vast numbers. Farmers prospered during the war due to price increases and there was little prospect of them joining. The numbers joining up slackened off after the Eastern Rising. Many Irish people joined English, Scottish, and Welsh regiments. Emigrants joined the armies of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and the United States. In addition, women served as nurses at the front line.  They signed up for different reasons:

• Some enlisted to escape poverty.

• Others to maintain family honour or traditions.

• Others joined for adventure.

• Others wanted to stop German aggression.

• Many joined because they believed it would ensure Home Rule after the war and others joined to prevent Home Rule.

Women Working in the National Shell Factory,
Parkgate Street, Dublin

The war affected Irish life in other ways. Agricultural prices increased as the war went on due to the demand for food to feed the huge British Army. Middle and upper-class women in Ireland as in other countries took up new roles. They worked as nurses or in charity work in support of war victims. Many women worked in munitions factories also. As the war continued, life began to improve in Dublin. Living standards rose and mortality rates fell with money flowing into the tenements in separation payments to soldiers’ wives. Every woman whose husband was at the front got an allowance collected at the post office. The army provided a new source of steady income for the vast number of unemployed, unskilled workers.

Main Street, Longford, Ireland, in the early 1900s

Home Rule and the Easter Rising

The outbreak of World War I may have postponed another war in Ireland. Moderate nationalist leader John Redmond of the Irish Parliamentary Party had achieved Home Rule with the Liberals agreeing to introduce it. Ulster Unionists, led by Edward Carson, rejected Home Rule and formed the Ulster Volunteer Force, a 90,000 strong well-armed force which intended to fight to prevent it. Nationalists founded the Irish Volunteers to support Home Rule.

In September 1914, Redmond urged nationalists to enlist and fight for Britain in the war. Two days before his speech, Home Rule was granted but it was not to be enacted until the war was over. Some of the Irish Volunteers who refused to support Britain planned a rebellion. They were joined by the Irish Citizen Army in staging a rising at Easter 1916. Redmond saw the rebellion as a ‘German intrigue’ and Carson saw the leaders as traitors. Both men urged caution in the treatment of the leaders and prisoners when the rising ended. The British authorities ignored Redmond and Carson and after the execution of the leaders, public opinion rejected moderate nationalism in favour of militant republicanism. The Irish Parliamentary Party continued to push for Home Rule, but the British authorities did not grant it. In the 1918 general election, the people switched to Sinn Féin and Home Rule was no longer an option.

Constance Markiewicz,  Co-Organizer of the
1916 Easter Rebellion
(See our article on the Easter Rising's 100th Anniversary HERE)

World War I, the Home Rule campaign, and the Easter Rising changed life in Ireland for decades to come. 

Excerpted from: World War I—The Great War; from the County Longford, Ireland, Library