100,000 Irishmen enlist in a year
Dublin, 27 November 1915 - More than 100,000 Irishmen have enlisted in the British army in the last year.
That figure was revealed in the third circular issued by the Lord Lieutenant – Lord Wimborne – in his role as Director-General of Recruiting in Ireland.
Lord Wimborne congratulated all those Irish men who had decided to ‘forsake civil life to take up arms overseas in defence of the lives, the livelihood and the land of those they have left behind’.
He said that since he assumed the role of Director-General of Recruiting just a few months previously six complete battalions of Irishmen had enlisted: ‘This is the answer to those who understood Irish men so little as to think that they could be misled into questioning the high motives and the intelligence of the men who first listened to the call.’
A mobile office which has played a central role in the recruitment campaign all over Ireland in recent months. (Image: Irish Life, 8 Oct 1915. Full collection of Irish Life available from the National Library of Ireland)
Opposition to the war
He continued: ‘Remember that
those who attempt to throw doubt on the peril of the present
war to the lives
and homes of Irish men and Irish women; that those who spread mean
suspicion on men in authority and on the thousands of brave Irish
soldiers who are sheltering us; that those who find lame excuses
to prevent themselves or to prevent others from fulfilling a hard
and noble duty to Ireland – those men censure the dead and
insult the living.’
An anti-recruitment cartoon by Ernest Kavanagh. John Redmond is seen urging a Volunteer to join the colours saying: 'The Empire (which denies you Home Rule) needs you.' Originally published in the Irish Worker. (Image: Joseph McGarrity Collection. Digital Library@Villanova University)
Appeal for more men
Nonetheless, he said that he was proceeding with recruitment in
Ireland ‘without thought or anticipation of
compulsion’.
He concluded with an appeal to all those of military age: ‘The country’s need is still great – more and more men are required.’ Indeed, Lord Wimborne has noted previously that he wished to secure some 10,000 new recruits this month.
More than 40,000 copies of the letter have been printed for distribution to men of military age around Ireland.
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
