In Ireland, the period from 1912 to 1925 was one of significant social and political change. The First World War was one of several major events that occurred during these years that affected the country and those who lived and worked in it. Support for the British war effort in Ireland, as elsewhere, was conditional. Immediately prior to the outbreak of war, the relationship between Britain and Ireland was undergoing considerable alteration. In 1912, British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill, which provided for an Irish parliament based in Dublin that would have had the authority to deal with most national affairs. Unionists, especially those in Ulster, were opposed to a Dublin-based administration. Consequently, political tensions rose to the extent that the outbreak of violence in Ireland appeared a real prospect. Both unionists and nationalists established paramilitary groups, escalating tensions in Ireland. The onset of the First World War in 1914 brought about the suspension of Home Rule. On 18 September 1914, the Suspensory Act received royal assent, which postponed the introduction of Home Rule until the war had ended. 1
While Home Rule was postponed, the outbreak of violence in Ireland was not averted. On 24 April 1916, the Easter Risingâan armed insurrectionâbegan and lasted for six days. Then, separatist nationalists organised the Rising in an attempt to end British rule in Ireland. Members of the Irish Volunteers and the Irish Citizen Army seized several locations in Dublin, including the General Post Office, and proclaimed an Irish Republic. The British Army suppressed the Rising with their superior military numbers and the insurgents agreed to surrender on Saturday 29 April. In the months that followed, British authorities ordered the execution of sixteen of the leaders of the rebellion. 2 It was against this backdrop of political upheaval and the rebellion in Ireland that the British government sought to encourage Irish men and women to support the British war effort and enlist in the various branches of the British Army.
For much of the twentieth century, historians largely ignored Irish involvement in the First World War. In 1967, F. X. Martin argued that Ireland was suffering from a national amnesia regarding its role in the First World War. 3 Martinâs declaration followed the commemorations of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising and was prompted by the reluctance among many to acknowledge the large numbers of Irish people who participated in the British Army to serve in the war. Since then, Paul Fussell, Nuala Johnson and others have argued that the political agitation and violent conflict that occurred in Ireland following the end of the war were primarily responsible for this neglect. 4
However, Martinâs declaration can no longer be applied to Irish historiography. Significant historical work detailing the impact of the First World War on Ireland and the role of Irish people in the conflict has emerged over the past number of years. For example, since Martinâs assertion, several historians have considered the impact of the war on Irish politics. Paul Bew, Thomas Hennessy and John Horne have argued that worldwide conflict altered the course of Irish politics by delaying Home Rule. 5 David Fitzpatrick has completed comprehensive work that establishes how the war disrupted everyday life. 6 Other studies have examined the rates and patterns of enlistment of Irish men into the combat forces of the military. 7 Estimates of the number of Irish who enlisted in the British Army during the First World War have varied considerably but Patrick Callan and Fitzpatrick have produced carefully considered assessments, which suggest that approximately 210,000 Irish personnel joined up. 8
Academic research into the social and cultural history of medicine in Ireland has also grown considerably but, for the most part, themes relating to war and Irish medical provision remain relatively untouched. 9 This is in contrast with the vast amount of historical research on the British case, where a number of works have specifically focused on medicine and the First World War. 10 One of the first notable studies emerged in 1964, when Brian Abel-Smith, in his seminal study of the development of British hospitals from 1800 to 1948, argued that the standards of hospital care for civilians seriously declined because of the conflict. 11 Abel-Smithâs negative assessment on the effect of war on civilian healthcare was unusual. From the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, other studies of the relationship between the war and medicine stressed the positive influence of conflict on medical innovation and provision. Rosemary Stevens posited that the First World War âstimulated the development of special skills and special interests, particularly in psychiatry, orthopaedics, and plastic and thoracic surgeryâ. 12 Jay Winter argued that the war years were âa period of significant gains in civilian health, for the young and those in the industrial labour forceâ. 13 Roger Cooter, in a typically astute study, later disputed the thesis that war was good for the development of medicine. He reasoned that studies dominated by this argument adopted a causal framework and that the theatres of war and medicine must be studied as part of the societies and cultures in which they were situated, something which most historical works on medicine and the First World War had lacked. 14 Cooter rejected the basic argument that the First World War benefited medicine and encouraged medical innovations as âovertly positivist, implicitly militarist and profoundly simplisticâ. 15
More recent studies on the First World War and medicine have largely focused specifically on the provision of healthcare to soldiers. Mark Harrison, in his ground-breaking study, explored the role of the British Army medical services in the First World War and detailed the development of the casualty clearing process in multiple theatres of war, including the Western Front, Mesopotamia, Gallipoli and East Africa. 16 Emily Mayhew analysed the journey of wartime casualties from the battlefields to domestic hospitals in Britain. 17 Ian Whiteheadâs research focused specifically on the enlistment of medical officers (MOs) into the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), a specialist corps responsible for providing medical care to all British Army personnel, to serve in the war and found that large numbers of doctors throughout Britain enlisted into the corps from 1914 to 1918. 18 All of these works have significantly enhanced our understanding of the British Armyâs medical arrangements during the First World War.
During the First World War, Irish medical personnelâphysicians, surgeons, general practitioners and nursesâserved in the medical services of the British Army. Yet a comprehensive history of Irish medical involvement in the conflict and its subsequent impact on the civilian medical profession does not exist. 19 This book analyses the extent of Irish medical involvement in the First World War and charts Irish medical personnelâs enlistment from 1914 to 1918. It focuses primarily on physicians, surgeons and general practitioners who were born in Ireland. A considerable number of Irish nurses participated in the war and several historians have already explored their role in the conflict. In separate studies, Caitriona Clear, Siobhan Horgan-Ryan and Yvonne McEwen examined Irish nursesâ wartime participation. Clear suggested that approximately 4500 of them served abroad during the war. 20 This book will examine the several different nursing services involved in the war and detail the wartime roles of Irish nurses to establish Irish medical experience on the frontlines. Unfortunately, the nature of the source material did not allow for a study of Irish nursesâ enlistment rates and this is therefore not discussed. However, this provides scope for future...