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Irish part in WW1 and the consequences for the soldiers
This is a timeline that depicts what happened to Ireland throughout the First World War and what happened to the Irish soldiers returning from the war fighting on the British side. -
1914- The beginning
The First World War began. Ireland already in a unstable political conflict among 2 groups, Nationalists and Unionists were in a political battle for rule over Ireland. With WW1 at the heels of the Irish nation the Third Home Rule paused and both sides joined the British army hoping to win their favor. -
The divisions of Ireland in the British forces.
The Irish soldiers took part in the war but not as a unified front, they separated themselves into 2 divisions namely the 36th Unionist division and the rest were part of the 10th and 16th divisions. The 36th Division took part of the Battle of Somme which turned out to be the turning point in the loyalties of the homebound Irishmen because of the severe casualties of the battle. Irish men now want to drive the British out of Ireland. -
Throughout the War(WW1) a new war(Irish rebellion) began.
Sinn Fein grew popular back home with the Irish folk as the people could relate more to them than the other parties. President of the Sinn Fein group, Eamonn de Valera won the Irish election. They wanted to stop the Irish hand in the British led war and thus started their fight for Irish Independence. -
World War 1 ended.
The War had ended and the soldiers were all returned homewards. -
The return of the soldiers.
As the war ended, Sinn Fein won 73 seats in the election in opposition with the Unionists(26 seats) and the Home Rule(6seats). This sparked the want and need for independence even more as they even shunned and in some cases murdered the returning British-supporting Irish soldiers. The particular reason for this was the feeling of hatred towards the British for not giving the Irish Independence, they then made disposal of most thing British.