In September 1914 the 16th (Irish) Division was formed, comprised of 47th, 48th and 49th Brigades, and among the infantry battalions allocated to the 49th Brigade was the 7th R Inniskilling Fusiliers, formed on 2nd October 1914. In the initial stages recruiting was difficult but a gradual improvement received an almighty set-back when in June 1915 the battalion was required to send a draft of 300 to the 10th Irish Division then in England, getting ready to embark for Gallipoli. This nearly resulted in the disbandment of the battalion, which had to start all over again, but by the time the division began its move to England in September 1915 the battalion was about 700 strong. After final training the division embarked for France in December, less the artillery and 49th Brigade which eventually crossed in February 1916. All this is recounted in Part I of the history. Part II is the story of the battalion on the Western front where it served till August 1917 when, on the 23rd, during Third Ypres, heavy losses resulted in amalgamation with the 8th Bn and henceforward it was the 7th/8th Bn. At this point the story ends. The battalion's introduction to trench warfare was in the Loos salient where it spent six months, and the memorial to this period is the plot in Philosophe Cemetery where 115 officers and men lie side by side in five rows; at the end of the book there is a plan of the cemetery showing the graves and who is buried in them. The battalion also fought on the Somme, notably at Ginchy and Guillemont. 7th Inniskillings were to the fore in the assault on Messines Ridge on 7th June 1917; in this major attack the battalion lost only 22 killed and died of wounds. It was after this assault that the feature known as 'Unnamed Wood' became 'Inniskilling Wood.' The battalion's final action before amalgamating with the 8th Bn was at Langemarck during Third Ypres. Almost the last photo in the book is one of the survivors of the original “Seventh” taken in March 1918 - they number twenty-two. At the end is the Roll of Honour. This is a competent and well written account, based on the War Diary, Battalion orders, records and personal memoirs. The author, who served as Signal Officer in the battalion for nearly two and a half years, stresses he took special care to avoid matters which might have led to political, military, or religious controversy.

This is one of the most valuable books in the armoury of the serious student of British Military history. It is a new and revised edition of Arthur White's much sought-after bibliography of regimental, battalion and other histories of all regiments and Corps that have ever existed in the British Army. This new edition includes an enlarged addendum to that given in the 1988 reprint. It is, quite simply, indispensible.

IRELAND'S FORGOTTEN LEGACY In 1914-1918, two hundred thousand Irishmen from all religions and backgrounds went to war. At least thirty-five thousand never came home. Those that did were scarred for the rest of their lives. Many of these survivors found themselves abandoned and ostracised by their countrymen, their voices seldom heard. The book includes: - The first Victoria Cross - Leading the way at Gallipoli and the Somme - North and South fighting side by side at Messines Ridge - Ireland's flying aces - Brothers-in-arms – heart-rending stories of family sacrifice - The lucky escapes of some; the tragic end of others - The homecoming – why there was no hero's welcome Includes over 300 photographs and items of memorabelia from the lives of these brave men and their families. An important book that opened up the conversation in Ireland about our role in World War I. Updated, and with a new introduction.

During the First World War approximately 200,000 Irish men and 5,000 Irish women served in the British armed forces. All were volunteers and a very high proportion were from Catholic and Nationalist communities. This book is the first comprehensive analysis of Irish recruitment between 1914 and 1918 for the island of Ireland as a whole. It makes extensive use of previously neglected internal British army recruiting returns held at The National Archives, Kew, along with other valuable archival and newspaper sources. There has been a tendency to discount the importance of political factors in Irish recruitment, but this book demonstrates that recruitment campaigns organised under the auspices of the Irish National Volunteers and Ulster Volunteer Force were the earliest and some of the most effective campaigns run throughout the war. The British government conspicuously failed to create an effective recruiting organisation or to mobilise civic society in Ireland. While the military mobilisation which occurred between 1914 and 1918 was the largest in Irish history, British officials persistently characterised it as inadequate, threatening to introduce conscription in 1918. This book also reflects on the disparity of sacrifice between North-East Ulster and the rest of Ireland, urban and rural Ireland, and Ireland and Great Britain.

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) was established in January 1913, as a militant expression of Ulster Unionist opposition to the Third Home Rule Bill. Academic historians have tended to overlook Ulster Loyalism. This book provides the first comprehensive study of the UVF in this period, considering in detail the composition of the officer corps, the marked regional recruiting differences, the ideologies involved, the arming and equipping of the UVF and the contingency plans made by UVF Headquarters in the event of Home Rule being imposed on Ulster. Using previously neglected sources, it demonstrates that the UVF was better armed and less well-trained, with the involvement of fewer British army officers than previous historians have allowed, and suggests that the UVF was quite capable of seizing control of Ulster and installing the Ulster Provisional Government in the event of Home Rule being implemented in 1914. This book will be essential reading for military and Irish historians and their students, and will interest any general reader interested in modern paramilitary forces.

Numbering over five million men, Britain's army in the First World War was the biggest in the country's history. Remarkably, nearly half those men who served in it were volunteers. 2,466,719 men enlisted between August 1914 and December 1915, many in response to the appeals of the Field-Marshal Lord Kitchener. How did Britain succeed in creating a mass army, almost from scratch, in the middle of a major war ? What compelled so many men to volunteer ' and what happened to them once they had taken the King's shilling ? Peter Simkins describes how Kitchener's New Armies were raised and reviews the main political, economic and social effects of the recruiting campaign. He examines the experiences and impressions of the officers and men who made up the New Armies. As well as analysing their motives for enlisting, he explores how they were fed, housed, equipped and trained before they set off for active service abroad. Drawing upon a wide variety of sources, ranging from government papers to the diaries and letters of individual soldiers, he questions long-held assumptions about the 'rush to the colours' and the nature of patriotism in 1914. The book will be of interest not only to those studying social, political and economic history, but also to general readers who wish to know more about the story of Britain's citizen soldiers in the Great War.

e eclectic scientist and inventor Prof. John Joly from Co. Offaly who, at fifty-eight, helped to defend Trinity College Dublin throughout the Rising. Many enlisted to fight for Irish Home Rule or Ulster Unionism, to find adventure or escape from poverty. None imagined they would find themselves on the streets of Dublin, killing – and being killed by – fellow Irishmen. Forty-one Irishmen in the British army died in action during the Rising, 106 were wounded. These men became a forgotten part of their country's history. • Also available: 'Blackpool to the Front: A Cork Suburb and Ireland's Great War 1914–1918' by Mark Cronin and 'When the Clock Struck in 1916: Close-Quarter Combat in the Easter Rising' by Derek Molyneux & Darren Kelly