Irish officers in the British forces, 1922-45 / Steven O'Connor, Government of Ireland postdoctoral fellow, Trinity College Dublin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Connor, Steven (Historian), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Great Britain. Army--Recruiting, enlistment, etc.

Great Britain.

Great Britain. Army--Officers.

Great Britain. Army--Irish regiments--History.

Great Britain. Army.

World War, 1939-1945--Participation, Irish.

World War, 1939-1945.

History.

Physical Description:

xv, 249 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

In the last decade there has been a plethora of books about Irish soldiers in the First World War, yet the fact that recruitment to the British forces continued into the inter-war period and the Second World War has received comparatively little attention. Steven O'Connor's work addresses this gap by providing a much-needed assessment of officer recruitment to the British military after Irish independence. Based on archival research, oral testimony and a database of one thousand officers, it examines the reasons why young Irish people took the king's commission. It explores their subsequent experiences and identity in the forces, and places them within the wider context of Commonwealth recruitment to the British forces. Drawing on evidence from police reports, debates in town councils and Local newspapers, this volume also offers the first comprehensive account of reactions in independent Ireland to British recruitment and the shared military past. Book jacket.

Contents:

Who became an officer?

"I was born into an Army family" : Irish officers and the family tradition

"A great training school for the Army" : Irish officers and the school influence

"We were an unwanted surplus" : Irish medical emigration and the British forces

"We were all Paddys" : the Irish experience of the British forces

"The irreconcilable attitude is apparently confined to the purely political sphere" : responses in independent Ireland to an Irish military tradition.

Notes:

Based on the author's thesis (doctoral)--University College Dublin, 2012.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-241) and index.

ISBN:

1137350857

9781137350855

OCLC:

865063405

Publisher Number:

60001904540