The Place of the First World War in Contemporary Irish Republicanism in Northern Ireland

The role of remembrance of the First World War in contemporary Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland, both Official and Provisional, is examined in this article, which places such remembrance in a wider nationalist context. After considering the nature of nationalist engagement in the British army...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Irish political studies 2010-09, Vol.25 (3), p.325-345
Main Author: Grayson, Richard S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ancestry
First World War
Memory
National commemoration
Nationalism
Northern Ireland
Political conditions
Political Parties
remembrance
Republicanism
Unionization
Unions
United Kingdom
Warfare
World War I
World War One
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Summary:The role of remembrance of the First World War in contemporary Irish republicanism in Northern Ireland, both Official and Provisional, is examined in this article, which places such remembrance in a wider nationalist context. After considering the nature of nationalist engagement in the British army in 1914-1918, and all-Ireland issues around remembrance, the article focuses on Sinn Féin's involvement in Somme commemoration in 2002 and 2008. It then examines republicans' 'discovery' of ancestors with a past in the British military, focusing on the Official Republican ex-prisoners group, An Eochair. The article concludes with an examination of how far theories of memory can shed light on republican remembrance, and the extent to which changes in attitudes to remembrance are part of republicanism's 'historic compromise' with unionism. It argues that despite a significant shift, republicans have engaged with remembrance on their own terms, and that the gap between them and unionists remains large, with the possibility of genuinely shared remembrance remote.
ISSN:0790-7184
1743-9078
DOI:10.1080/07907184.2010.497635