The 2nd Royal Irish Rifles in the Great War

Some 90 years after the events themselves, the historiography of the First World War remains a political issue in both the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. For both, the experience of the First World War has become inextricably linked to their different social memories and perceived identities. In Ulster, the commemoration of the participation of loyalists in the War, especially on the Somme in 1916, has become incorporated into the annual cycle of street parades as part of the defining history of the Ulster protestant community. In Ireland, the equivalent nationalist response of volunteering in 1914 and 1915 has been overshadowed by the events of the Easter Rising in April 1916 and the subsequent Anglo-Irish war. The Irishmen of the 36th (Ulster) and the 10th (Irish) and 16th (Irish) Divisions are only just beginning to emerge from the shadows of the turbulent birth of the Republic of Ireland

Ancient history · Archaeology · Economic history · Ethnology · First world war · Historiography · Irish · Nationalism · Northern ireland · Political science · Politics · Protestantism · Spanish Civil War · The Republic · History · Irish and British Studies · Law