Irish Military Elites, Nation and Empire, 1870–1925 Loughlin Sweeney Irish Military Elites, Nation and Empire, 1870–1925

Identity and Authority Loughlin Sweeney John Endicott College of International Studies Daejeon, Korea (Republic of)

ISBN 978-3-030-19306-5 ISBN 978-3-030-19307-2 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19307-2

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub- lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institu- tional affiliations.

Cover illustration: Lebrecht Music & Arts / Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland To my Grandparents Acknowledgements

This book represents the culmination of six years of work in research, writ- ing, and revision, and thus there are a great many people to whom I owe a debt of immense gratitude. I must thank my doctoral supervisor, Eugenio Biagini, who has been incredibly patient, kind, and giving of his immense insight and broad knowledge throughout this process. For their mentor- ship and guidance over these many years, I must also thank John Bew, Tim Wilson, Ian d’Alton, and the late Christopher Bayly and Keith Jeffery. I am particularly grateful to Enda Delaney, who has been intimately involved in this project at every stage and who very graciously hosted me at the University of Edinburgh in the final weeks of this manuscript’s production. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my editors at Palgrave Macmillan, Molly Beck and Maeve Sinnott, for being so accommodating of my requests and for keeping me on track. I am grateful for the valuable assis- tance in funding this research provided by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the University of Cambridge History Faculty, Queens’ College Cambridge, the Royal Historical Society, and the Woosong Educational Foundation. A large share of gratitude must also go to my friends and colleagues in the Cambridge and Edinburgh Irish History research groups, for many years of stimulating discussions and enthusiastic feedback. A nicer group of colleagues could not be asked for. To mention the names of all the friends and colleagues at Queens’ and Endicott who made this experience such a pleasure would require a vol- ume of its own—however, I must especially thank Kevin Kester, Shachi Amdekar, William King, and my head of department, Marilyn Lafay, for their comments on chapters and their enthusiastic support. I must also

vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS thank the staff of the many archives and research libraries in Ireland and the United Kingdom who facilitated my enquiries and made my research an absolute pleasure. Worthy of especial thanks are Mike Weaver at the Cambridge History Faculty, Jean Turner at the Glucksman Library in , and the staff of the National Library of Ireland. This list would not be complete without listing three formative mentors to whom I owe special gratitude: Jennifer Reagan-Lefebvre, Paul Doolan, and Chris Friendly. Finally, and very much not least, my heartfelt thanks to my par- ents, Joe and Katherine, my sister Laura, and my grandmother Mary. We may be scattered across the globe, but we’re together when it counts. I am grateful to Alamy image library’s historical photograph archive and to the National Library of Ireland for permission to reproduce images from their collection. Some of the archival material in this book appears by permission of the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College London. I must especially remember my grandfather, Loughlin Joseph Sweeney, who kindled in me a lifelong love of history and of Ireland, and who died while this manuscript was coming together. He is sorely missed. Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Defining an Irish Military Elite 13

3 ‘One Ought To Do What One Can for People in His Circ’: Patronage and Affinity among Irish Military Elites 47

4 Ireland’s Imperial Moment: Wolseley and Roberts in Command 73

5 Aid to the Civil Power: The Military Establishment, the Land War, and the Home Rule Crisis, 1879–1914 103

6 Status Quo Ante Bellum: The Irish Military Establishment, 1914 141

7 Irish Officers in the Great War 173

8 The Irish Military Elite and the War of Independence 1918–22 213

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9 Barriers Broken: Partition, the Free State, and Empire, 1922–25 235

10 Conclusion 259

Bibliography 273

Index 293 About the Author

Loughlin Sweeney is a historian of Ireland and the British Empire. He conducted this research while pursuing a doctorate at Queens’ College Cambridge, awarded in 2017. He is an assistant professor at the John Endicott College of International Studies in South Korea, where he lec- tures on global history and researches Irish communities in the nineteenth-­ century Pacific. He has been a visiting fellow at Queen Mary, University of London, and the University of Edinburgh, and publishes regularly in the fields of Irish history, the British Empire, the Irish diaspora, and imperial, colonial, and postcolonial studies.

xi Abbreviations

AMS Assistant Military Secretary ANZAC Australia and New Zealand Army Corps ASC Army Service Corps BMH Bureau of Military History CCA County Archives CIGS Chief of the Imperial General Staff C-in-C Commander-in-Chief DIB Cambridge Dictionary of Irish Biography DNB Oxford Dictionary of National Biography GHQ General Headquarters ICS Indian Civil Service IMS Indian Medical Service IRA JP Justice of the Peace KBE Knight of the British Empire KCIO King’s Commissioned Indian Officer KCL Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King’s College, London LUL Limerick University Library NCO Non-commissioned officer NLI National Library of Ireland OTC Officers Training Corps PRONI Public Records Office of QAIMNS Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service RAF Royal Air Force RAMC Royal Army RFC Royal Flying Corps RHMS Royal Hibernian Military School

xiii xiv ABBREVIATIONS

TCD Manuscripts and Archives Research Library, Trinity College UVF Ulster Volunteer Force WAFF West African Frontier Force List of Figures

Fig. 3.1 The Kildare Street Club, Dublin: a locus for officers’ socialisation into the Irish elite. Alamy 53 Fig. 4.1 Sir Garnet Wolseley with officers of the Wolseley Ring during the Ashanti Campaign, 1874. Alamy 83 Fig. 4.2 Wolseley as Commander-in-Chief, Ireland, with his staff, 1896. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland 89 Fig. 4.3 Ireland’s imperial moment: jubilant crowds waving Irish symbols greet Lord and Lady Roberts outside Buckingham Palace on his return from South Africa. Supplement to The Sphere newspaper, 12 January 1901. Alamy 95 Fig. 5.1 Evictions at the Vandeleur Estate, Kilrush, Co Clare. 120 Constables of the Royal Irish Constabulary, supported by 50 troopers of the 3rd Hussars, 70 men of the Sherwood Foresters, and 50 of the Berkshire Regiment, were deployed to evict 114 tenants from the estate. Colonel Alfred Turner is pictured, second from left. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland 115 Fig. 6.1 Military Irishness as imperial celebrity: Lord Roberts and other popular officers’ likenesses were used to produce collectible merchandise and to market products, as in this turn-of-the- century advertisement. Alamy 144 Fig. 6.2 Sir Edward Carson inspects members of the Ulster Volunteer Force. The UVF was commanded by General Sir George Richardson, who was recommended by Lord Roberts personally. He was one of many members of the military elite who were drawn to Unionism and the volunteering movement. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland 158

xv xvi LIST OF FIGURES

Fig. 7.1 ‘The Real Irish Spirit’, recruiting poster, 1914. Appeals to Irish nationality were heavily utilised in the recruiting effort, even as senior officers remained wary of Irish disloyalty in the army. Alamy 177 Fig. 7.2 Lt Gen Sir Bryan Mahon (right), Commander of the 10th (Irish) , with soldiers entraining for Dublin during the . Mahon’s Irishness, like that of the photographer, Captain de Courcy Wheeler, did not preclude him from doing his duty in the independence period. Wheeler accepted the surrender of the GPO rebels a week later. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland 196 Fig. 8.1 Group of junior officers at Barracks, 1915. The enthusiasm of the Irish response to the call to arms during the First World War concealed an increasingly perilous position for the officer corps in Ireland. Officers who enthusiastically embarked for the front returned to a greatly changed social position in 1918. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland 217 Fig. 8.2 Members of the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, a force ostensibly constituted of ex-British officers, notorious for their brutality during the Irish War of Independence. Many colonial officers and temporary wartime officers were drawn to the Division. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland 226 Fig. 9.1 Major General Seán Mac Eoin of the National Army (centre) takes command of Athlone Barracks from a British officer, 1922. There was little continuity between the officer corps of the ancien régime and that of the Free State. However, many Free State officers had fought as enlisted men during the First World War. Courtesy of the National Library of Ireland 250 List of Tables

Table 5.1 Regimental affiliations of Curragh mutineers 129 Table 7.1 Old Etonians serving in Irish regiments, 1914–19 184 Table 7.2 Trinity College OTC candidates in British and Commonwealth forces, 1914–18 192

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