In short, there was a wide mixture of motives among Irish officers who went to war ranging from loyalty, peer pressure, family tradition and idealism to attractive career prospects, the fear of missing all the excitement and the appeal of travel.Sign up to the Irish Times books newsletter for features, podcasts and more In spite of the police being a reserved profession, immune from conscription, he decided to join the Royal Air Force: “It was my idea of what life was like that I was fighting for... can’t say I was fighting for a flag or anything like that, I was fighting for what I thought was right. Please choose a screen name. He was 21 years old and recalled: “My mother’s only brother was killed at Gallipoli in World War One, he was a second lieutenant in the Royal Munsters and was 19, and in some foolish way I felt that perhaps I should take his place.” Another officer, Lieutenant Commander Cornelius Glanton, came from a Catholic family immersed in the Royal Navy. Elizabeth wanted to join the Women’s Royal Naval Service (the “Wrens”). Neither England nor Scotland has had its own army since the Acts of Union in 1707. Commenting on The Irish Times has changed.

Typical among this intake were the sons of middle-class Protestant families who had strong family and educational ties to England: for them joining up “was something that was taken for granted”. But why did they go to war?There is no simple answer and perhaps there were as many reasons as there were officers.

"We read that Olive Kennington came from Piltown, Co Kilkenny. In 1941 Majella, a nurse from Kildare, joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service in which she held rank equivalent to an army lieutenant. In 1944 alone, from North and South, some 1,900 Irishmen were killed in action: over five a day. During the Irish Civil War thirteen Rolls-Royce armoured cars armed with Vickers .303 machine guns. were handed over to the Irish National Army by the British government. “I have been asked why, as an Irishman, I chose to join the British Army,” Hickie explained.

We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the “In my family there is a tradition of service with the British armed forces; there was then a common citizenship; England had done a lot for me, so joining up seemed the right and natural thing to do.”Many Irish officers were influenced by a family tradition of serving in the British forces which predated Irish independence. This is a list of people who held general officer rank or the rank of brigadier (together now recognized as starred officers) in the British Army, Royal Marines, British Indian Army or other military force.. Her parents were opposed to the idea but as she recalled: “I didn’t worry about getting killed or anything like that. Officers such as Sydney Watson and Brian Inglis had attended British public schools and knew friends and relatives who were joining up or were enduring the “Blitz”. Lance Corporal Kenneally VC is yet again credited with being Irish, although he was a Birmingham Jew serving under an alias. It was not just men who were affected by peer pressure. In the early period of the war there was a noticeable Irish influx into the British officer corps. Your screen name should follow the standards set out in our Captain John Jermyn, a law student, joined the British army in 1939. These Irish officers made a sizeable contribution to the British war effort – they served in every theatre and in every capacity. Nor did the author contact Richard Doherty, who has written several vital books on the Irish and the war.No wonder there are so many spectacular omissions: none of the executed Irish -- Farrell in Norway, Wallace in Bordeaux, and the half-dozen SAS men in Normandy in 1944 -- are mentioned.The legendary Redmond Cunningham is mentioned for his two MCs (Military Crosses) -- but not for his Belgian Croix de Guerre, awarded for his heroism in the bloody aftermath of a V2 strike on Antwerp that killed 126 people and injured him; yet despite his wounds, he remained toiling in the shambles until the last casualty was evacuated.Another southern Irish Catholic hero, William Sheil, a lieutenant in 1940, a one-star general in 1945 with a DSO and bar, is completely overlooked.

Roddy Doyle introduces head-turning young Irish writing Among the officers a few were idealistic, some were patriotic, some were naïve, almost all were very young. The Irish Parliament is under pressure to issue pardon to Irish soldiers who deserted to fight for Britain against Hitler. The relationship between Ireland, the Irish and Britain has always been complex. Click to join in the discussion about this month's book, Harvesting by Lisa HardingThe hatred of HP Lovecraft: Racist, anti-Irish bigot and horror masterInside Meghan and Harry’s broken relationship with the royal familyDonal Ryan: ‘I’ve got one or two sneering reviews from fellow writers’Maureen Kennelly: taking over the Arts Council in the midst of a crisisKathleen Edwards: ‘I became terribly depressed and needed something to change’The Translator’s Funeral, a new short story by Rónán HessionWar in the Age of Trump: Four years of fighting in Iraq and SyriaMordew: a city of compelling characters and dark adventuresScenes of a Graphic Nature: Witty take on the messy nature of friendshipThe Art of Political Storytelling: Unravelling the spin that put Trump and Johnson in powerSummerwater: Natural world dominates in absorbing novelStreet Game for the Over 15s, a new poem by Thomas Kinsella