The Crimean War And Irish Society

The purpose of this book is to produce what is essentially a 'home front' study of Ireland during the Crimean War, or more specifically Irish society's responses to that conflict. This will principally complement the existing research on Irish servicemen's experiences during and after the campaign, but will also substantially develop the limited work already undertaken on Irish society and the conflict. This book primarily encompasses the years of the conflict, from its origins in the 1853 dispute between Russia and the Ottoman Empire over the Holy Places, through the French and British political and later military interventions in 1854-5, to the victory, peace and homecoming celebrations in 1856. Additionally, it will extend into the preceding and succeeding decades in order to contextualise the events and actors of the wartime years and to present and analyse the commemoration and memorialisation processes. The approach of the study is systematic, with the content being correlated under six convenient and coherent themes, which will be analysed through a chronological process. The book covers all of the major aspects of society and life in Ireland during the period, so as to give the most complete analysis of the various impacts of and people's responses to the war. This study is also conducted, within the broader contexts not only of the responses of the United Kingdom and broader British Empire but also Ireland's relationship with those political entities, and within Ireland's post-famine or mid-Victorian and even wider nineteenth-century history.

Murphy's is the first book to evaluate all levels of Irish involvement in the Crimean War (1854-6). In this assessment, Murphy shows that the Irish formed a large part of the British army and the Royal Navy during that war. He explores the role of Irish men and women in the support services and other capacities, such as chaplains, engineers, navvies, and medical personnel; and he discusses the level of Irish public interest in the war, and the impact of the Crimean War on Irish society in the 1850s. Murphy is a graduate of U. College, Dublin, and Trinity College, Dublin, and is currently working on the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography. The book is distributed by ISBS. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The second volume of essays on Irish military history, is a facsimile version of the original articles from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The articles were first published in the Irish Sword, the journal of the Military History Society of Ireland. The Society was founded in 1949 with the aim of promoting the study of Irish military history, defined as the history of warfare in Ireland and of Irishmen in war. Each contribution to the second volume has been chosen because it is regarded as authoritative. The authors include scholars, professional soldiers, diplomats and a distinguished international journalist. The study of Irish units in the British army is represented by J A MacCauley's account of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers. The first world war is the context of Terence Denman's analysis of the conflicts, military and political, that underlay the formation of the 10th (Irish) Division, Patrick MacCarthy examines the post-war history of the five Irish regiments that were selected for disbandment in 1922 in the wake of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. There are articles devoted to Ireland and the American civil war and General P J Hally gives an account of the military aspects of the 1916 Easter rising in Dublin. The civil war of 1922-3 is examined from a pro-treaty perspective by Michael Hopkinson and from the perspective of the treaty's opponents by Brian P Murphy. The divisions of the period resurface in Brian Hanley's study of the Volunteer Reserve of 1933 in relationship to the IRA. The organisation and capability of the army during the Second World War is considered by Donal O'Carroll, Eunan O'Halpin discusses aspects of military intelligence, Noel Dorr discusses the development of UN peacekeeping concepts over the last fifty years from an Irish perspective. Robert Fisk considers the role of the Irish in UNIFIL (United Nations interim force in Lebanon) between 1978 and 1995 and David Taylor relates his experience with UNIFIL as company commander in 1979-80 and as a battalion commander in 1992.

Examines the framework in which Irish auxiliary forces, part-time soldiers of the British Army, have existed alongside their regular army counterparts and how they have interacted with wider society.

Infectious disease, wounded and dying soldiers, and a shortage of supplies were the daily realities faced by the nuns who nursed with Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War. This study documents their involvement in the conflict and how the nuns bore witness to the effects of carnage and official indifference, in many cases traumatized as a result. This book reflects on the initiative and courage shown by the nuns and how their actions can be viewed as part of a wider movement among women in the mid-19th century to find fulfilment and assert control in their own lives. Nightingale's Nuns and the Crimean War also sheds light on how critics at the time accused many of the nuns of being secret agents of the Catholic Church who preyed on vulnerable soldier patients; there was a campaign in parliament to regulate and control convents. Terry Tastard shows how the nuns attempted to neutralize this anti-Catholicism, as well as charting the participation of Anglican nuns who had just begun an astonishing project to revive the religious life in the Church of England. Finally the book reveals new insights into Florence Nightingale's relationships with the nuns who nursed with her in Crimea and how these experiences impacted Nightingale's own perspective.

One of the most enduring tropes of modern Irish history is the MOPE thesis, the idea that the Irish were the Most Oppressed People Ever. Political oppression, forced emigration and endemic poverty have been central to the historiography of nineteenth-century Ireland. This volume problematises the assumption of generalised misery and suggests the many different, and often surprising, ways in which Irish people sought out, expressed and wrote about happiness. Bringing together an international group of established and emerging scholars, this volume considers the emerging field of the history of emotion and what a history of happiness in Ireland might look like. During the nineteenth century the concept of happiness denoted a degree of luck or good fortune, but equally was associated with the positive feelings produced from living a good and moral life. Happiness could be found in achieving wealth, fame or political success, but also in the relief of lulling a crying baby to sleep. Reading happiness in historical context indicates more than a simple expression of contentment. In personal correspondence, diaries and novels, the expression of happiness was laden with the expectations of audience and author and informed by cultural ideas about what one could or should be happy about. This volume explores how the idea of happiness shaped social, literary, architectural and aesthetic aspirations across the century. CONTRIBUTORS: Ian d'Alton, Shannon Devlin, Anne Dolan, Simon Gallaher, Paul Huddie, Kerron Ó Luain, David McCready, Ciara Thompson, Andrew Tierney, Kristina Varade, Mai Yatani

The Crimean War saw the introduction of the Victoria Cross, which was awarded to 111 men. Whilst the history of the Crimean War has been related many times, never before have the stories of those individuals who were awarded the VC been told. In this, the result of four decades of accumulated research, renowned historian James Bancroft describes who the men were, how they gained the Victoria Cross, and what happened to them afterwards. Great attention has been given to checking the correct spelling of the names of people and locations, burial places and new memorials, and dates of awards and promotions. The author has made every effort to contact museums and other establishments to get up-to-date information on the whereabouts of medals and their accessibility. The men recorded here displayed valor and determination resulting in many deeds of exceptional courage which became a regular occurrence in the illustrious annals of the British Army. Among them are heroes who had the guts to put themselves in mortal danger by picking up live shells that could have exploded and blown them apart at any moment, gallant troopers who took part in a cavalry charge that they knew was doomed before it began and they were about to be cut to pieces, and valiant individuals who had the audacity to sneak into unknown territory to take the conflict into the enemys back yard and risk capture and ill-treatment. This account of the fascinating lives of these heroes is accompanied with forty-five portraits.

This is the first full-length study of Irish Ribbonism, tracing the development of the movement from its origins in the Defender movement of the 1790s to the latter part of the century when the remnants of the Ribbon tradition found solace in a new movement: the quasi-constitutional affinities of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Placing Ribbonism firmly within Ireland's long tradition of collective action and protest, this book shows that, owing to its diversity and adaptability, it shared similarities, but also stood apart from, the many rural redresser groups of the period and showed remarkable longevity not matched by its contemporaries. The book describes the wider context of Catholic struggles for improved standing, explores traditions and networks for association, and it describes external impressions. Drawing on rich archives in the form of state surveillance records, 'show trial' proceedings and press reportage, the book shows that Ribbonism was a sophisticated and durable underground network drawing together various strands of the rural and urban Catholic populace in Ireland and Britain. Ribbon Societies in Nineteenth-Century Ireland and its Diaspora is a fascinating study that demonstrates Ribbonism operated more widely than previous studies have revealed.