The Dynamics of War and Revolution: Cork City, 1916-1918

XI. Insurrection: The 1918 Conscription Crisis

Oh, would when Kings quarrel Their own blood would be shed, And not like cowards snarl Whilst slaves must fight instead Tadhg Barry, 19171 Separate strands of wartime unrest fused following the passage of the Military Service Bill in April 1918. The conscription threat in Ireland produced an unequivocal challenge to British authority, the eclipse of constitutional nationalism, and the triumph of the radical republican movement. Changing public opinion evident since Easter 1916, crossed the threshold into open rebellion in the spring of 1918. Military Recruiting in Cork British Army enlistments in Cork had steadily declined prior to the Easter Rising, but fell sharply afterwards. Writing from Cork in September 1916, the Southern District military intelligence officer offered this analysis: a. The labouring class, which has supplied all the recruits up to the present, is now exhausted and very few more may be expected from this quarter. b. Political reasons. There is an inherited distrust and dislike of the Army which is difficult to overcome, and the Sinn Féiners make great efforts to keep this feeling alive. c. The fact that the Roman Catholic Clergy, as a whole, have either discouraged recruiting or taken no part in assisting the movement. d. Social reasons. It is an undoubted fact that practically all the recruits so far obtained have been those of the labouring classes. The farmers’ sons, both those engaged on the farms XI. Insurrection: The 1918 Conscription Crisis 186 Insurrection 187 and in commercial life, the clerks, and the shop assistants will not enlist in the same regiments as men they consider socially far beneath them . . . e. The attitude of the Press, which is lukewarm. They write as a rule to the effect that sufficient has been done by Ireland . . . f. ‘Soreness’ caused by matters arising out of the Rebellion. This feeling is dying out rapidly. g. No material advantage gained by enlisting. The available men are mostly unmarried, so the separation allowance is no inducement . . .2 Enlistments continued to drop in 1917, with the police characterising city recruitment as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ in March, May, June, September, October, November and December.3 (In January it was ‘fair’; February, ‘practically dead’; April, ‘slightly better’; and July, ‘bad’.)4 Republicans did not openly disrupt recruitment, but the county inspector explained, ‘This is no doubt owing to the present power to suppress such movements.’5 Military intelligence connected enlistments to economic necessity: ‘Only boys and a few of the labouring class join up; the latter being attracted by the separation allowances.’6 There was also a large drop in enlistments following the Sinn Féin victory in the East Clare by-election;7 and a tendency for recruits to join non-combat military units ‘where no risk is incurred’ instead of infantry regiments.8 The situation remained dire in November 1917, with the military intelligence officer warning, ‘no improvement need be looked for.’9 Nationally, recruiting fell to low levels in 1917. The decline was more marked among Catholics than Protestants, as Catholic enlistments dropped roughly 20 per cent between 1915 and 1917. Overall, Catholic enlistments declined by 84 per cent in two years, from 31,412 in 1915 to 5,057 in 1917. In the last four months of 1917, a total of 1,140 Catholic recruits enlisted in the army throughout the entire country, providing a paltry average of 9.3 men per day.10 TABLE 11.1 Catholics as % of Irish Enlistments Year Catholics Total Percent 1915 31,412 51,144 61.4% 1916 10,053 18,819 53.4% 1917 5,057 12,644 39.9% Source: John Redmond Papers, MS 15,259, NLI TABLE 11.2 Catholic Recruiting Monthly Comparison, 1915–17 Month 1915 1916 1917 January 2,256 1,779 458 February 2,607 1,281 455 March 2,250 771 447 April 3,915 827 460 May 3,598 543 513 June 3,260 653 542 July 2,011 494 310 August 2,448 487 388 September 2,145 598 615 October 1,413 680 329 November 3,436 517 306 December 2,073 423 234 Source: John Redmond Papers, MS 15,259, NLI Perceptions of the War City residents maintained no illusions about the cost of the grim industrial warfare practised on the Western Front. Day after day, month after month, the Cork Examiner reported the death of local men, often accompanied with photographs of proud uniformed soldiers and sailors...