Irish Regiments in the Great War

The British army was almost unique among the European armies of the Great War in that it did not suffer from a serious breakdown of discipline or collapse of morale. It did, however, inevitably suffer from disciplinary problems. While attention has hitherto focused on the 312 notorious 'shot at dawn' cases, many thousands of British soldiers were tried by court martial during the Great War. This book provides the first comprehensive study of discipline and morale in the British Army during the Great War by using a case study of the Irish regular and Special Reserve batallions. In doing so, Timothy Bowman demonstrates that breaches of discipline did occur in the Irish regiments but in most cases these were of a minor nature. Controversially, he suggests that where executions did take place, they were militarily necessary and served the purpose of restoring discipline in failing units. Bowman also shows that there was very little support for the emerging Sinn Fein movement within the Irish regiments. This book will be essential reading for military and Irish historians and their students, and will interest any general reader concerned with how units maintain discipline and morale under the most trying conditions.

ISBN 0719062853   Pages 256 ISBN13 9780719062858 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Manchester University Press   Weight (grammes) 325 Imprint Manchester University Press   Published in Manchester Format Paperback   Height (mm) 216 Publication date 28 Oct 2004   Width (mm) 138 DEWEY 355.1230941509041   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level General, Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Professional / Scholarly

"'This is a very scholarly work with new and important things to say.' Dr John Bourne, University of Birmingham"

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