This book focuses on how Irish remembrance of the First World War impacted the emerging Irish identity in the postcolonial Irish Free State. While all combatants of the war to end all wars commemorated the war, Irish memorial efforts were fraught with debate over Irish identity and politics that frequently resulted in violence against commemorators and World War I veterans. The book examines the Flanders poppy, the Victory and Armistice Day parades, the National War Memorial, church memorials, and private remembrances. Highlighting the links between war, memory, empire and decolonization, it ultimately argues that the Great War, its commemorations, and veterans retained political potency between 1914 and 1937 and were a powerful part of early Free State life.

Highlights the connections between war, memory, empire and decolonization in early Free State Ireland Explores the private acts of remembrance of Irishmen who served in the British Army during the First World War against the changing political landscape of revolutionary and independent Ireland Argues that the Great War was a far more integral and powerful part of Irish national identity in the early twentieth century than has previously been asserted

Autorentext

Mandy Link is Assistant Professor of Modern European History at the University of Texas at Tyler, USA.

Inhalt
1 Introduction.- 2 'The Flooding Sorrow': The Great War, 1914-1918.- 3 No Man's Land Endures: The Anglo-Irish War, 1919-1921.- 4 'Suffering does not stop when the shooting does': The Irish Civil War, 1922-1923.- 5 'The emblem of sleep for the dead and dope for the living': Armistice Day, the Flanders Poppy and the National War Memorial, 1924-1932.- 6 Conclusion: Peace in the Free State? 1932-1937.-