Soldiering in the 20th & 21st Centuries
From the World Wars to the Irish Defence Forces’ peacekeeping role with the United Nations.
Soldiering in the 20th & 21st Centuries
In the first half of the twentieth century,1914 - 23, the Irish people endured ten years of intense military activity, including participation in a world War, an urban insurrection, a guerrilla War and finally a bitter Civil War. Ireland changed from a country that was a source of foot soldiers for the British Army to an Independent nation with its own armed forces.
The result was a new nation bearing both the hopes of many of its citizens, and the pain left by the wars that had brought it into being. The experience of individual Irish men, women and children during these years are described in galleries 5-8 in Soldiers & Chiefs.
When Europe went to war in 1914, Ireland was part of the British Empire and became automatically involved.
Explore the 1916 Rising, one of the most crucial events in Ireland’s battle for independence.
Read how an Irish campaign of harassment and guerrilla activity against Britain led to independence.
The signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1921 triggered a short but bitter Civil War, during which more than a thousand Irish people died, including Michael Collins.
Find out how and why, in neutral Ireland, the Second World War became known as ‘The Emergency’.
Explore the different roles that Irishmen and women played as soldiers and staff in foreign armies during the Second World War.
In the second half of the 20th century, Ireland provided troops and equipment for UN missions to troublespots such as Lebanon and the Congo.