Wherever the Firing Line Extends: Ireland and the Western Front

by Ronan McGreevy

World War I was the biggest conflict in Irish history. More men served and more men died than in all the wars before or since that the Irish fought in. Often forgotten at home and written out of Irish history, the Irish soldiers and their regiments found themselves more honored in foreign fields. From the first shot monument in Mons to the plaque to the Royal Irish Lancers who liberated the town on Armistice Day 1918, Ronan McGreevy takes a tour of the Western Front. He visits those places where the Irish made their mark and left their mark in the monuments, cemeteries, and landscapes of France and Flanders.

Genres: World War I, Ireland

368 pages, Hardcover

Published September 1, 2016

Reviews

[Adrian Fingleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a Christmas gift, from a friend who knows of my enduring interest in the first World War, due mainly to my maternal grandfather having been killed on the Somme in the final year of the ‘Great War’ – ie not during the much-memorialised main Somme battles. So I know a fair bit about this topic already.

This book is centred on the memorials specifically raised to the Irish soldiers that are scattered across the Western front, and is a series of vignettes with the back story to each of the memorials opening a window to that particular aspect of recruitment, Irish society, the campaign itself, in some cases the politics that caused that Irish person to be in that place at that time.

It’s comprehensive, informative, an interesting way to dip in and out of the Western front and to learn a lot about what was going on ‘back at home’ at the time in terms of politics, popular feeling, and so on. Remember the 1916 Dublin rising happened during this period, and in the wake of the declaration of the Republic most of the Southern Irish participants in this struggle were airbrushed out of Irish history.

I think if someone was unfamiliar with the Irish involvement with WW1, this could be a very good place to start. I have to confess that I knew a lot of the material already (in general terms) and so that helped me to wade through the book. But for a ‘brand new WW1 history reader’ maybe a timeline overview to understand the events that are chronicled would be helpful. A good read nonetheless and maybe useful as an accompaniment to future visits to this small area of Northern France – I have been a number of times and it’s very interesting and moving.