Forgotten Histories: the Irish in the First World War

A Lecture given by Niamh Gallagher - Associate
Professor in Modern British and Irish History at
the University of Cambridge -

The First World War was Ireland’s single greatest military contribution and it significantly impacted various Irish home fronts; in Ireland and overseas. Yet the history of the Irish in that conflict has been
deeply contested for more than 100 years. Even though we now know much more about Irish
experiences of the First World War, an uneasy relationship remains in historical memory when the
war is considered alongside the march to independence. This talk explores new aspects of the
First World War that suggest that support for the Allies and support for new horizons of independence
were not in fact mutually exclusive, at least at the time. Drawing on her prize-winning book, Gallagher
will look at some of the insights that emerged in the course of her research that make us think anew
about our historical conceptions of the past, as well as the murky relationship between history and
memory.

Biography:
Niamh Gallagher is Associate Professor in Modern British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St Catharine's College. She is the author of Ireland and the Great War: A
Social and Political History (Bloomsbury, 2019) which won the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield
Prize in 2020 awarded to the best book in British or Irish history published by a first-time author. She is
also co-editor of The Political Thought of the Irish Revolution (Cambridge, 2022). Niamh has appeared
frequently in international media and has consulted at state-levels in both the UK and Republic of
Ireland. She co-convenes The Cambridge Future of the Island of Ireland series, which invites leading
figures from the world of politics, culture, academia and civil society to reflect on the future of the island in public-facing conversations. About Niamh Gallagher’s book “Ireland and The
Great War- A Social and Political History”. Published by Bloomsbury Academic Press
On 4 August 1914 following the outbreak of European hostilities, large sections of Irish Protestants and Catholics rallied to support the British and Allied war efforts. Yet less than two years later, the Easter Rising of 1916 allegedly put a stop to the Catholic commitment in exchange for a
re-emphasis on the national question. “In Ireland and the Great War Niamh Gallagher draws upon a formidable array of original research to offer a radical new reading of Irish involvement in the worlds first total war. Exploring the home front; and Irish diasporic communities in Canada, Australia, and Britain, Gallagher reveals that substantial support for the Allied war effort continued largely
unabated not only until November 1918, but afterwards as well. Rich in social texture and with fascinating new case studies of Irish participation in the conflict, this book has the makings of a major
rethinking of Ireland's twentieth century”.

Some copies of Niamh’s book will be available to buy on the night of this event; however we advise you to order the book in advance of this lecture on Amazon. Niamh will do a book signing after her Lecture.