The Great War of 1914ñ18 saw the Irish soldier make his greatest sacrifice on Britainís behalf. Nearly 135,000 Irishmen volunteered (conscription was never applied in Ireland) in addition to the 50,000 Irish who were serving with the regular army and the reserves on 4 August 1914. Within a few weeks of the outbreak of the war no less than three Irish divisions ñ the 10th (Irish), 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) ñ were formed from Irishmen, Catholic and Protestant, who responded to Lord Kitchenerís call to arms. An estimated 35,000 Irish-born soldiers were killed before the armistice came in November 1918. Over 4,000 of those who died were with the 16th (Irish) Division. Yet, in spite of these facts, serious historical study of Irelandís major involvement in the War has been neglected. Indeed Easter 1916 dominates Irish historiography to such an extent that the period 1914ñ18 is rarely considered as a distinct era in Irish history.

'Missing In Action' reveals how an ill-equipped and heavily out-gunned Irish unit fought with astonishing courage against heavily armed and ruthless French-led mercenaries.

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.

"Tells the story of the Irish fighting man with wit, clarity, and scholarship." —Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War For hundreds of years, Irish soldiers have sought their destiny abroad. Wherever they've traveled, whichever side of the battlefield they've stood, the tales of their exploits have never been forgotten. Leaving his birthplace, the Irish soldier has traveled with hope, often seeking to bring a liberating revolution to his fellow countrymen. In search of adventure the Fighting Irish have been found in all corners of the world. Some sailed to America and joined in frontier fighting, others demonstrated their loyalty to their adopted homeland in the bloody combats of the American Civil War, as well as campaigns against the British Empire in Canada and South Africa. The Irish soldier can also be found in the thick of war during the twentieth century—facing slaughter at the Somme, desperate last-stands in the Congo—and, more recently, in Iraq and Afghanistan. In The Fighting Irish, Tim Newark tells their tales in the dramatic words of the soldiers themselves, gathered from diaries, letters, journals, and interviews with veterans in Ireland and across the world.

The Irish soldier has never been a stranger to fighting the enemy with the odds stacked against him. The notion of charging into adversity has been a cherished part of Ireland’s military history. In September 1961, another chapter should have been written into the annals, but it is a tale that lay shrouded in dust for years. The men of A Company, Thirty-Fifth Irish Infantry Battalion, arrived in the Congo as a United Nations contingent to help keep the peace. For many it would be their first trip outside their native shores. Some of the troops were teenage boys, their army-issue hobnailed boots still unbroken. They had never heard a shot fired in anger. Others were experienced professional soldiers but were still not prepared for the action that was to take place. Led by Commandant Pat Quinlan, A Company found themselves tasked with protecting the European population at Jadotville, a small mining town in the southern Congolese province of Katanga. It fell to A Company to protect those who would later turn against them. On September 13th, 1961, the bright morning air of Jadotville was shattered by the sound of automatic gunfire. The men of A Company found their morning mass parade interrupted, and within minutes they went from holding rosaries to rifles as they entered the world of combat. This was to be no Srebrenica; though cut off and surrounded, the men of Jadotville held their ground and fought. This is their story.