The people of Australia and Ireland have much in common based on genealogy and a shared heritage. The connections forged between Anzacs and the Irish in World War I have been little known until now. Jeff Kildea tells the story of Australian and Irish soldiers who fought alongside each other at Gallipoli, in France and Belgium, and in Palestine. But it was in Ireland itself that Australian soldiers forged their relationships with the Irish people, as tourists, as countrymen returning home, and in some cases becoming involved in the Easter Rising of 1916.

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 world's 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.

The British-led Mediterranean Expeditionary Force that attacked the Ottoman Empire at Gallipoli in 1915 was a multi-national affair, including Australian, New Zealand, Irish, French, and Indian soldiers. Ultimately a failure, the campaign ended with the withdrawal of the Allied forces after less than nine months and the unexpected victory of the Ottoman armies and their German allies. In Britain, the campaign led to the removal of Churchill from his post as First Lord of the Admiralty and the abandonment of the plan to attack Germany via its 'soft underbelly' in the East. Thereafter, it was largely forgotten on a national level, commemorated only in specific localities linked to the campaign. In post-war Turkey, by contrast, the memory of Gallipoli played an important role in the formation of a Turkish national identity, celebrating both the ordinary soldier and the genius of the republic's first president, Mustafa Kemal. The campaign served a similarly important formative role in both Australia and New Zealand, where it is commemorated annually on Anzac Day. For the southern Irish, meanwhile, the bitter memory of service for the King in a botched campaign was forgotten for decades. Shaped initially by the imperatives of war-time, and the needs of the grief-stricken and the bereft, the memory of Gallipoli has been re-made time and again over the last century. For the Turks an inspirational victory, for many on the Allied side a glorious and romantic defeat, for others still an episode best forgotten, 'Gallipoli' has meant different things to different people, serving by turns as an occasion of sincere and heartfelt sorrow, an opportunity for separatist and feminist protest, and a formative influence in the forging of national identities.

In Unmanageable Revolutionaries, Margaret Ward describes how Irish women (despite their frequent omission from the history books) have always played a key role in the struggle for independence. Ward depicts the role women have played in the Irish struggle from 1881 to the present day, particularly in the crucial post-1916 period, and in doing so underlines the irony whereby fellow nationalists, despite their common struggle, remained factionalized. The book focuses on three pivotal Irish nationalist women's organizations--the Ladies Land League, Inghinidhe na hEireann and Cumann na mBan--and shows how, despite the inherent differences between the three movements, a salient theme emerges, namely the underwhelming extent to which Irish women have been recognized as a driving force in Irish political history.

Just under 200,000 Irishmen took part in the American Civil War, making it one of the most significant conflicts in Irish history. Hundreds of thousands more were affected away from the battlefield, both in the US and in Ireland itself. The Irish contribution, however, is often only viewed through the lens of famous units such as the Irish Brigade, but the real story is much more complex and fascinating. From the Tipperary man who was the first man to die in the war, to the Corkman who was the last General mortally wounded in action; from the flag bearer who saved his regimental colours at the cost of his arms, to the Roscommon man who led the hunt for Abraham Lincoln's assassin, what emerges in this book is a catalogue of gallantry, sacrifice and bravery.

The people of Australia and Ireland have much in common based on genealogy and a shared heritage. The connections forged between Anzacs and the Irish in World War I have been little known until now. Jeff Kildea tells the story of Australian and Irish soldiers who fought alongside each other at Gallipoli, in France and Belgium and in Palestine. But it was in Ireland itself that Australian soldiers forged their relationships with the Irish people, as tourists, as countrymen returning home and in some cases becoming involved in the Easter Rising of 1916.