An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir January / February 2025 www.military.ie/magazine 26 | This article is the third in a series exploring the controversial topic of Irish Defence Forces soldiers who deserted the organisation to join the British Army during WWII. This specific article explores why certain men opted first to desert the Defence Forces focussing on some of the primary source material for their accounts. 'We were fed up working in the bog…we were supposed to be soldiering' Motivations to enlist in the British Army as an Irishman is a question as old and debated as the first Irishman to don the red coat. Motivations for Irishmen to join the British Army in general and not just specific to the period in question ranged from loyalty to Britain and having a familial tradition in entering the services to more mundane economic incentives such as shelter, food, steady wages, and career prospects to the idealism of youth – adventure and travel. I do not intend to add to this much debated and antiquated question but rather to analyse whether any of the above factors influenced the decision-making of the would-be deserters. In determining motivation, getting as close to a contemporary opinion as possible is imperative and not to retrospectively label motivations to individuals. In many ways, the high rate of enlistment of volunteers from Éire was merely a continuation of the tendency for Irishmen to seek a career in the British Army - the Second World War, therefore, being no different. But such a historical trend cannot tell the whole story about the exceptional case of the deserters for they were merely the second generation of Irishmen who could exert their unique 'ancient valour', in the words of Winston Churchill, via swearing an oath not to a King but to their newly formed state. They were already in the uniform of an armed force and had their enthusiasm for all things military somewhat satiated. While their decision to desert should not be taken entirely out of the context of the Irish soldiery tradition of joining the British Army, their unique circumstances and the unique period in question should serve as the principal contextual factors within which this question needs to be answered for many who continued the trend of joining the British Army did so having never served with the Irish Defence Forces. It is essential to let those who did the deed voice their thoughts. We are inevitably disadvantaged in this approach by a lack of primary oral evidence. Nevertheless, what remains of their assertions are detailed partially below, wherein some common motives emerge, albeit these cannot be absorbed verbatim for a variety of reasons. The passage of time carries no favours for the researcher. The disadvantages and obstacles inherent even in oral evidence gathered many decades after the events are highlighted acutely by the issue of Catholics in Northern Ireland or instance who had served in WWII wearing the uniform of the British Army. As Neil Richardson noted of Northern Catholics during the Troubles: 'Basically, out of fear of militant republicans and nationalists, many veterans began to make up excuses for why they had enlisted, and this went a long way towards giving the impression that no Irishmen fought the war because he felt that it was simply the right thing to do'. This is a classic example of how original motivations can be altered by post-war political developments. There are many reasons put forward by scholars, historians, contemporary thinkers, and policymakers in their attempt to explain the causation of desertion during this time. One of the primary purposes of my book, therefore, was to determine if there was a common thread of causation that pushed and pulled so many Irish soldiers to desert and join the British Army. While we may be able to answer why men deserted from the Irish Army by looking at factors such as conditions service members endured during the Emergency – it is an entirely different question, although remaining inextricably linked – to answer why they would join the British Army thereafter. Therefore, it is essential to separate the two somewhat when conducting analysis. However, answering the first part of the question above does not necessarily answer the second, for not all deserters joined the British Army. The causes are varied and personal in explaining why men first deserted. The local newspapers are full of deserter stories during the Emergency – men caught in Ireland by MPs or Gardaí and thus (at least captured beforehand) did not join the British Army. Reasons given in courthouses throughout Éire at the time vary from a requirement to look after their land to a determination to see loved ones. A number of those accused of desertion stated in court that they had DESERTERS OF THE IRISH DEFENCE FORCES DURING WWII MUNDANE MOTIVATIONS TO DESERT ARTICLE BY CAPT CÍAN HARTE One of the main lines of thought to pursue is not to assume that every volunteer was politicised and their national identity and politics overburdened and over-influenced their decision-making processes when juxtaposed against other aspects of their life - socioeconomic motivations, for example.

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