An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir January / February 2025 www.military.ie/magazine 28 | interrogated in November of 1941 by intelligence officers of the Irish Army, he spoke of how he had developed poor health and thought his health would improve by joining the British Army. Dominick had been captured by Military Police while home on leave from the British military. One interesting story of somebody who was granted leave to visit his sick mother was that of Daniel O'Sullivan of Tragumna, Skibbereen, Co. Cork. His father, as the paper claimed, had fought with Buffalo Bill and was one of 17 survivors of Custer's Last Stand and a veteran of the US-Cuban War. Private O'Sullivan had not returned from leave when his leave had ended. He had been posted to Gormonston, Co. Meath. For some young men, the domineering or caring mother was at the fault of some soldiers being labelled as deserters or absentees. Thomas Kelly of Porthall, Co. Donegal had signed up for the army only for his mother not to allow him to return to the military. 'The defendant said he had received the forms, filled them up, but his mother would not let him go, and she had burned the communications'. 'Soldiers Say They Can't Read English' ran a sub- heading in the Connacht Tribune detailing how two young men from Spiddal, Co. Galway when called up for service claimed in court they couldn't understand the summoning. Private John Goff of Rathmines, Dublin, of the 2nd Field Battery was brought before a Dublin district court for the charge of desertion. Having been described as not a very 'warlike looking boy' by the Justice, the defendant stated he had deserted because he had been posted to Mullingar, which he described as a terrible town', but that 'Castleblayney was all right' – having been posted to that area previously. The prosecutor replied, "That is a good advertisement for the tourist association". John was merely 16 and underage, and his mother in court was informed to present his birth certificate to get him discharged. The above primary accounts reveal some of the more human and mundane reasons that will always play a role in men wishing to leave or desert from the military, whether during peacetime or wartime. While they apply to some of those men on the blacklist, and the accounts are at times fascinating to read – they do not grant sufficient insight into the unique reasons why many men left during the Emergency period in particular. The number of desertions is vast for such a small military, indicating that there may be overarching causes/strong feelings to uncover that may guide one to a general all-encompassing answer. Alternatively, there may remain no simple answer to this question, and there may be as many reasons as deserters. As with any study attempting to generalise thousands of individuals into a short sentence, explanations are a seemingly fulsome endeavour, for all the soldiers were unique individuals with unique identities and unique personal circumstances. Nevertheless, to isolate a common thread of reasoning behind the question of Defence Forces soldiers seeking military adventure in the British Army will be specifically analysed in the next article.

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