An Cosantóir

www.military.ie the defence forces magazine | 33 with friends when he heard the news that Poland had been invaded. After a long silence his friend remarked: "That means war for us." Ross recalled: "For me, as for everyone, there was the shock realisation of a career interrupted, perhaps finished." Elizabeth Chamberlain's had two uncles who died in the Great War and after the out- break of the Second World War her brother joined the British army. Elizabeth wanted to join the Women's Royal Naval Service (the Wrens). Her parents were opposed to the idea but as she recalled: "I didn't worry about getting killed or anything like that. All I wanted was to get over to England and join up. All my friends were going ... nearly all the men had joined up." She eventually became a Wren and was later promoted to third officer in the cipher section. Even Captain Rickard Donovan, of a Wexford gentry family, who had served with the Royal Navy for the whole of the Great War and for eight subsequent years, felt it was his duty to fight again. He wrote to the Admiralty on the day war was declared offering his services. "I am not making this request with the object of obtaining employment for financial gain," he wrote, "as I am already employed and have, in addition, been giving voluntary service in the national defence for the past two years." Donovan's request was eventually accepted by the Admiralty and by the end of the war he was serving as deputy director of the Combined Operations Division, where he played a key role in the planning and execution of the Normandy landings, for which he was awarded a CBE by King George VI and the Legion of Merit by President Truman. Others were swept into the war on the tantalising prospect of adventure in distant lands. In 1941 Majella, a nurse from Kildare joined the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Mili- tary Nursing Service. Majella expected the war to be over in a year and she was "eager to get into it before it ended". As a young person during the war, she explained: "The only thing you're thinking about is where you're going to go and all the excitement that goes with it." In her perception of the war as offering opportunities for adventure Majella was not exceptional. Others contrasted the prospects for adventure in the war with the boredom of civilian life in Ireland. Arthur Smith, who joined the RAF in 1943, said: "Dublin was a very boring, small place then, you know; I was itching to get away." Some, like Captain Don Mooney, even made the frank admission that at the time they were not interested in the politics of the war: "No moral reason, we didn't know much about Hitler or anything; it was just excitement." Ireland's neutrality during the war and our historically fraught relationship with the neighbouring island probably explain why for many years most Irish history books ig- nored this Irish involvement in the British forces. Yet, the passing of the 70th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe perhaps provides us with an opportunity to examine the reasons why Irish citizens decided to fight. The few accounts above illustrate the com- plexity of ordinary people living through extraordinary times: some were idealistic, some were patriotic, some were naïve, and almost all were very young. Their decision to join up some- times derived from a romanticised idea of what war was like, while for others it came after long consideration of the consequences. In short, there was a complex mixture of motives among Irish of- ficers who went to war, ranging from loyalty, peer pressure, family tradition and idealism, to attrac- tive career prospects, the fear of missing all the excitement, and the appeal of travel. Steven O'Connor is a historian who specialises in british-Irish military connections. he is the author of 'Irish Officers in the british Forces, 1922-45', and cur- rently holds a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for Contemporary Irish history, Trinity College Dublin. he previously held a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship at the Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin, where he completed his PhD in 2012. 'Irish Officers in the British Forces, 1922-45' published in March 2014 (ISbN: 9781137350855) is available from www.palgrave.com Third Officer Elizabeth Chamberlain, Women's Royal Naval Service. Courtesy of Simon Parsons Major James F Hickie, Royal Fusiliers, British Army. Courtesy of David Hickie Capt Rickard Donovan CBE, Royal Navy. Courtesy of Brian Donovan Capt Rickard Donovan before WW2. Courtesy of Brian Donovan

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