The Irish at the Front

This narrative of the more signal feats of the Irish Regiments in France, Flanders, and at the Dardanelles, is based on letters of regimental officers and men, interviews with wounded soldiers of the battalions, and those invalided home, and, also, in several cases, on the records compiled at the depots.

The war is the greatest armed struggle that the world has ever seen, and when we think of the heroism and resolution shown in it, the trials and the sufferings, the victories and the disasters, and then turn to the bald and trite official despatches, the dissimilitude of things, the contrast, is most abrupt and jarring. But so it is, and probably we must continue to rely upon the accounts given by the men in the fighting line for any real appreciation of the nature of the war.

MICHAEL MACDONAGH.

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFATORY NOTE v

A DAUNTLESS BATTLE LINE ix The Irish Regiments and their War Honours

INTRODUCTION BY MR. JOHN REDMOND, M.P. 1 Ireland's Part in the War

CHAP. I.--THE RETREAT FROM MONS 15 How the Munsters Saved the Guns and got Ringed Round with Fire

II.--BATTLE OF THE RIVERS 29 Rally of the Irish Guards to the Green Flag at the Marne

III.--CONTEST FOR THE CHANNEL COAST 38 Impetuous Dash of the Leinsters, and Royal Irish, and Grim Tenacity of Irish Guards and Rifles

IV.--ASPHYXIATING GAS AND LIQUID FIRE 47 Charge of the Liverpool Irish at Festubert; a Night Surprise by the Inniskillings

V.--THE IMMORTAL STORY 58 Landing of the Dublins and Munsters at the Dardanelles

VI.--THE 10TH IRISH DIVISION IN GALLIPOLI 73 Landing at Suvla Bay and Capture of Chocolate Hill

VII.--IN THE REST CAMP 84 How the Leinsters Caught a Glimpse of the Narrows

VIII.--FIGHT FOR KISLAH DAGH 91 Gallant Stand and Fall of the 7th Dublins

IX.--FOR CROSS AND CROWN 103 Death in Action of Father Finn, of the Dublins, and Father Gwynn, of the Irish Guards

X.--THE GREAT PUSH AT LOOS 119 Historical Football Charge of the London Irish, with the German Trenches as Goal

XI.--THE VICTORIA CROSS 128 A Noble Band of Irish Heroes, Officers and Men

XII.--"FOR VALOUR" 145 Stories of other V.C.'s, including Michael O'Leary, who Upheld Ireland's tradition of Gallantry

A DAUNTLESS BATTLE LINE

THE IRISH REGIMENTS AND THEIR WAR HONOURS

Ireland is represented in the fighting forces of the Empire by a regiment of Foot Guards, eight regiments of the Line, each of two Regular battalions, and with several linked battalions of the Special Reserve, or old Militia, and many Service battalions raised for "Kitchener's Army." Altogether, these various battalions of the Irish regiments number fifty-four. There are two Dragoon regiments and one regiment each of Hussars and Lancers. The Volunteer or Territorial system has not been extended to Ireland. Still, the country is not without representation in the Auxiliary Forces. She has raised two Yeomanry regiments, the South Irish Horse, and the North Irish Horse, and in England there are two predominantly Irish Territorial battalions, the London Irish Rifles (18th Battalion of the London Regiment) and the Liverpool Irish (8th Battalion of the King's Liverpool Regiment), both of which have "South Africa, 1900-02" as a battle honour. There are also tens of thousands of Irishmen in the English, Scottish, and Welsh regiments, the Artillery, the Engineers, the Army Medical Corps, as well as in the Royal Navy.