THE neglect of the army in scribed vividly by Eunan O'Halpin in his contribution to this impressive and timely book, mirrors the neglect accorded military history by the historical profession. There have been, it is true, many fine micro studies published in the pages of the Irish Sword and other journals, a most successful history of Irish battles and, more recently, detailed accounts of Irishmen and Irish regiments in the two World Wars, but overall military matters have not been afforded the prominence they deserve.
Part of the reason for this was that military history was perceived to be preoccupied with exclusively military matters - the details of troop accoutrement and movement, technical developments in weaponry and fortification, barrack organisation and, of course, conflict - and little concerned to explore "the interaction of the military with society in general". This is precisely the approach taken by this book, and it is a measure of its significance that it offers something to everybody who is interested in Irish history from Patrick to the present, and of its achievement that it propels the so called "new military history" to the heart of Irish historical discourse.
As befits a subject of such magnitude, this is a big book, physically as well as conceptually. It comprises nineteen lengthy chapters, through which the editors have sought to provide a comprehensive introduction to all phases of Ireland's military history. Inevitably, given the range of geographical backgrounds and historical specialisms of the contributors, approaches vary. Most are based on original research, but even where the content is familiar, as is true, for instance, of John Childs on the Williamite war, Harman Murtagh on Irish soldiers abroad, and Sean Connolly on the defence of "Protestant Ireland", new perspectives are brought to bear.
Childs' essay, for example, is particularly insightful on the British and European context. There is a welcome international dimension too to E.M. Spiers' account of the place of the Irish in the British army in the 19th century, and to both Jeffery's and O'Halpin's assessments of the place of the military in Northern and Southern Ireland since 1922.
Despite the variety of contexts and perspectives, the contributions attest to the existence of a strong Irish military tradition.
The fact that Irishmen constituted whopping 42 per cent of the British army in 1830 is a clear illustration of its strength then, but there is impressive evidence for its existence (albeit, in different forms) both before and after. In 1900, for example, just over 10 per cent of the British army were Irish but, as David Fitzpatrick demonstrates in his fine essay, militarism was at the heart of Irish life as people of every age and gender were members of militaristic bodies such as Cumann na mBan, the Ulster Volunteer Force, the Irish Volunteers and the Boy Scouts.
Given this background, it is not surprising that "the participation of over 200,000 Irishmen" in the first World War was "proportionately the greatest deployment of armed manpower in the history of Irish militarism". Indeed, the trend was towards greater participation from the first millennium. Then, as Charles Edwards demonstrates, there was little warfare but much violence. Indeed, violence was endemic in early and medieval Ireland because, as Edwards, Flanagan, Frame and Simms make clear, Ireland was as martial as the rest of Europe.
Political developments ensured it remained thus. The interventionism of the Tudors witnessed the assembly of armies of unprecedented size (15,000 in 1534) and the formation of a standing army with all the attendant logistical problems. These, and the problems of supplying the 40-50,000 troops engaged in the "religious wars" of the 1640s, are carefully described by Ellis, Brady and Ohlmeyer.
From the mid 17th century, conflict was less frequent but more costly. The insecurity of the Protestant elite and British military needs combined to ensure that a substantial army establishment (described by A.J. Guy) was maintained and that the propensity Irish Protestants displayed in the 17th century to array during moments of crisis was continued in the 18th century. This and the specific response to the threat posed by republican radicalism in the 1790s are perceptively assessed by D.W. Miller and Tom Bartlett.
Miller and Bartlett provide two of the volume's most enduring contributions, and it is appropriate that an outline of the content of this elegant and impressive volume should conclude with a reference to them. Tighter editing could have resulted in the elision of some repetitive matter and the detection of some geographical misattributions. The index, too, could be fuller. But these are minor blemishes in what is, overwhelmingly, a resounding triumph.