Military Service Act 1916

By 1916, Britain was obliged to legislate for conscription with the Military Service Act 1916. This act was introduced to offset the fall in recruitment under the Derby Scheme of voluntary registration.

In Britain, the army had suffered appalling casualties and was experiencing a decline in voluntary recruits.

Between 1916 and 1918, some 2,277,623 men were conscripted into the British Army.

By 1918, a German offensive appeared to be in a position to counter the British forces, and the numbers required to counter the attack were not being met by conscription in its current format.  

Parliament

Thus parliament passed a bill essentially extending conscription to Ireland without any formal promise linked to the Home Rule Act, which had been suggested as a carrot by the Labour Party. The prevailing view was that it would “require three Army Corps to get one out of Ireland”.  

The Military Service Act 1918 repealed section 3(3) of the 1916 act (which provided for exemptions for, among other things, “men ordinarily resident in His Majesty’s Dominions abroad”), and further cancelled certificates of exemptions from military service granted on occupational grounds, such as doctors.

It was hoped that, by extending conscription to the dominion countries, the war would end sooner and the last push would be more Napoleon than Blackadder.  

The green fields of France

Ireland in 1918 was a country undergoing a social metamorphosis. Even before the intended introduction of conscription, there was objection to it.

Conscription raised concerns of a potential change in Irish society itself. If introduced, there were concerns of female erosion of traditionally male roles in society, with such posters as ‘Conscription! No woman must take a man’s job’.

Such changes had followed the introduction of conscription in Britain. 

Reluctance

Furthermore, heavy losses of Irish soldiers in Gallipoli and the Somme, along with many prisoners of war who had become disenchanted with the slaughter on the continent, all contributed to the Irish reluctance for conscription.

My grandfather Richard, a private in the Royal Irish Rifles, joined the fight against the Kaiser in 1914 and was one of many who ended up a long way from Tipperary in German POW camps such as Giessen for a period of the war, to return to an Ireland that had changed, changed utterly.

Finally, while the country had been initially torn due to the 1916 Rising, the reaction to the British treatment of the Rising volunteers also turned the tide against voluntary participation in a war that was increasingly being seen as ‘not one of our own’.  

Like many English solutions to Irish problems, the end result differed from the intended result.

When introduced in the British parliament, the debates show that there was vociferous opposition to conscription, especially as the threat of conscription was not linked in any way to the promise of Home Rule. Thus, a crisis was inevitable. 

'Conscription was seen by nationalists as an act of war

The conscription crisis, as it became known, garnered support among a most diverse group of activists, including the trade union movement, the Catholic hierarchy, and the nationalist community. The English solution had, in fact, united a fractured Irish society. 

Act of war

A protest meeting was convened in the Mansion House after the bill was passed in April 1918. There, even Parnellite and anti-Parnellite supporters agreed on the need to present a united front. The Catholic hierarchy pronounced “that conscription forced in this way upon Ireland is an oppressive and inhuman law which the Irish people have a right to resist by every means consonant with the law of God”.  

Conscription was seen by nationalists as an act of war, and anyone who cooperated with it was an enemy of the people and should be shot (Ernest Blythe).

The Sinn Féin national pledge in 1918 was: “Denying the right of the British Government to enforce compulsory service in this country, we pledge ourselves solemnly one to another to resist conscription by the most effective means at our disposal.” 

Protest

The protest took the form of a general strike, supported even by employers, which is remarkable when one considers the employers’ reaction to the 1913 Lockout. The strike occurred on 23 April.

It was one of the first-ever general strikes in Europe, with only banks, law courts, and Government offices remaining open. The Catholic hierarchy closed Maynooth for the day and, for the unfortunate students, this free day was blighted by the closure of the majority of pubs also! 

'Up to 49,000 men from the island of Ireland died, of whom an estimated 20 were solicitors, 18 apprentice solicitors and 25 barristers 

The strike was highly successful, despite the heavy press censorship. Numerous rallies took place countrywide in protest at the conscription plans.  

Anti-government and anti-conscription activists were arrested under the premise of being part of a German plot.

A plan was also introduced by Captain Stuart Hay (the Hay plan) to coerce the Catholic hierarchy to be persuaded by their continental colleagues to encourage conscription in order to save continental Catholics.

This plan foundered due to intercontinental diplomatic complications. 

The United States’ entry to the war (assisted by its Selective Service Act 1917, allowing for the conscription of all US men between 21 and 31) and the changing tide of the German offensive all led the British to not only abandon its plans for conscription, but ultimately led to increased support for Sinn Féin. 

Ireland suffered greatly as a result of World War 1, without the necessity for conscription.

It is estimated that some 200,000 soldiers of Irish origin served in the Great War, of whom 155 were solicitors, and 83 apprentice solicitors.

It is believed that between up to 49,000 men from the island of Ireland died, of whom an estimated 20 were solicitors, 18 apprentice solicitors and 25 barristers. 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 

Age shall not weary them, nor the year condemn. 

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them. 

(Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen)