Key Stage 3 - Newry & Mourne in the First World War

IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR:

Front cover photograph: Sergeant Michael O’Leary, of the Irish Guards, with members of 1st Kilmorey Scout Group at a recruiting rally in Warrenpoint, 7th July 1915 (Courtesy of William McAlpine)

This

aimed at secondary school teachers and pupils, contains information focused on the Newry and Mourne area during the First World War and the preceding Home Rule crisis. It covers a variety of topics and for each topic there is a general introduction and then a series of educational tasks. The activities will assist pupils to develop a range of historical and critical thinking skills. Produced as part of a Heritage Lottery funded project examining the local impacts of the First World War on the Newry and Mourne area, it is hoped that this resource will be of value to schools in the district who study this period of history.

SECTION 1: POLITICS BEFORE THE WAR

THE HOME RULE CRISIS, 1912–1914

On the eve of the First World War, it looked like a civil war was going to break out in Ireland. Nationalists and Unionists were divided over the issue of Home Rule which sought to re-establish a Parliament in Dublin. Propaganda, including postcards featuring political cartoons, was produced by both sides. Unionists feared the religious and economic consequences of Home Rule because they knew that a self-governing Ireland was bound to be dominated by Catholics. On ‘Ulster Day’ (28th September 1912), Unionists attended services in Protestant churches before signing the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant or Women’s Declaration, to show their opposition to Home Rule. In south Armagh 4,941 individuals signed the documents, while in south Down 13,299 signed.

In 1913 both sides went a step further and formed their own private army. The Unionists established the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in January 1913 and the Nationalists reacted by forming the Irish Volunteers in November 1913. While the UVF was set up almost immediately in Newry and Mourne it was not until

Postcard produced by Unionists in 1912 as part of the Anti-Home Rule campaign. The image on the postcard is modelled on the pre-Raphaelite P. H. Calderon’s painting of the biblical figure, Ruth (Ulster), leaving her adopted mother, Naomi (England). The figure representing Scotland holds a scroll entitled ‘Act of Union’ (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Poster advertising a Home Rule meeting in Newry, 1911 (© Armagh County Museum Collection)

May 1914 that the Irish Volunteers began to appear in the district. By July 1914 County Armagh had 7,600 men in the Ulster Volunteer Force and 5,400 men in the Irish Volunteers. By early 1914, around 3,000 women from across Ulster had enlisted in the UVF and served as nurses, typists and postal workers, as well as in the signalling section. Nationalist women joined the constitutional Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH), established in 1910, and Cumann na mBan, set up in April 1914, acted as a female wing to the Irish Volunteers.

The UVF, in April 1914, successfully smuggled into Larne, Bangor and Donaghadee, arms purchased in Germany and these were distributed throughout Ulster. The Irish Volunteers carried out a similar gun-running at Howth, near Dublin, in July 1914.

WOMEN’S SUFFRAGE

Suffrage, the right for women to vote in parliamentary elections, gained momentum in the years prior to the outbreak of the First World War. The first Irish suffrage society was formed in Belfast in the early 1870s by Isabella Tod. Initially, peaceful and constitutional methods were used but by the early twentieth century some of the women involved began to use more assertive and extreme tactics, including arson, window-breaking and bombing. Much of the militant activity in Ulster tended to be restricted to Belfast and its immediate hinterland but in February 1913 an attack was carried out on the letterbox at Newtownhamilton Post Office in County Armagh.

A suffrage society was established in Newry in December 1911 and by May 1913 it had 48 members. By the same date Warrenpoint Suffrage Society, which predated the one in Newry, had 58 members. Both the Newry and Warrenpoint societies were affiliated to the non-militant Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation (IWSF). In 1912 the IWSF established a Northern Committee to co-ordinate the activities of its northern societies and Dora Mellone, a leading suffragist in Warrenpoint, was appointed as

its secretary. Also notable in the suffrage campaign was Dr Elizabeth Gould Bell. Dr Bell was born at Springhill House, Altnaveigh, near Newry, in 1862. She was the first female medical graduate in Ireland, graduating from the Royal University of Ireland in 1893. After qualifying, she set up a medical practice in Belfast and was a member of both the Irish Women’s Suffrage Society and the Women’s Social and Political Union, which had been set up in Manchester in 1903 by the Pankhursts. In 1911 Dr Bell travelled to London and was arrested and imprisoned for breaking windows during a suffrage demonstration. Thirteen women were arrested for militancy in Ulster between March and August 1914. Dr Bell worked as a doctor for the suffragettes who were imprisoned in Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast.

The First World War interrupted and then brought great changes to both Home Rule and women’s suffrage.

Members of the South Down UVF marching through Kilkeel (Courtesy of PRONI, D2638/D/49/145)

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

THE ULSTER COVENANT AND WOMEN’S DECLARATION

1. Look at the text of the Covenant and answer the following questions:

• Identify four reasons why Unionists did not want Home Rule?

• What action did the Unionists pledge to take if Home Rule was forced on Ireland?

2. The following is the text of the Women’s Declaration:

We, whose names are underwritten, women of Ulster, and loyal subjects of our gracious King, being firmly persuaded that Home Rule would be disastrous to our Country, desire to associate ourselves with the men of Ulster in their uncompromising opposition to the Home Rule Bill now before Parliament, whereby it is proposed to drive Ulster out of her cherished place in the constitution of the United Kingdom, and to place her under the domination and control of a Parliament in Ireland.

Praying that from this calamity God will save Ireland, we hereto subscribe our names.

Text of the Ulster Solemn League and Covenant (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

• How does the text of the Women’s Declaration differ from that of the Covenant signed by the men? Why do you think this might be?

HOME RULE PROPAGANDA

3. This is an example of a postcard produced as propaganda during the Home Rule crisis.

• Study the postcard and identify three negative consequences for Newry if Home Rule is introduced.

• What has the Town Hall become the headquarters for?

• What is now taught at the Municipal Technical School?

• What images are used to suggest the backwardness of the economy under a Home Rule parliament?

• Do you think this postcard was designed to be pro-Home Rule or anti-Home Rule?

4. Use the Internet to see if you can find other political postcards or cartoons that were produced during the Home Rule crisis.

Home Rule postcard (Courtesy of David Elliott)

THE VOLUNTEERS AND THE HOME RULE CRISIS

5. Look at the following images of the Ulster Volunteer Force and read the report of the Police Inspector for County Down.

On the 17th Sept. Sir E. Carson & other Unionist leaders, held meetings at Kilkeel & Newry. At the former, 950 volunteers were inspected in the presence of 4,000 people, and at the latter, 600 volunteers in the presence of 8,000 spectators. […]

The quiet determined look of these […] partially drilled men, as they marched through the street and roads to the several meetings, made a great impression on even some advanced Nationalists who witnessed it. It was also a matter of much comment, the number of volunteers who wore war medals, and of men whose military bearing showed that they had been old soldiers or militiamen. The presence of large employers of labour in the ranks side by side with their employees was also a noticeable feature.

• Do the men in the UVF depicted in the photographs look like a military force? Explain your answer.

• What do the sources suggest about the level of organisation, discipline and training within the volunteer movement?

• What evidence is there that men of different social classes served in the UVF?

• What impression did UVF parades make on Nationalists in Newry?

6. The following is a letter written by an Englishman who visited Kilkeel in July 1914. The letter was printed in The Down Recorder on 25th July 1914.

The population [of Kilkeel] is fairly evenly divided between the Church of Rome and Protestantism, and until recently old-time animosities had been dying out. Neighbours forgot religious differences in the mutual offices of friendship. When on ‘the Twelfth’ a Protestant family went to the ‘Orange walk’ it was a Romanist neighbour who fed the poultry and watered the cattle. If the too vigorous beating of the Nationalist drum had burst the skin the Orange Lodge was at hand to lend its instrument till repairs could be effected. When work was over of an evening the young men foregathered at the street corner without religious or political cleavage. Orange and Green drank together in perfect amity on the evening of St. Patrick’s Day.

But within the last few years a change has passed over the spirit of Kilkeel. The imminence of Home Rule has revived antagonisms which were passing into forgetfulness. Kilkeel supplies its

Images 7 & 8: Photographs of members of the 2nd Battalion South Down Regiment of the UVF at Mourne Park, near Kilkeel (Courtesy of PRONI, D2638/D/150, /153)

Report of the Police Inspector for County Down on Unionist marches held in Kilkeel and Newry, during September 1913 (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, CO 904/91)

contingent to the Ulster Volunteers. It was at Annalong, a few miles round the coast, that some 50 field guns, so report affirms, were landed a few weeks ago. Four destroyers of the Royal Navy steam to and fro within sight of shore. Forgetfulness is no longer possible.

The young men still meet together when the day’s work is done, but now in two groups. There is no open hostility. Intercourse is still civil; but it is increasingly rare. Neighbours, who once stood to gossip when they met, now give each other good-day and hasten on their several ways. The spirit of the place has changed.

One evening I strolled into the town to see for the first time a muster of the Ulster Volunteers. […]

The whole Protestant population of the neighbourhood lined the street to see the troops march out of town – old men, women, children. There was no cheering, no applause, no laughter, no movement save on the part of those who sought some more favourable position to view the scene. The tense silence in which the crowd looked on was one of the most impressive features of an incident which I shall never forget.

• How does the writer describe the atmosphere in the district at this time?

• What does it suggest about neighbour relations during the Home Rule crisis? How did this vary from what they were like before the crisis?

7. Read the following police reports from May 1914 (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, CO 904/93):

County Armagh: The present uncertainty of the political situation is undoubtedly affecting business and trade. There is no speculation. The building trade is at a standstill […]. Shopkeepers are badly hit and do not get the same credit as formerly from the wholesale firms. [...] The outlook in general is considered very bad.

County Down: Party feeling continues to grow and is now more bitter than ever; there is an increase in the number of drills held by the Ulster Volunteers; the present state of political uncertainty is gravely affecting trade; the building trade is at a stand still; linen merchants not being able to guarantee the fulfillment of contracts are losing business which will be hard to recover.

• According to these police reports what impact did the Home Rule crisis have on the local economy?

8. The following article is taken from The Manchester Guardian, 27th May 1914:

THE NATIONALIST FORCE IN ULSTER:

The maintenance of peace in Newry last night is one of the most striking instances of the success of the Ulster Nationalists’ efforts to persuade their people not to express outwardly their gratification at the passing of the Home Rule Bill. For some reason which is not ascertainable the Unionists worked themselves into a state of panic. They make no secret of the fact that they feared an attack by the Catholics, who are in a large majority in the town, and at night the Ulster Volunteers placed pickets armed with revolvers at the approaches to Protestant streets. Despatch riders linked up the picket parties with two Newry companies which had been marched outside the town, and also with detachments drawn from surrounding villages. Happily this ostentatious display of martial force was ignored by the Nationalists, and some seven hundred members of the National Volunteer companies were kept drilling in their own quarters well away from the danger of a collision. The authorities expect no trouble now.

Newry has a reputation (in which it takes some pride) for demonstrations and occasional shindies. Near the centre of the town, indeed, is an island lamp which in the eyes of the police authorities limits the territory of each section. In the population of 13,000 there are 9,000 Catholics, who control the Urban District Council, and they have 1,500 Volunteers enrolled, while the Ulster force in the town numbers only 900.

• Despite the rivalry, how does this source suggest that both forces were disciplined and leaders sought to avoid conflict where possible?

• Can you find evidence of recognised areas in the town for each side?

9. This is a photograph of Rev. Samuel Mayes. Rev. Mayes was rector of Creggan Church of Ireland from 1908 to 1916. He lived in the Glebe House, Crossmaglen. In 1912 he signed the Ulster Covenant at Clarkesbridge. He was one of the organisers of the UVF in Crossmaglen. He later served as a chaplain during the First World War.

Can you find Rev. Mayes in the online 1911 Irish Census and then answer the following questions?

• How many sons had Rev. Mayes in 1911?

• How many servants did he have?

• What religion were the servants? Does this surprise you?

10. The following is taken from a witness statement provided to the Bureau of Military History by John McCoy of south Armagh (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives):

We had a local Company [of the Irish Volunteers] organised which I joined. We had no rifles or other military equipment. We did not possess in our ranks even a competent military instructor. We had a preponderance of man-power from men of advanced years who wished to give the Movement their approval down to boys just after leaving school. Arms drill was carried out with pitchfork and shovel handles. There did not seem to be much efficient direction either in the local organisation of the Volunteers or in their efforts to set up a progressive drilling and training scheme. Our absolute deficiency in arms made our efforts at training seem unreal and not worth the effort. Some time about July or early August 1914 we heard that rifles were to be distributed to a number of South Armagh Companies and that we would get our share. […] I remember waiting up through all a summer’s night when I heard that the rifles were actually on their way to us in the hope that if the supply was limited that I at least would get one. I had no clear idea in my mind at this time, if arms were made available, against whom we should use them. I could not then visualise their use against the Ulster Volunteers as I had many good friends amongst young Unionists in Newry and district.

• How does this source suggest that prior to July 1914 the Irish Volunteers were poorly equipped?

• How useful is this source for gaining an insight into why the Irish Volunteers were formed and the types of activities they engaged in?

Rev. Samuel Mayes (Courtesy of Creggan Church of Ireland Select Vestry)

11. In the following extract from Patrick Casey’s witness statement to the Bureau of Military History, Patrick describes growing up in Newry as a young teenager during the Home Rule crisis. He was later a member of the IRA (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives)

I attended the Christian Brothers Schools at Kilmorey St, then at the Abbey, and finally at the “Car Stands” or St. Margarets in the centre of the town of Newry. Some of my mentors were Brothers Murray, Hayes, Grainger, Quinn, Gleeson, Geoghegan, and Mr. Peter McCann, B.A. From an early age – (9 or 10) – these men did more than anything else to influence and mould my outlook in the national ideal. Peter McCann was an extreme nationalist and a keen student of the Irish language of which he was a fluent speaker. He was a man of high ideals who had no time for the corrupt party politics of the early 1900’s.

During the period 1912-13, the district from whence I came was in a state of turmoil; this was the town of Newry and, being so located between Orange and Green, one was virtually in the middle of the forces of reaction and those engaged in the fight for freedom.

• What did Casey remember as being key influences on the development of his political views?

12. The following witness statements to the Bureau of Military History were provided by John McCoy, from south Armagh, and Patrick Rankin, from Newry (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives)

John McCoy: The active propagandists for Sinn Fein were few in number. In fact I do not think there was one person in our parish trying to propagate the new movement. In the towns of Dundalk and Newry there might be to my knowledge about a dozen in each trying hard to make an impression on the lukewarm supporters of the parliamentarians. The Gaelic League at this time was very active and had classes organised in almost every parish and their influence had much more effect than the strange new departure which Sinn Fein advocated.

Patrick Rankin (a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood): Very little progress was made during these years 1907 to 1913 […] Things in Newry and district were very low […] The people did not seem to care about such things, and there did not seem to be any meetings of these organisations.

• How much support do the witness statements suggest Sinn Féin and Republicanism had in the Newry and south Armagh area in the years before the First World War?

THE HOWTH GUN-RUNNING

13. The following is taken from a report written by Sir John Ross on the Howth gun-running. A Catholic, Sir John Ross was Chief Commissioner of the Dublin Metropolitan Police. He had a house at Rostrevor.

At about 3 p.m. on Sunday 26th July 1914 when about to leave my house for the afternoon I received a report from the Supt. Headquarters to the effect that some 2,000 rifles were landed at Howth on that day, in open daylight and about 1,200 National Volunteers were now marching towards Dublin with them; that the R.I.C. and Military had been informed and that three tram-car loads of Police were going to intercept them, also that communications were being made to the Military [….]

Shortly before 5 p.m. news reached me that there had been a collision between the party under the Assistant Commissioner and the

Sir John Ross (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Volunteers; but as usual the report was accompanied by an exaggerated rumour, in this case it having been said that one of the soldiers had been so badly hit he was dying or was already dead.

That afternoon I tendered my resignation to His Excellency.

• How many Nationalists were involved?

• What happened in the evening after the landing of the arms?

WOMEN IN PRE-WAR POLITICS

14. Examine the following sources about women in the Home Rule crisis.

Extract from an article in The Daily Graphic, 28th September 1912:

THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE ULSTER CAMPAIGN

The beautiful seat of the Earl of Kilmorey, situated in the valley of the Mourne Mountains, was the scene of one of the biggest social functions in the Ulster campaign. […]

The Countess of Kilmorey […] received the guests on the garden terrace. She was accompanied by the Earl of Kilmorey and her son, Viscount Newry and Mourne. All Unionist members of Parliament and their speakers were invited, and the residents of the County Down and immediate neighbourhood. Refreshments were served in a large marquee and on small tables beneath the trees, while a band played selections during the afternoon.

Extract from a County Armagh police report, February 1914 (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, CO 904/92):

Ambulance classes have been held in a great many places at which elementary instruction has been given and a great many women & girls have given in their names promising to give their services if required.

WAR: AN EDUCATION

Photograph of the Countess of Kilmorey presenting the Mourne Companies of the South Down Regiment of the UVF with a flag, August 1914 (Courtesy of PRONI, D2638/D/49/153).

During the presentation ceremony Lady Kilmorey made a short address to the Volunteers: “Men

of Mourne, I am very pleased to present to you this day this flag which stands for freedom and loyalty to our King. Into your hands and safe keeping I give it, knowing you are to be trusted. Let the knowledge that you form part of the greatest empire in the world give weight to your right arms and firmness to your hearts.” (Quoted in The Newry Reporter, 4th August 1914).

Photograph

D2638/D/49/152).

The UVF set up Signalling and Dispatch Riding Corps to replace the regular Post Office and thus minimise intelligence breaches. The lady signallers practised regularly from the high parts of the Mourne Mountains, sending messages by use of flags and lamps.

• Using the sources above to help you, what ways were women able to demonstrate their opposition to Home Rule?

• How might some of these activities have prepared women for the First World War?

• How does the extract from The Daily Graphic suggest that there was a social aspect to the Ulster Unionist opposition to Home Rule?

• The photograph of the UVF signallers and dispatch riders includes three individuals with the surname Mackintosh. Use the online 1911 Irish Census to find out the relationship between Anne (Annie), Henry (Harry) and Lillie Mackintosh. What age were they in 1911? What jobs did they do? Where did they live? What church did they attend?

15. Look at the following sources on local women involved in the suffrage movement.

Extract of a speech made by Dr Elizabeth Bell at a suffrage meeting held in Newry on 21st March 1911 (Reported in The Frontier Sentinel, 25th March 1911):

Women have been asking for enfranchisement for over forty years […] For nearly forty years women used none but constitutional methods; they held drawing-room meetings, public meetings, sent petitions, resolutions, got promises of support from members of Parliament, got Bills in Parliament which even passed the second reading but ended there – no practical result.

of UVF Dispatch Riders and Signallers attached to the South Down Regiment (Courtesy of PRONI,

Do you wonder that some women decided to try other tactics? Whatever may be the opinion of those present to-night as to the methods employed to further women’s suffrage, it can hardly be denied that militant tactics have brought the question before the general public in a way that forty years of constitutional agitation had utterly failed to achieve. The most encouraging sign of progress is the general feeling that our political recognition is bound to come.

Article in The Irish Citizen (19th April 1913), written by Mrs Coade, Honorary Secretary of the Newry Suffrage Society:

We have Generals many, leaders of proved mettle and worth, but not one among them all who can command the whole of our women’s forces, and lead us in solid union on to victory. Our sore and trying need is for a commander in chief. We present the sad spectacle of a disunited army.

View of Dora Mellone of Warrenpoint Suffrage Society expressed in Votes for Women, 19th September 1913:

The north of Ireland at the present, is not in the mood to be affected by broken windows or threats of disturbed meetings. Such attempts would merely end in the temporary defeat of the suffrage movement. Rightly or wrongly, the north just now is prepared to risk more than broken windows for the sake of its political creed and men who are prepared to face civil war are not afraid of a burnt house or two.

• From the report on Dr Bell’s speech, how long did she say women in Ireland had been seeking the vote?

• How, and for what reasons, did Dr Bell suggest the tactics used to campaign for the women’s vote had changed over time?

• How does Mrs Coade suggest the suffrage campaign was weakened by divisions and a lack of overall leadership?

• How do Dr Elizabeth Bell and Dora Mellone differ in their views on the effectiveness of militant tactics in the suffrage campaign?

16.

The following is an extract taken from the suffrage newspaper, The Irish Citizen, 22nd March 1913:

SPORADIC MILITANCY?

It has transpired that an outrage, attributed to some person who is in sympathy with the Suffragist propaganda, was committed at Newtownhamilton, Co. Armagh, Post Office on the night of 23rd or morning of 24th [February]. On Monday morning the post-mistress found that a quantity of black fluid, presumably ink, had been poured into the letterbox since the previous day. Fortunately the box had been cleared of letters, and no injury was done, but the police authorities are prosecuting strict inquiries into the matter.

• What happened in Newtownhamliton in February 1913 as part of the wider suffrage campaign?

• Why do you think suffrage supporters attacked the postal system?

SECTION 2: RECRUITMENT

The United Kingdom declared war against Germany on 4th August 1914, following Germany’s invasion of neutral Belgium. At the outbreak of war, there were already Irishmen serving in the British army. One of these, Christopher Fitzgibbon, was serving with the Connaught Rangers in India. His unit was recalled to France but he died from heat stroke on 17th August whilst making the journey and was one of the first Ulster casualties of the war.

The first men to leave the Newry and Mourne area to fight in the war were reservists. These were men who had some previous military experience, often from the Boer War or service elsewhere in the British Empire. Afterwards, a massive recruitment drive was undertaken to encourage men to volunteer. A recruiting committee was established for the Newry District, headed by local solicitors William Johnson (Chairman) and Alexander Fisher (Honorary Secretary). Men enlisted for a variety of reasons. Some saw it as an opportunity for travel and adventure, while others were driven by economic or political motives. Both Nationalist and Unionist leaders urged their supporters to enlist and many members of the Irish and Ulster Volunteers joined one of the newly created Irish divisions: the 10th (Irish), 16th (Irish) and 36th (Ulster) Divisions. Other men joined non-Irish regiments or the Navy, while some Irish-born men, like Robert Hanna, born near Kilkeel, served in the armies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the United States of America.

In Newry and Mourne, despite the preceding political divisions over Home Rule, there was a united approach to recruitment. Both Nationalist and Unionist bands participated in recruiting rallies and farewell parades. The

Recruiting rally in Warrenpoint, 1915, showing speakers addressing the crowd from the top of a mobile recruiting van (PRONI, D3809/1, McLaughlin Papers, Reproduced courtesy of Denis Mayne)

Robert Hill Hanna, V.C. (right) photographed with Thomas Hanna, a veteran of the midnineteenth-century Crimean War (Courtesy of the Kilkeel Branch of the Royal British Legion)

Royal Victoria Flute Band, Newry, participated in recruiting in the district. By December 1915, seventeen members of the band had joined the armed forces (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Newry Reporter commented that, “Not a word is there of the old feelings of estrangement though neither side have given up their ideals – they have for the time sunk their differences.”

Newry Urban District Council commissioned a Roll of Honour to record the names, addresses, ranks and units of service of those from the district who had enlisted. This

was launched in April 1915 and recorded 866 men and one woman. Most of those listed were soldiers and sailors with few airmen or merchant seamen. As the document was compiled early in the war the latter roles had not yet come to the fore. The Roll of Honour, however, remains unfinished as no further names were added after April 1915 and the date for the end of the ‘European War’ on the illuminated cover of the Roll was never entered.

Illuminated front cover of Newry’s Roll of Honour (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

As well as service in the armed forces, doctors from Newry and Mourne served during the war, including Dr Elizabeth Bell who, in the later years of the war, was in charge of a hospital ward in Malta. Clergymen also served as chaplains or with the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA). Women were not permitted to enlist as soldiers but from 1917 they were permitted to join the new Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), later renamed Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps (QMAAC). By allowing women to undertake support roles for the army, such as cooks, drivers, mechanics and typists, men who had previously undertaken these tasks were freed up for frontline service.

OPPOSITION

While the Irish Parliamentary Party leader, John Redmond, had managed to get the majority of the Nationalists to support participation in the war, a minority of the Irish Volunteers, led by Eoin MacNeill, disagreed and broke away. The larger Redmonite group became known as National Volunteers, while the minority retained the name, Irish Volunteers. Most of those in south Armagh and south Down supported the Redmonite group.

As the number of war casualties increased, recruitment began to slow down. The British Government introduced conscription to Britain in 1916. Early in 1918 the Government considered introducing such compulsory service to Ireland too. A coalition of Nationalist and Republican groups organised an anti-conscription campaign. It included the signing of an anti-conscription pledge and the observance of a one-day strike on 23rd April. Nationalists in Newry were among those who withdrew their labour. In the end, because of the level of opposition the British Government never enforced conscription in Ireland and all those who enlisted during the First World War were volunteers.

The Easter Rising of 1916, and subsequent execution of its Republican leaders by the British Army, helped to increase support for Sinn Féin. By 1918 supporters of Sinn Féin began to disrupt some of the First World War recruiting rallies, most notably in Newry at the end of August 1918.

Rev. R. Nevin Lyons (left), minister of Ballenon Reformed Presbyterian Church, near Poyntzpass, served with the YMCA in France (Courtesy of Alec Lyons)

Postcard (1916) showing the signatories of the Irish Proclamation, a document issued during the Easter Rising (Courtesy of Cathy Brooks)

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

1. The following are exacts from newspaper articles on local reservists leaving for the front:

From The Newry Telegraph, 6th August 1914: BESSBROOK ARMY RESERVES: VOLUNTEER ESCORT: On Wednesday morning a large number of army reservists were called up and so many of the workers in the spinning mills wanted leave to accompany their friends to the station that the employers decided to stop the entire works from 12 midday till 2.30 p.m. so that all could join in the escort. Accordingly the Nationalist and Unionist Volunteers mobilised and united in one grand procession, which, headed by the Victoria Flute Band, and accompanied by thousands of the villagers, escorted the army men to the Main Line Station where they entrained on the 1.22 p.m. train. […] The streets were literally packed with people of all ages, classes and creeds; party feeling was entirely forgotten; and all joined together to give the men for “the front” a hearty send off. It was truly a grand sight to see the opposite camps united in one grand body, with the same aim and purpose […]

From The Newry Reporter, 8th August 1914: The remarkable scenes at Newry and elsewhere when the Reservists were going away were unparalleled in the history of this troubled country. All over the country one finds Nationalist bands and Unionist bands uniting to give their friends a fitting send-off as they answered England’s call to duty. Not a word is there of the old feelings of estrangement though neither side have given up their ideals – they have simply for the time being sunk their differences for the general good.

• How do these sources suggest that there was a unified approach to service in the British army at the start of the First World War?

2. Look at the following examples of recruitment propaganda that appeared in The Newry Reporter during the First World War.

20th February 1915

19th October 1918

25th February 1915

• How do they try to convince men to enlist?

• Do you think they are seeking to appeal to Unionists, Nationalists or both?

• Which of them use women as a recruitment tactic? Why might they have done this?

3. Design a recruitment poster to encourage either men to enlist in the armed forces or women to enrol in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

4. This is a poster advertising a recruiting meeting to be held at a fair day in Newtownhamilton.

• Why do you think a fair day was chosen to hold the recruiting rally at Newtownhamilton?

5. The following is the text of a letter from Corporal Ross Smith of the Royal Irish Rifles which was printed in The Newry Reporter, 9th December 1915. It was written from “somewhere in France”. Before the war, Ross was employed by The Newry Reporter.

I receive the ‘Newry Reporter’ from time to time, and enjoy reading all the events of the old Frontier Town and district. The Newry boys here are in the best of health and spirits. Any young fellow who wants plenty of sport and excitement should take a free ticket for France. He will get plenty of ammunition free of charge and a little work to keep him fit in the trenches. We have been served with fur-skin coats, and we look like a lot of Teddy bears. It is surprising the

24th October 1918

Poster advertising recruitment event, Newntownhamilton (Courtesy of Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum, Armagh)

way we have learned the many duties of trench-work, which includes bomb-throwing, parapet fatigues, and repairing trenches, wire-cutting at night, and sap duties. I was on the sap for six hours one night only 40 yards from the German sap head. It is a very lonely and most important duty. […] You get accustomed to the shell fire, and pay no heed to the crack of the rifle fire. It is sometimes like flying hail-stones. […] Trench-fighting is most exciting and good sport, and at night when off duty you can sit on your ‘booby’ and catch the rats on your bayonet, as they are legion. […] This is a fine level country, and the apples are lying about like stones along the roads. We get along fine with the French people. It is great fun trying to make them understand what you want. The young fellows at home are missing a treat. They should come out here and help to keep the flag flying for the glory of Britain and the credit of old Newry.

• How might the printing of letters like this have encouraged men reading The Newry Reporter to volunteer to join the British army?

6. Extract from an article which appeared in The Newry Reporter on 18th May 1915. It records the speech made by William Johnson, who was Chairman of the Newry and District Recruiting Committee. The speech was held at Killowen crossroads, near Rostrevor, after the 10 o’clock Mass.

Mr. Wm. Johnson, solicitor, Newry, in a rousing speech, said that the national danger and the urgent need for men was the reason they were there that Sunday morning to join with his Catholic fellow-countrymen in an appeal for recruits to serve the country. He warned the farmers of Killowen that if the Germans secured a landing they would take all their farm stock and crops to feed their troops and put a levy on the district as they had done in France and Belgium, which would exceed all their savings, and pointing to women and children present, he called upon them for their sakes to come out and defend them and not leave them to the fate that befell the women and children in Belgium and Northern France.

• How did William Johnson seek to persuade Catholics and farmers to enlist?

7. The following extracts are taken from County Armagh police reports (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, CO 904/94 and /99):

August 1914: […] the U.V.F. as a body [is] slow in making a move to join the Army pending a decision on the Home Rule question; the National Volunteers acting similarly; the latter have elected a Committee of 12 for the County, the majority of whom are in favour of British action regarding the war; […] considerable number of the poorer classes have enlisted.

September 1914: […] recruits have not come forward well from the country districts owing to employment on farms and besides they are not keen for fighting; from amongst the Irish National Volunteers in the principal towns it is expected many will come forward and join the Army, but in the country districts they have little notion of fighting and have ceased drilling owing to fear of being compelled to enlist.

January 1916: Recruiting is slack at present in this county though a few men are still coming in. The farming classes who are making a lot of money by the war are particularly slack about allowing their sons to join the Army.

• According to the police report of August 1914, why were Unionists and Nationalists initially slow to enlist after the outbreak of the war?

• Which social classes were more likely to enlist and why?

• Which social groups were less likely to enlist and why?

William Johnson (PRONI, D3809/1, McLaughlin Papers, Reproduced courtesy of Denis Mayne)

8. The following are extracts from witness statements given to the Bureau of Military History (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives).

John McCoy (County Armagh): A large number of Nationalists joined up in Newry and other Northern towns with large percentage of Nationalists in the population. This recruiting campaign was vigorously urged by Mr. Redmond and other prominent members of the Parliamentary Party. The fact that the Home Rule act was on the Statute Book was used as an argument to encourage young Nationalists to join up and do their part in fighting for small nations on the European Continent. I attended recruiting meetings and got a certain amount of thrill listening to a good military band playing traditional Irish war marches. I was not enthusiastic about the war. I was not against it. I had no feeling of resentment against acquaintances who joined the Army or Navy. […] I looked on John Redmond as weak when England was in her hour of difficulty at the outbreak of the war and I distrusted his promises to have Home Rule put into operation at the end of the War.

Robert Kelly (Newry): As a trade unionist I did not go out to condemn the worker who joined the British Army. Most of the men I knew who did so were starved into it. My attitude to the war was that England’s only right to rule this country was based on a successful series of murder campaigns and it was not an Irishman’s duty to support murders. […]

We joined the Volunteers in 1914 believing that if we got guns it would not be long until a good few who joined would want to know when they were going to use them. However, when Redmond made his Woodenbridge speech we could do nothing except leave the National Volunteers.

John Southwell (Newry): The split in the Volunteers occurred after Mr. Redmond’s speech in Woodenbridge. Redmond’s followers in Newry started to express their approval of the advice given at Woodenbridge and a sharp difference of opinion between the Republican section and Redmond’s followers in the Volunteers became apparent. The Redmonites formed themselves into the National Volunteers and the original Volunteers remained on as the Irish Volunteers.

A number of the National Volunteers were reservists in the British Army and were called for active service. A number of others volunteered their service for the Army. The organisation of the National Volunteers, after this happened, to some extent broke down. There was little enthusiasm amongst the rank and file who remained, as many of them did not feel any great urge to take a personal part in England’s war. The St. Joseph’s Brass and Reed Band which was at the beck and call of the National Volunteers was used to lead the parades of reservists and volunteers who joined the British Army on their march to the railway station to join their units for training.

St. Joseph’s Brass and Reed Band, c.1928 (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

• How did Nationalists in Newry and Mourne react to efforts in the district to recruit for the British army?

• What impact did John Redmond’s speech at Woodenbridge, pledging the support of his Volunteers for the British War effort, have on the Nationalist Volunteer movement in Newry and Mourne?

9. Imagine you are one of the following:

(a) A young Catholic man from Newry who has joined the 16th Irish Division

(b) A young Protestant man from Annalong who has enlisted in the 36th Ulster Division

(c) A young man from rural Armagh who has chosen to remain at home

(d) A young woman from Kilkeel who has chosen to join the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps

Write a letter to a relative in America explaining your choice to serve or to stay at home.

10. The following newspaper extracts refer to the Conscription Crisis in spring 1918.

The Newry Telegraph, 18th April 1918: NEWRY & CONSCRIPTION: PROTEST MEETING: A public meeting, convened by Mr. Hugh J. McConville, chairman of the Newry Urban Council, was held in Newry Town Hall on Tuesday evening to protest against the application of conscription to Ireland.

St. Joseph’s Brass and Reed and St. Patrick’s Fife and Drum Bands headed immense crowds to the hall, which was speedily filled to overflowing, several hundreds being unable to gain admission.

On the platform were practically all the priests of the Cathedral, the chairman and Nationalist members of the Urban Council, the local Sinn Fein leaders, and representatives of different local bands. […]

Mr. Robert H. O’Rorke, U[rban] C[ouncil] moved the following resolution:– “That we, the people of Newry, in public meeting assembled, unite with our fellow-countrymen in making an emphatic protest against the application of conscription to Ireland. We absolutely deny the right, either constitutional or moral, of the English Government to force this oppressive measure on a free people without their general consent; and we warn the Government that, should they persist in this iniquitous proposal, it will receive the utmost resistance throughout the land and will result in a condition of affairs too terrible to contemplate.”

The Newry Telegraph, 23rd April 1918: In Newry Cathedral on Sunday morning a public Mass of Intercession to avert Conscription in Ireland was celebrated, and at three o’clock a public meeting for the purpose of administering the anti-Conscription pledge was held in Abbey Yard and was attended by over 4,000 Nationalists of the district.

H. J. McConville, Chairman of Newry Urban District Council from 1909–1922 (Courtesy of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council)

The following is the pledge:– Denying the right of the British Government to enforce compulsory service in this country, we pledge ourselves solemnly to one another to resist conscription by the most effective means at our disposal.

The Newry Telegraph, 25th April 1918: In accordance with the mandate of the Dublin Trades’ Congress, the Nationalists of Newry duly observed Tuesday last as a general holiday as a protest against the enforcement of Conscription and to give the workers and shop-keepers an opportunity of signing the anti-conscription pledge as administered on Sunday last.

There was a total cessation of work in the local mills and factories, shops and industrial establishments, only the banks and business houses of the Unionists remaining open.

In the case of the Bessbrook Spinning Co., work was carried on as usual with a reduced staff.

The different schools under Roman Catholic management participated in the general holiday. There was a total suspension of traffic on the Dundalk, Newry and Greenore railway […]

The signing of the anti-conscription pledge took place in the Minor Town Hall.

[...] before the hall was closed over 5,300 persons, male and female, had subscribed their signatures.

• How did Nationalists and Republicans in Newry show their opposition to conscription being introduced in Ireland?

11. The following article appeared in The Freeman’s Journal, 31st August 1918:

MILITARY CALLED OUT: PANDEMONIUM AT NEWRY RECRUITING MEETING: COL. LYNCH’S RECEPTION:

Great excitement characterised the recruiting meeting held at Newry last night the military having to be called out.

The chief speakers were Col Lynch, Capt O’Grady, and Mr. Serjeant Sullivan, and as soon as Col Lynch rose to speak the Sinn Feiners at once made their presence known by vigorous boohing, groaning, and the singing of the “Soldier’s Song,” etc

There were counter cheers and groans, and at one period the police drew their batons and dispersed the disturbers, who, however, reassembled in front of the police cordon and kept up a continuous din.

A message was sent to the military barracks, and a party of 30 armed men of the Royal Defence Corps arrived at the meeting, while 60 more stood by in the military barracks. Their services were not required, but the crowd maintained their interruptions.

• How had attitudes to joining the British Army changed between 1914 and 1918?

• How would you explain this change of attitude?

12. This is an item of anti-recruiting propaganda issued by Sinn Féin in the South Armagh by-election campaign in 1918.

• How does this poster try to discourage men from enlisting in the British forces?

• In what way does the poster contrast the policy of the Irish Parliamentary Party of John Redmond and the attitude of Sinn Féin to enlistment in the British forces?

13. This is an example of an anti-recruiting handbill produced by Sinn Féin during the First World War.

• How does it seek to persuade men not to join the British army and navy?

Anti-recruitment propaganda (Courtesy of PRONI, D2638/D/49/155)

By-election poster, 1918 (Courtesy of Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas)

SECTION 3: SERVICE AND THEATRES OF WAR

After enlistment, new recruits were given military training for several months or weeks in camps. Some, for instance, trained at Ballykinler, Clandeboye and Donard Park in County Down, while others were sent to Finner near Ballyshannon in County Donegal or elsewhere. During the training they were introduced to the ways of the army and to military discipline.

After training, the men were sent off to a theatre of war. Fighting occurred across the globe. Although much of the fighting took place on the Western Front in northern France and Belgium, men from Newry and Mourne also served in Africa, Palestine, Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), Salonika (Greece) and other places. They served on land and at sea, as well as in the air force.

Postcard showing Ballykinler Camp, County Down (Courtesy of PRONI, D2638/D/49/149)

Regimental Sergeant Major John Bannon, from Newry (seated middle row, second from the right), served in Africa (Courtesy of Patrick Bannon)

THE LAND WAR

Much, though not all, of the fighting took place on land. At the beginning of the war in 1914 all armies hoped for a swift victory but by late 1914 the fighting on the Western Front had reached a stalemate. Both sides on the Western Front began to use trenches. In the trenches, the soldiers battled not just shells and bullets but also the environment. If trenches became waterlogged, soldiers could get ‘trench foot’. Elsewhere, for instance in Gallipoli (in modern-day Turkey), soldiers were tortured by thirst and plagued by disease including malaria and sand-fly fever.

The British and French tried to break the stalemate on the Western Front by launching an attack to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula, which was under the control of Germany’s ally, the Ottoman Empire. After an unsuccessful attempt by the Allied navies to force a way through the Dardanelles, two landings of troops were made on the peninsula in April and August 1915. Despite heavy fighting the Allies were unable to make any progress and Gallipoli was evacuated in January 1916.

One of the biggest land battles of the First World War was the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front which started on the 1st July 1916 and lasted until November of the same year. The 36th (Ulster) Division suffered 2,000 deaths and another 3,000 casualties during the attacks in the Thiepval area on the 1st July. Later, in September 1916, the 16th (Irish) Division endured over 4,000 casualties in operations around the village of Ginchy.

WAR AT SEA

Control of the seas was vital to enable the transportation of troops, as well as the importation of food and supplies. Men from Newry and Mourne served in the Royal and merchant navies. The biggest naval battle of the war, the Battle of Jutland, took place off the coast of Denmark on 31st May 1916. In total over 250 vessels took part in the battle but the outcome was indecisive. Though the British lost more ships and men, the German High Seas Fleet largely stayed at home for the rest of the war.

The war at sea was also fought underneath the water. Mines and torpedoes were a great threat. German U-boats (submarines) sunk an enormous amount of British ships. On 7th May 1915 a German U-boat sunk the British passenger liner, RMS Lusitania, off the coast of County

Thomas Lundy from Newry was killed whilst serving in Gallipoli (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Company Sergeant Major William Taylor, from Newry, was killed at the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916 (Courtesy of John Taylor)

Cork. Losses were high with over 1,190 losing their lives. Among those who were drowned was one passenger and several members of the crew who came from the south Down and south Armagh area. In May 1918 a German U-boat sunk several Kilkeel fishing vessels. Though the lives of the fishermen were saved, they faced economic hardship with the loss of their livelihoods.

WAR IN THE AIR

Aeroplanes were a relatively recent invention at the start of the First World War. In 1914 Britain had both the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), established in 1912 and run by the army, and the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS). Both of these units merged in April 1918 to create the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Initially planes were used to carry out observation or spying (reconnaissance) tasks in order to get information about the enemy’s movements and defences. As the war progressed and planes such as the Sopwith Camel and the German Fokkers were developed, planes were also used for aerial combat. Fights between planes in the sky became known as ‘dogfights’ and the top fighter pilots, who were credited with shooting down several enemy aircraft, were known as ‘aces’.

A number of flying aces during the First World War came from Newry and Mourne, including Edward Dawson Atkinson of Warrenpoint, Arthur Willoughby Falls Glenny from Newry and Guy William Price, who was born in Rostrevor in 1895. Flight Commander Price was one of four Irish aces who served with the Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War. He scored twelve aerial victories between December 1917 and February 1918 and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Bar within a 22-day period. He was killed on 18th February 1918 when his Sopwith Camel was shot down by a German ace.

Private James Joseph Tohill joined the Royal Marines in October 1914. He served on HMS Colossus. Originally from Belfast, he later settled in Warrenpoint (Courtesy of Brendan Tohill)

Surgeon Probationer David Henry Ferris, a member of the ‘Francis Crossle’, No. 83, Newry Masonic Lodge, was killed in the Battle of Jutland (Courtesy of Newry Masonic Lodge)

Guy William Price (Courtesy of the RAF Museum, London, AC97-93-262b)

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

THE LAND WAR

1. Use the Internet to locate maps of the key areas of the world that saw fighting during the First World War.

2. John Bannon from Newry served initially in the Royal Irish Rifles and then in East Africa with the King’s African Rifles. He wrote a personal account of his wartime experiences. Look at the photographs of him in uniform and read his description of the African kit that he received.

“[…] when I opened this box and saw the kit I thought I was to be in Africa for the rest of my life. Six khaki shirts with spine pads; eighteen pairs [of] socks; mosquito boots and net water boots; deck shoes; three pairs [of] military boots; bath towels; […] and dozens of other articles.”

• How did the uniforms of the two regiments differ?

• Why do you think this might have been?

2. The following letter includes information about life in the trenches and service at the front.

Letter from Private Rigby of the Canadian Expeditionary Force to his brother in Newry (Printed in The Newry Reporter, 20th March 1915):

We have now been in France over a month, and have been in the trenches for the past three weeks. They (the trenches) are not as wet in our part as we expected; although they are not very clean, they are fairly dry, and we have a good lot of straw in the bottom for standing on. When

John Bannon in the uniform of the Royal Irish Rifles (left) and in the uniform of the King’s African Rifles (Courtesy of Patrick Bannon)

we have finished our trench spell we billet in some barns about five miles back from the firing line, so we are not as badly fixed as some of the boys. We have had a very rough time since we landed here, but we don’t object to this as we knew when we joined we were not coming to a picnic. I have not had my clothes off for the past few weeks; this feels a bit odd at the start; but you get used to it through time, the only things we had time to change were our socks; these, I might state, are one of our principal items in a game like this, so I can do with all of them you send out. We had to march most of the way from our landing place to our present position, and all along the way we saw nothing but ruin and desolation; some of the villages and towns we passed through were one mass of fallen masonry, you could hardly distinguish the streets, while a few others seem to have escaped without a scratch. […] Our first trench was about 700 yards from the Germans; but our present one, which is labelled ‘Duck Your Nut Avenue,’ is only 75 yards from them, so I guess we take jolly good care to duck. […] We have been through some pretty tough fighting lately, and have lost some men […] but we are handing the goods out in fine style to the Germans. Phil Griffin, from Newry, is in my company, so we can get an odd chat. […] The barn we are in now is labelled ‘The Gaiety,’ so we are holding a concert in it to-night; on the outside wall there is a notice chalked, ‘Ladies Free’ […]

• What were conditions in the trenches like?

• Were conditions in all trenches the same?

• Can you find any evidence of humour in Private Rigby’s letter?

• Were men constantly serving in frontline trenches?

3. Use the Internet to find out more about conditions in the trenches.

“I have been out now since 23rd November, and am getting pretty tired of the trenches. It is like living in a ditch dug through a lough, with all the country flooded, and the water in the trenches up to your waist.”

• Imagine you are a soldier at the front. Write a diary account recording the conditions in the trenches and the dangers you face.

THE WAR AT SEA

4. This image shows the British medal produced to replicate, for publicity purposes, an original German medal that marked the sinking of the Lusitania.

Captain Roger Hall of Narrow Water Castle, Warrenpoint, by William Conor, 1917 (Courtesy of Marcus Hall). In January Roger Hall wrote to James Heather of Water Street, Newry:

Lusitania medal

This is a recruiting poster that was designed after the sinking of the Lusitania.

• With reference to both the medal and poster, how was the sinking of the Lusitania used to gain support for the British war effort?

5. Use the Internet to find out more about the Battle of Jutland.

• Why was it the only major sea battle of the First World War?

• Why were many people, on both sides, disappointed at the outcome?

THE WAR IN THE AIR

6. The following are citations relating to awards given to airmen from Newry and Mourne during the First World War.

Guy William Price was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1918: “In recognition of the gallantry and determination displayed by him in leading offensive patrols, which have constantly engaged and driven away enemy aircraft. On 2 January 1918, he observed seven Albatross scouts, and, crossing the lines in the clouds, he attacked one, which fell vertically, bursting into flames, and crashed to the ground. He has on several other occasions driven enemy aircraft down out of control.” (The Edinburgh Gazette, 26th February 1918)

His Bar in lieu of a second award followed a few weeks later, with the citation stating how “on 22 January 1918, when on offensive patrol, he observed seven Albatross scouts. He dived and fired into one of the enemy aircraft, which stalled, side-slipped, and eventually fell over on its back, disappearing through a thick bank of clouds, and was observed by others of our machines to fall completely out of control. On several other occasions he has destroyed enemy machines or brought them down completely out of control.” (The Edinburgh Gazette, 19th March 1918)

Captain Arthur Willoughby Falls Glenny of the Royal Air Force was the son of Mr J. S. Glenny of Glenville, Newry. He was awarded the Military Cross in 1918 “for conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty, both in reconnaissance and as an artillery observer. On one occasion, although shot down, he brought in valuable information. On several occasions he conducted successful knockout shoots with various batteries, obtained excellent photographs, and did much work of a very high standard.” (The Newry Reporter, 30th July 1918).

• From reading the citations, what types of activities did airmen undertake during the First World War?

• What dangers did they face?

Irish recruitment poster, depicting the sinking of the Lusitania

Guy William Price (Courtesy of the RAF Museum, London, AC97-93268002)

SECTION 4: THE HOME FRONT

IMMEDIATE IMPACT

Following the declaration of war, banks remained closed for a few days to prevent people withdrawing their money in a panic. There was, though, a rush to purchase bread and other foodstuffs. Horse prices also rose, as they were required for use by the military. The war provoked a wave of anti-German feeling. In particular, it was feared that Germans and those with German-sounding names were spies for the enemy. Patrols were placed at the Silent Valley for fear that the Germans might poison the water supply. The British Parliament passed legislation relating to “enemy aliens” living in the British Isles. This resulted in the internment of German and Austrian men of military age. Alexander Halbach, a German who lived in Warrenpoint, for instance, was interned at Oldcastle in County Meath and German waiters working in the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle were arrested. Soon after the outbreak of the war, the British government also passed the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). This imposed a number of restraints on the daily life of those living on the home front.

PROTECTING THE COAST

Lights near the coast had to be extinguished or well shielded. This was because the authorities were afraid that coastal towns might be at risk from bombardment by German cruisers.

INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE

The fortunes of local industries fluctuated during the war. In particular, the linen industry struggled in the initial years of the war due to difficulties obtaining flax from Belgium and the loss of Continental orders. As a result, workers in many mills found their hours reduced. Later in the war some of the factories secured contracts to produce a range of goods for military purposes. Bessbrook Mill, for instance, produced fine linen for use in aircraft.

Shortages of food and raw materials led to a major campaign to increase agricultural production. The acreage under flax in south Down and south Armagh increased as the war progressed. With the intensification of the German submarine threat the work of farmers became even more important and the income of many farmers

Public house in Rostrevor (© National Museums Northern Ireland, HOYFM. WAG.2040). The Defence of the Realm Act insisted on the production of weaker beer in Britain and Ireland and the buying of rounds was frowned upon.

Kilkeel Harbour (Courtesy of Bill Quinn)

Bessbrook Mill (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

rose during the war. Farmers though had increased expenses to bear, including higher prices for seeds and animal food.

RATIONING

People were encouraged to save resources by eating less meat and bread and using less coal. Due to the coal restrictions many people in the Mournes began to use turf again. In order to economise fuel, railway restrictions were introduced. Recreational travel, public entertainment and sporting activities were all affected. In 1916 the government introduced British Summertime. By moving clocks forward an hour in spring and back an hour in autumn, it was designed to save energy and boost industrial production. From 1917 allotments were set up and people were encouraged to grow their own vegetables. Special classes giving instruction on cultivating allotments, as well as demonstrations of wartime cookery, were offered by the Technical Schools in Newry and Mourne.

The high amount of shipping lost due to the German submarines gave shipbuilding manufacture greater importance. Early in 1918 a shipyard was established in Warrenpoint and by November 1918 it was employing around 300 labourers. The Warrenpoint Shipyard produced concrete ships.

In 1918 the government introduced rationing to ensure a fair distribution of food. Everyone was issued with ration cards, later replaced by ration books, which guaranteed set amounts of meat, sugar, lard and butter per week. Heavy fines were imposed on those who flouted the rules.

Newry Agricultural Show Committee, c.1914 (Courtesy of The Newry Reporter)

Cartoon from The Newry Reporter, 23rd May 1916

The Creteforge under construction in the J. & R. Thompson shipyard, Warrenpoint, 1918 (© National Museums Northern Ireland Collection, BELUM. Y1332)

Postcard sent to Miss. M. Elliott, Whitecross (Courtesy of Beatrice Elliott). Posters and other items encouraged people to save resources by eating less meat and bread. Pulse foods, such as beans and peas, were recommended as a replacement for meat.

VOLUNTARY WORK

Many people undertook voluntary work such as fundraising or providing comforts, including clothing, chocolate and cigarettes, for the troops. People were also encouraged to invest in victory by lending their money to the government through war bonds. The first National War Savings Committee Sub-branch in the Newry and Mourne district was opened at Rostrevor. Rostrevor also had a very active War Hospitals Supply Sub-Depot, which engaged the efforts of local men, women and children in support of the war. Men, particularly those either too old or too young to fight, or those who failed to pass the medical inspection for active service, used their carpentry skills to produce splints, crutches, bed rests and folding bed tables.

Site of the War Hospital Supply Sub-Depot, Rostrevor (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

INFLUENZA

As the First World War entered its final stages, influenza presented people with a new danger. The influenza pandemic of 1918–1919 killed approximately 100 million people around the world. It spread in three almost simultaneous waves. Initially it appeared in the spring and summer of 1918. The virus returned in autumn and winter 1918, and reappeared for a final deadly period in the early months of 1919. Unlike other ’flu epidemics, it attacked healthy young adults and it has been suggested that troop movements during the closing months of the war, and subsequent demobilisation, spread infection.

Newry managed to escape the first influenza wave but this meant that the residents were not able to build up any immunity to the virus. Reports of influenza in Newry appeared in October 1918 and, during the second wave,

Newry Poor Law Union experienced the second highest influenza death rate per thousand of population in Ulster. Many also died from related illnesses, such as pneumonia. Newry had the highest death rate per thousand of population from pneumonia not only among the principal towns in Ulster but across Ireland as a whole during the second wave. In total, Newry Poor Law Union had 233 influenza deaths in late 1918, while Kilkeel Poor Law Union had 41.

As influenza moved through the district public buildings, like schools, cinemas and libraries, were closed. The Council oversaw the disinfection of drains and streets and Newry Technical School’s Domestic Department provided food for the sick. Local churches and charities such as the St Vincent de Paul Society also provided relief. A Relief of Distress Fund Committee was established in Newry and by December 1918 it had raised almost £735.

The Domestic Economy Room at the Municipal Technical School, Newry (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR

1. The following are extracts from newspapers published during the first week of the war.

From The Frontier Sentinel, 8th August 1914: WAR FEVER IN NEWRY: Since the outbreak of hostilities people of every class and creed have followed the announcements in the newspapers with breathless interest, and at every corner and every shop counter the principal topic under discussion is the affair on the Continent. […]

The cost of living has gone up exceedingly high, and many shopkeepers seem to have taken an unjust advantage of the opportunity. The poor are already suffering acutely, and panic prices are being paid by all who can afford to do so, for such commodities as flour, meal, sugar etc. In the midst of all, however, there is comparative content, due to the conviction that the British colours will emerge victorious from the fray. […]

Many families are certain to be subjected to great sufferings through the withdrawal of their bread-winners. Out of one household five brothers have gone.

From The Newry Reporter, 11th August 1914: Yesterday a sale of horses was held at Monaghan Street […] Big numbers of horses were paraded, and good prices paid. […] Many farmers are seeking exorbitant prices for quite ordinary animals, but they should remember that should the Government fail to secure a sufficient number of horses in the ordinary way, a system of commandeering will come into force.

A temporary police barracks has been erected near the Egyptian Arch for the accommodation of twenty men of the Royal Irish Constabulary, who will patrol the Viaduct and arch night and day. The men will be fully armed, and the public are cautioned to give the Viaduct a wide berth especially at night.

Prices of food-stuffs in Newry are easy and trade is but normal, the rush to buy having subsided.

• What impact did the war have on civilian life in August 1914?

• Why were so many horses taken to the front?

• Why do you think a temporary police barracks was erected near the Egyptian Arch?

ANTI-GERMAN SENTIMENT

2. The following sources give an insight into how Germans in Newry and Mourne were regarded following the outbreak of the First World War.

Extract from The Frontier Sentinel, 8th August 1914: Nobody could have imagined that the antiGerman spirit could manifest itself so suddenly and to such an extent.

Extract from The Down Recorder, 8th August 1914: Here as elsewhere, at the stations near the water main from Belfast to the Silent Valley, the police establishments have been strengthened to permit of day and night patrols, lest the water supply be poisoned. The authorities had reason to suspect designs by foreigners, and every precaution is being taken. The police are armed with rifles and ball cartridge, and their orders are to shoot anyone tampering with the air-shafts if capture is impossible.

Extract from a letter from Rev. William Moore, Newry, to the Editor of The Newry Reporter, 10th August 1914 (Reproduced in The Newry Reporter, 11th August 1914): On Saturday

evening, I received a letter from Mr. David Abrahamson, of New Street, a member of the Jewish community, complaining of being annoyed, and insulted, and threatened with assault, by persons in Newry and Bessbrook, who labour under the impression that all Jews are Germans. […] I am confident that none of the respectable people of Newry and neighbourhood would give any countenance to such ignorant and intolerant conduct. Mr. Abrahamson is not a German; he is by birth a Russian, and for years has been a naturalised Englishman. He is an inoffensive citizen of Newry, and a highly respected member of our community. […] The annoyance that Mr. Abrahamson has been subjected to, is in the highest degree reprehensible; it is a miserable expression of a spurious patriotism, and savours more of German than Irish manners.

Extract from The Down Recorder, 19th September 1914: It would seem that the roundingup of alien enemies is now being undertaken systematically. Following upon the arrest and imprisonment of a Slieve Donard hotel waiter [Peter Zimmer] found with a revolver in his possession, two other employees in the same hotel, John Thomas and Fritz Moser, sons of ‘the Fatherland,’ were on Thursday arrested and taken to Belfast, where they were given over to the military authorities.

• Why were patrols placed at the Silent Valley?

• What happened to German waiters employed at the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle?

• Why did Rev. Moore write to the Editor of The Newry Reporter?

3. The following two sources refer to the impact of the war on those with German-sounding names.

Advertisement in The Down Recorder, 8th August 1914:

HECKENBERG’S CIRCUS. SPECIAL NOTICE.

IT HAS BEEN RUMOURED THAT the above concern is a German Show. We particularly wish to inform the Public that this is not so. Furthermore, if such was the case the Government or Authorities WOULD NOT ALLOW A GERMAN SHOW, or even a German subject, to travel round the country during the present Crisis. This Establishment is SOLELY BRITISH, with the exception of TOGO, who is a native OF JAPAN.

Article from World’s Fair, 3rd April 1915:

A CIRCUS HORSE DISPUTE: JUDGE AND PROFESSIONAL NAMES:

At Newry Quarter Sessions on Wednesday, before his Honour Judge Orr, K.C. Henry Hazenberg, Waterford, circus proprietor, sued Francis Carvill, Warrenpoint, for £30 damages for that the defendant got into his possession a horse, the property of the plaintiff, in the month of July last, and converted same to his own use, and damages for the detention of said horse and for consequential damages.

Mr. John Cusack […] appeared for the plaintiff; Mr. P. J. O’Hare […] represented the defendant. The plaintiff’s name was entered as Henry Chadwick, and His Honour asked why he had changed his name.

Mr. Cusack said he was an Englishman, and traded under the name of Hazenberg before the war, as he found it more profitable, and he changed it to his own name. His Honour, on plaintiff entering the witness-box, asked him where he was born.

Witness: In London.

His Honour: Why did you take the name of a brutal German? – It was practically a show name. Mr. Cusack: All shows are supposed to come from Germany. (Laughter.)

Plaintiff said he had not given himself a German name since the war started. […]

Witness said Continental names were very common before the war, and with a Continental name one always got a good business.

• Why do you think the owner of Heckenberg’s circus felt compelled to pay for an advertisement in The Down Recorder?

• Why did Henry Chadwick change his trading name to Hazenberg and then back again?

4. The following obituary for Mrs Eleanor Halbach of the Tourist Hotel, Duke Street, Warrenpoint, was printed in The Newry Reporter, 18th November 1916.

The wife of Mr. Alexander Halbach, an alien, interned at the beginning of the war at Oldcastle, County Meath, she had the sympathy of all classes and creeds at the misfortune which came upon her – first her failing health, and second the loss of the companionship of a faithful and devoted husband, through the inexorable decree of fate. Mrs. Halbach was a very popular figure in Warrenpoint, and indeed her husband shared in the esteem and regard of all, most people recognising that the war was an independent factor altogether from a man who had spent the major portion of his life in Ireland. The General Internment Order was issued, and Mr. Halbach had to go along with the rest. Mrs. Halbach’s health got no better, but, on the contrary, she gradually got worse, and the people of the town recognising the special circumstances, got up a strong petition to the Authorities to have Mr. Halbach released, and in this petition the Urban Council unanimously joined officially. The result was that Mr. Halbach was let out on parole about two months ago, and subsequently his parole was extended twice under the special circumstances. […] she had been in business in Warrenpoint for 22 years.

• Why was Alexander Halbach interned at Oldcastle, County Meath?

• What evidence is there of neighbourliness persisting in Warrenpoint with regard to the Halbachs?

PROTECTING THE COAST

5. The following advertisement appeared in The Newry Reporter, 7th February 1918.

• What impact did the war have on those leaving near the coast?

• How did McArevey’s seek to increase business as a result of the new Order issued by the Government?

INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE

6. The following sources provide an insight into industry and agriculture during the war.

County Armagh police reports (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, CO 904/97, /102 and /107):

July 1915: Some of the mills & factories in the Armagh District are working short time owing to scarcity of flax. […] The prices of provisions, coal, & all necessaries have risen considerably since the commencement of the war, and have hit people with limited means rather severely.

February 1917: I believe the compulsory tillage question is being well taken up in this county and a large amount of land is being broken up. It is difficult enough to get horses and labour to do the ploughing.

October 1918: The weaving factories are working hard at aeroplane cloth.

Extract from The Newry Telegraph, 28th February 1918:

LABOUR FOR THE HARVEST: Mr. R. D. Henry, Newry, said he had been asked by various public bodies to propose to the directors that they should close the Goraghwood quarries for six or seven weeks during the harvest, so as to give the men an opportunity of assisting the farmers in the saving of their crops. […] The question was: was the breaking of a ton of stone of more importance to the nation than the saving of a ton of foodstuffs?

The Chairman pointed out that last year the men were told they could go to the harvest, and that their places would be kept open for them, and those conditions would hold good for the present year.

Article from The Newry Telegraph, 11th April 1918:

WAR OFFICE CONGRATULATES LOCAL FIRM:

Yesterday the Bessbrook Spinning Company, Limited, who for some time past have been extensively engaged on aeroplane fabrics, received the following telegram from the War Office:-

“The Secretary of State for Air and Air Councils ask me to convey to your firm, your staff, and workers, their sincere thanks and appreciation of your able efforts during the past six-months, which have enabled the Royal Air Force in the field to receive such satisfactory supply of aircraft equipment, and to make good their losses so well through the unexampled fighting of last month.

GENERAL ALEXANDER, C.S.D. Aero. Supply.”

• According to the police reports, what were some of the economic effects of the war?

• Why do you think quarrymen were released to assist with the harvest?

• Use the Internet to find out how linen, for instance from Bessbrook Mill, was used in the manufacture of aircraft during the First World War.

WARTIME FOOD

7. This advertisement and the newspaper article refer to the setting up of allotments in the Newry and Mourne district.

Article from The Newry Reporter, 6th February 1917: The Allotments Committee [of Warrenpoint Urban Council] reported that they had acquired the field at the Shore Road, Warrenpoint. The field had been divided into 29 allotments, each being half a rood in area. Sixteen allotments had been granted, and it was expected that further applications would be received. Some of the allotment holders had requested

Advertisement from The Newry Reporter, 9th January 1917

the Committee to arrange about procuring seeds and manure for them, and the Committee took this opportunity of bringing the matter to the attention of the Council.

• Why were allotments popular during the last couple of years of the First World War?

FUNDRAISING AND VOLUNTARY WORK

8. The following is the text of an article which appeared in The Newry Reporter, 15th February 1917:

ANCIENT ORDER OF HIBERNIANS: DIVISION 284, NEWRY:

A special meeting of the Management Committee of the Newry Division of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (Board of Erin) Friendly Society was held […] in the hall, the Mall […]. The business was to consider the advisability of investing portion of the funds in War Loan. It was unanimously decided to purchase £200 worth of War Stock […]

The Committee, in taking the above course, felt they had no alternative, for the reason that by neglecting to do so they were shirking in the present crisis the obvious duty of citizenship, for they hold that where so many of their brave countrymen have made the supreme sacrifice, it behoves those who cannot offer themselves for active service to at least assist financially when able, and thus help to bring the war to a speedy and successful termination.

• Why did the Ancient Order of Hibernians decide to invest in the War Loan?

9. The following newspaper article from The Newry Reporter, 11th July 1916, describes the activities of the Voluntary Aid Detachment based at Newtownhamilton, County Armagh:

COMFORTS FOR WOUNDED SOLDIERS:

The work party in connection with the Newtownhamilton Voluntary Aid Detachment has just finished a large and assorted consignment of comforts for the wounded Soldiers, and have forwarded them to St. John’s Association. The money to purchase the materials was subscribed in Newtownhamilton and the district, and the members of the class gave their services ungrudgingly. The work was carried on under the superintendence of Miss McFerran, Commandant.

• What were ‘comforts’?

• Can you think of any examples of what they might have consisted of?

10. The following is an extract from the published memories of Warrenpoint man, Robert Jones:

Schooldays […] lasted for me, only until I was 14 years, when I commenced my apprenticeship with the family firm of James Wilson & Sons. Times were hard in those days. […] There was never any doubt in my mind or indecision on my part as to what I should do. As a very young boy […] I saw the beginnings of Tech. Education in Warrenpoint during the First World War when, in a wooden hut, on the side of the present Baptist Church, I was allowed in to see the class of men and women under Alex. McKibbin. They made crutches, splints, [and] leg rests, while the ladies gathered sphagnum moss which, because of its curative qualities, was gathered and sent to England and France to be used with bandages, all for the wounded of that “war to end all wars!” Even as I write these lines, the smell of wood shavings and glue linger in my nostrils. (Reproduced from Robert Jones, “Do you mind the time?” (1983), pp 16–17, courtesy of his daughters, Carol Day and Denise Cantley)

• In what ways were men and women from Warrenpoint able to contribute to the war effort?

• Was there a difference between what the men and the women did?

• Why was sphagnum moss gathered?

• Where was their handiwork sent?

• What impact did watching the activities at “the Tech.” have on the young Robert Jones?

11. The following is an extract from the witness statement John McCoy, from south Armagh, provided to the Bureau of Military History (Courtesy of Irish Military Archives).

In our locality and, I may say, all over South Armagh a spirit of at least tolerance of the British war effort was everywhere apparent. Dances and entertainments were frequently held for the British Red Cross and a lot of “Nationalists” attended. Announcements were frequently made of locals killed in action or missing at the war fronts. There was generally a feeling of disinterestedness in every phase of political life at this time. Prices for all classes of farm produce were high and the farmers were making money. Any person who worked had piles of money to spend and many were spending it freely. I really thought that the number of people with any interests outside making money out of the war situation were few. At the same time although the people themselves did not know it there was a rebel tradition lying dormant in the breasts of most of our people which only required rousing. […]

• According to McCoy, how did Nationalists on the home front react to the war effort?

• What group did economically well because of the war?

• In his final sentence McCoy mentions ‘a rebel tradition lying dormant’. What event brought this tradition to the fore in 1916?

• The witness statements given to the Bureau of Military History were provided some time after the events they describe. Do you think this weakens their value as an historical source?

INFLUENZA

12. Look at this advertisement and newspaper article on the influenza epidemic in Newry.

From The Frontier Sentinel, 9th November 1918: THE EPIDEMIC IN NEWRY: URBAN COUNCIL AND THE SITUATION: The Urban Council have cautioned the public against the danger of “wakes,” and for many reasons, apart from those directly associated with the epidemic, it is to be hoped the warning will have a salutary effect. The picture palaces have been closed, the churches disinfected, and outside the latter there have been no large assemblies of people during the past week. […]

The Town Surveyor in his report, stated:- ‘In consequence of the epidemic of influenza, I had all the street gullies and surface water gratings cleared out during the past week and filled with a solution of carbolic acid. Should the weather improve, it was also my intention to have the streets sprayed by a watering-cart with a similar substance.’

Public notice placed in The Newry Reporter, 16th November 1918, by Newry Urban District Council

• What practical steps did Newry Urban District Council take to try and reduce the influenza threat?

13. The following is an extract from the published reminiscences of Robert Jones, who lived at Warrenpoint.

The post-war slump came, and with it bad ‘Flu which claimed so many victims, nearly every family being affected, either by the illness itself or the death of relatives. I remember it so well […] because my mother took the precaution of making a little bag and after putting a Camphor block in it and pulling a drawstring, my sister and I were made to wear them round our necks. Well, we remained free from the illness, whether the old wife’s cure was the cause of our being immune, who can tell! (Reproduced from Robert Jones, “Do you mind the time?” (1983), p. 69, courtesy of his daughters, Carol Day and Denise Cantley)

• How did Robert’s mother try to prevent him and his sister catching the deadly influenza?

14. The following is taken from a leaflet written by James N. Richardson of Bessbrook.

• What advice does it give to help prevent infection?

• Can you design a poster which will convey some of Richardson’s suggestions in a visual way?

Leaflet entitled, A Word from James N. Richardson to his Dear People at Bessbrook about the Influenza, November 1918 (© Armagh County Museum Collection, ARMCM.88.1983)

SECTION 5: WOMEN IN WARTIME

The women of Newry and Mourne were involved in many aspects of the war, both at home and abroad.

WOMEN IN WAR SERVICE

Qualified nurses joined the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service, or its Reserve branch, while others joined organisations such as the Voluntary Aid Detachments. The women in these nursing organisations saw service abroad as well as at home and some were awarded medals. Nursing work could be dangerous,

particularly for those who worked close to the frontline. Ethel Isabella Devenish-Meares, the only female listed on Newry’s Roll of Honour, was a nursing sister in France. Injured during the war, Devenish-Meares was awarded both the Royal Red Cross decoration and the Military Medal.

A smaller number of women from the district served as medical doctors. These included Dr Elizabeth Bell, born at Altnaveigh, Newry, who was in charge of a hospital ward in Malta and Dr Mary Irene Adams, born at Newry, who served with The Scottish Women’s Hospitals as an Assistant Medical Officer in France from May 1918 to January 1919.

In 1917 the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps was set up for women to undertake support roles behind the front line. This allowed more men to go the Front. These women served as cooks, waitresses, mechanics, drivers and typists. Other women went off to work in munitions factories.

Ethel Isabella Devenish-Meares (Reproduced from An Historical Roll … of the Women of the British Empire to whom the Military Medal has beenAwarded during the GreatWar … (Sheffield, 1919). She served throughout the war in France and in Belgium as Sister and Matron in Casualty Clearing Stations and in hospitals.

Clara Crozier from Altnaveigh, Newry, enrolled in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. She is the only female to have a First World War Commonwealth War Grave in the Newry and Mourne area (Courtesy of Pauline Moore)

Ada Bodart with her medals (Courtesy of Boulder Public Library, Colorado)

ADA BODART

Ada Bodart, who was born in Newry in 1874, assisted Edith Cavell to help French and British soldiers and prisoners of war in German-occupied Belgium escape to neutral Holland. Bodart and Cavell were arrested, along with other members of the underground network, and were tried. While Cavell was executed, Ada was sentenced to fifteen years’ imprisonment with hard labour. She was released after the end of the war and in 1928 starred in a film depicting the role she had played during the war.

ON THE HOME FRONT

Women had to manage their homes and feed their families. A separation allowance, which was paid to soldiers’ dependents, helped with this by providing a guaranteed regular income. Many women, though, suffered personal tragedy with the loss of husbands, sons, fathers, brothers and lovers during the war.

Lots of women engaged in fundraising activities in aid of wounded soldiers, as well as for prisoners of war, and Belgian refugees were housed in Newry and Mourne. Guilds and committees were formed by local women to coordinate work for the war effort. In August 1914 a Guild was formed in Newry to undertake the providing of comforts. The garments that the women produced were useful to soldiers in the trenches and to those recovering in hospital. Nuns in the district sent rosary beads and scapulars (small religious objects worn around the neck) to Catholic servicemen. The women of Newry also set up a buffet at Edward Street Railway Station that provided free meals to servicemen going to, or returning from, the front and in the space of sixteen months had provided 14,754 meals.

The Countess of Kilmorey in nurses’s uniform, 1914. She was involved in fundraising activities during the war (Courtesy of Down County Museum)

When the war started, the suffragettes suspended their campaign and participated in voluntary work to support the war effort. Dora Mellone, a leading suffragist in the Warrenpoint and Rostrevor Suffrage Society, and Secretary of the Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation, became the very active Secretary of the Suffrage Emergency Council, which oversaw constructive work in Ireland during the war. Dora explained her position as “serving suffrage in a new way” and sought to ensure that women’s involvement in war work did not come at the expense of the rights of working women.

As the war progressed and casualties mounted cotton wool became scarce and expensive. Women in the Mournes collected sphagnum moss which, when dried and treated, was made into bandages and used as a replacement for cotton. Many women in Kilkeel, Rostrevor and Warrenpoint were involved in picking the moss and making the bandages which were sent to France, Egypt and elsewhere.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

WOMEN ABROAD

1. The following is taken from an article in The Down Recorder, 29th July 1916. This newspaper would have been read by people living in the Mournes, for instance, in Kilkeel.

County Down has sent out a fair quota of V.A.D. workers. Few people by this time have failed to learn something of the members of the V.A.D. department of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and British Red Cross Society. Women who knew nothing about scrubbing, washing dishes, cooking, and domestic labours generally have applied themselves to learn such tasks. In every direction they are found undertaking the ordinary toil of the daily routine as a labour of love. A simple kitchen out of which meals are sent constantly to hundreds of hungry soldiers is an education in itself in method, regularity, and happy industry. Women have been despatched to France, Egypt, Malta, and Salonika, and wherever they have gone they have put forth their best efforts. General service superintendents are wanted, as the whole sphere of operations in the part of women increases. Dispensers, clerical workers, cooks, both heads and assistants, telephone operators, storekeepers, X-ray and laboratory attendants, give some idea of the different ways in which trained women can help the work of the nation.

• What tasks could women who joined the Voluntary Aid Detachments undertake?

• According to the article, where did VADs serve during the war?

2. The following gives extracts from the diary of Amy Hodson, a young teenager living in Brussels in 1915, and two letters written by Ada Bodart in 1919. They refer to Bodart’s activities during the First World War. Ada, who married a Belgian man in 1898, was born in Newry in 1874, where her uncle, Robert Hogg Doherty, was for many years the Town Clerk. The spelling and grammar in the letters are given as they appear in the original.

Extracts from the diary of Amy Hodson (Courtesy of Monica Kendall):

10 October 1915: Met Mrs B’s children coming back from the Kommandantur [German headquarters], and they said that they spoke of Miss Cavell being shot, and as she had not had half so many Tommy Atkins as Mrs B. they are very much frightened of their mother being shot too.

12 October 1915: Miss Cavell […] shot this morning by those fiends! Outrageous thing! Several people who saw Miss Cavell yesterday said that she was perfectly calm and dignified. She has died like a martyr. […]

8 p.m. Madame Bodart is sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour.

Letter written by Ada Bodart to ‘Your Excellency’, 14th May 1919 (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, FO 388/513):

There are four months, since I gave my reports, to the General Lyon, English militaire attache to the Legation to Bruselles, till this present date, there is not an answer which I think is very unkind, considering all I have done and suffered in a German Prison, during three years for having kept, fed clothed and conducted into Holland, the English soldiers. The circumstances in [which] I and my two children at present is very sad, as we have lost all, of course as I am Belgium by marriage, the Belgium Government will restore the value of my furniture, and etc. but when? in waiting this promised time I am obliged to live in a very small furnished flat, almost starving. I feel quite sure that the rich English Government will not leave a poor widow and her two children without help. Useless I go into detail, the Belgium press has spoken enough of my devotement, I am Ada Bodart condemned with Miss Cavell, in 1915 as we worked together […]. I simply reclaim the money I spent during my nine months of work, which amounts only to a few thousand francs.

Had I reflected such a time to take the soldiers into my home, caused my present ruin and risk of my life (as the ministre of Spain Le Marquis de Villalobar svaed my head, othe[r]wise to day I should be side by side with Miss Cavell as we were comdemned to the same fate) I may state what a different result might have beem on both sides. […]

Letter written by Ada Bodart to ‘His Royale Majesty’s Secretary’, 23rd June 1919 (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, FO 383/513):

I am Ada Bodart who was condemned to death with Miss Cavell, for the same cause, but through the great influence of the Spanish Minister received grace to penal servitude for life.

Have been three years and four months in Germany in Prison. Money could never pay my awful sufferings I had to endure there, loss of health & etc. treated as a criminal. Worked from November 1914 until August 1915 during which time I sent into Holland eight hundred and fifty British soldiers, hid, fed, lodged, clothed and conducted them into Holland, at the risk, you already know. On my return from Germany, I find I am homeless, as the Germans have taken all I possessed […] I simply ask five franks per day for each man, although I kept a great number more than two months, who were ill or wounded; so the small sum is four thousand two hundred and twenty five francs.

It is not a recompense I beg but my own money spent for the British troops. […]

• What did Ada Bodart do for British soldiers in German-occupied Belgium during the First World War?

• What was the name of the English nurse who worked along with Ada Bodart?

• What happened to the nurse and Ada when the Germans found out about their activities?

• Why was Bodart not executed?

• Can you find out more information on Edith Cavell on the Internet?

3. Margaret Anderson from Ballinran, near Kilkeel, was a nurse at Mont Dore Hospital in Bournemouth, England, where she nursed wounded soldiers during the First World War. Whilst working at the hospital she kept an autograph book in which the soldiers she cared for drew pictures and wrote poems. Here are some samples from the autograph book:

Nurse Anderson (Courtesy of Elana Patterson) and items from her First World War autograph book (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

• Which drawings show the horrors of war?

• How do the other drawings and the poem show the sense of humour that the soldiers also possessed?

• Imagine you are a wounded soldier who is being nursed by Margaret Anderson. Either (a) draw a picture or (b) write a poem for her autograph book.

4. Martha and Selina Elliott were sisters from Rathcarbry, near Whitecross, County Armagh. Both nursed in English hospitals during the war. Here is an image of a play that was put on for recuperating soldiers in one of the hospitals that they served in.

Nurses who entertained wounded soldiers in Manchester (Courtesy of Beatrice Elliott)

• Why do you think entertainment was important for boosting the morale of both the soldiers and nurses?

• Imagine you are a nurse in the First World War. Can you write (and perform) a play or song to entertain a group of wounded soldiers.

5. Another nurse from Newry and Mourne who served in the First World War was Mary (Molly) Best. She recorded her memories in the early 1950s and these, along with the collection of photographs that her grandsons retain, have been used to put together the following comic.

Read the comic and then answer the following questions:

• Where was Molly Best from?

• Where did she go to train as a nurse?

• Use the Internet to find out more about the Celtic Park riots in 1912.

• What impression did seeing the Inniskilling Fusiliers march through Omagh have on Molly?

• Where did Molly serve during the First World War?

• How did war give this nurse from rural County Armagh an opportunity to travel and see the world?

• What was her recollection of the Battle of the Somme in 1916?

• What did she think of the wounded soldiers she treated?

• What dangers did she face?

• What did Molly do after the First World War ended?

6. Imagine you are a woman from Newry and Mourne but now in Britain. Perhaps you are serving

Molly Best (holding the packet of Robin starch) along with other nurses in France (Courtesy of Tim Geary and National Museums Northern Ireland, BELUM.SCB2014.40)

as a nurse or with the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, or you may be working in a munitions factory. Use the Internet to research the conditions for women in your chosen role and use that to write a letter back home to your mother in Newry and Mourne, giving her an insight into your life away from home.

WOMEN AT HOME

7. The following newspaper extracts contain information on the activities of Newry and Mourne women who remained at home during the war.

From The Newry Reporter, 22nd August 1914: ROSTREVOR NEWS: RED

CROSS GUILD:

A meeting was held in the grounds of Fairy Hill, Rostrevor (by kind invitation of Col. E. Rossof-Bladensburg) on Wednesday afternoon last, for the purpose of organising a Woman’s Guild, under the Red Cross Association, to provide garments for our soldiers and sailors on active service. Miss Ross-of-Bladensburg presided, and explained the objects of the Guild. A number of ladies volunteered to work on the Band of Helpers, – to cut out the garments, to dispense the work, pack up finished articles, and to collect money to buy materials. It was arranged that every Wednesday afternoon from 2.30 to 6 the Queen Victoria Home would be open for those who wanted work, or leave back the finished articles. There would also be a house in each outlying district for those who lived far away.

From The Newry Reporter, 28th November 1914: WARRENPOINT RED

CROSS WORKERS:

Mrs. Hall, of Narrow-water, Warrenpoint writes:- “The following statement of work done by the Warrenpoint Red Cross workers may interest those who have kindly contributed to the success of the undertaking. Garments received and despatched – 245 pairs of socks, 70 flannel day shirts, 50 calico night shirts, 82 body belts, 42 bed jackets, 57 mufflers, besides helmets, mittens, pillows, pillow cases, handkerchiefs, bandages, splints, tobacco, pipes, cigarettes, soap, vaseline, etc., etc. […]

In addition, the ladies of the Warrenpoint Suffrage Society have most kindly sent in their work to this Branch as follows: 53 pairs of socks, 22 day shirts, 7 night shirts, 22 body belts, 6 bed jackets, 23 mufflers, also blankets, pillows, pillow cases, handkerchiefs, towels, mittens, bandages, etc.

From The Newry Reporter, 9th September 1916: SPHAGNUM

MOSS: MEETING AT KILKEEL:

An enthusiastic meeting was held in the Courthouse, Kilkeel, on Thursday afternoon under the presidency of the Countess of Kilmorey, for the purpose of making arrangements for the collection of sphagnum moss for surgical dressings for wounded soldiers. The meeting was addressed by Lady Kilmorey, Rev. Dr. McMordie, Rev. H. Martin, B.A.; Dr. Floyd, Dr. Evans, Mr. John Russell, and others. Both medical gentlemen explained the advantages of sphagnum moss for the purposes […] which grows in abundance in the district […] Arrangements were made for a large party to meet at the Square, Kilkeel, on Thursday next and proceed to “Deer’s Meadow” for the purpose of getting moss, the next run to be fixed at the conclusion of each day’s gathering. It was also decided that a depot should be opened at the Red Cross Hostel, The Square, Kilkeel, for receiving the moss, and that the V.A.D. should pack and send it to the headquarters in Belfast.

From The Frontier Sentinel, 1st April 1916: REFRESHMENTS FOR SOLDIERS AT NEWRY RAILWAY STATION:

Attention is drawn by the Rev. G. J. Slipper, Unitarian Manse, Newry, to a scheme having for its object the establishment of a free buffet at Edward Street Railway Station, where soldiers and sailors may procure refreshments while waiting for their trains. By kind permission of the Superintendent and of the Stationmaster, the third-class waiting-room has been granted for the purpose, and the ladies will commence the useful work on Tuesday, the 28th [April]. An appeal is made for gifts either of money or cakes, etc.

• Read the above newspaper articles and then make a list of the types of activities undertaken by women on the home front.

• In what ways could those who did not have time to undertake relief work still contribute to the combined war effort?

8. The following extracts give an insight into the activities of the nuns in Newry during the war.

From The Frontier Sentinel, 3rd April 1915: A number of beautiful medals and scapulars that were specially blessed and leaflets containing prayers for soldiers, have, through the kindness of the Sisters of Mercy, Newry, been sent by Mr. J. J. Kavanagh, to Newry men serving in the 1st and 2nd Battalions Royal Irish Rifles.

From The Frontier Sentinel, 4th March 1916: A number of Newry soldiers have written from the seat of war to Mr. John J. Kavanagh, asking him to thank Sister Mary Gabriel, Mercy Convent, for supplying them with “Messengers of the Sacred Heart.” Mr. Kavanagh also desires to thank, on his own behalf, the good Sister for giving him the little books for the Newry boys.

• What did nuns in the district send to Catholic soldiers?

• What are scapulars?

‘The Rosary’ postcard sent by P. J. Lundy to his mother, 1917. He was from Newry and served with the Royal Irish Fusiliers (Courtesy of Marie McKenna).

9. This is an advertisement that the Countess of Kilmorey placed in a newspaper asking for certain items to be collected. In a throwback to the Crimean War, knitted ‘cholera belts’, were asked for. It was once believed that these warded off that disease by keeping the midriff warm.

• Design a more attractive poster to encourage donations of the items sought by the Countess of Kilmorey.

10.

• Why was sphagnum moss collected?

• What was done to the moss after it was collected?

• What did the women at the Guild also make?

• How did the Guild make money to enable them to undertake their activities?

Advertisement placed in The Ulster Echo by the Countess of Kilmorey

The following is taken from the financial report of the Rostrevor Red Cross Work Guild (Courtesy of Down County Museum).

11. Imagine you are a woman living in Newry and Mourne during the First World War. Write a letter to a relative in America describing what you are doing to assist the war effort.

SUFFRAGE DURING THE WAR

12. The following are extracts from The Irish Citizen, a suffrage publication. They were written by Dora Mellone who had been a leading member of the Suffrage Society in Warrenpoint and Rostrevor before the war. During the First World War she was Secretary of the Suffrage Emergency Council.

5th September 1914: When the war-cloud burst, and we knew that all the ordinary form of suffrage activity must be greatly checked, we thought at once of common action in the face of common danger. […] So we organised an Emergency Council of Women Suffragists. […] the nation is in dire peril. The ideal for which it is fighting is one of the ideals for which our woman movement stands – the ideal of honour. So we for the moment will do our utmost to serve the common need and lessen the common suffering.

12th September 1914: For the present our duty is to help to save the nation by lessening its sufferings. […] In other words, for the present we will organise relief work; in the future we will again throw our whole energy in the work for votes for women.

This is an extract from The Newry Reporter, 22nd August 1914:

THE WAR: NEWRY LADIES ORGANISE TO HELP THE SICK AND WOUNDED:

Yesterday, at 12 o’clock noon, a meeting of local ladies was held in the Boardroom, Town Hall, for the purpose of forming a work party or guild to undertake the providing of comforts and materials for the sick and wounded in the European War. […] Mrs. Maude said that the local Suffrage Society was going to start a sewing party, and they would come to the Guild for patterns of whatever articles or garments the Guild wanted them to make.

• What impact did the outbreak of the First World War have on the Irish suffrage campaign?

• How did the members of Newry Suffrage Society contribute to war relief work?

SECTION 6: CHILDREN IN WARTIME

The First World War had an impact on the lives of children living in Newry and Mourne. It caused disruption to home life, with fathers and older brothers or sisters serving abroad. Those away from home kept in touch with their family by writing letters or sending postcards. Some children had to cope with the shock and grief of war deaths.

Children were keen to support their fathers and older siblings by ‘doing their bit’ for the war effort. School children were involved in knitting garments to be sent to the troops and also made and sold flags and other items to raise money for war-related causes. Children collected eggs to be sent to wounded soldiers in hospitals at home and abroad. During May and June 1916 children from Newtownhamilton collected 3,309 eggs in aid of the British Red Cross, the UVF Hospital in Belfast and Joy Street Hospital in Dublin. Sometimes the children drew pictures on the eggs and included their name and address. Occasionally the recipient wrote a thank you letter to the boy or girl who had sent him the egg. Schoolchildren and members of organisations like the Boys’ Brigade put on pantomimes and concerts to entertain wounded servicemen.

Meals were smaller and less appealing, especially when flour was limited and sugar was rationed. Children helped to bring food into the household by digging, weeding and cultivating allotments or gathering fruit for making jam.

Children often created war-themed games to entertain themselves and books and comics were also increasingly war-related, depicting the British as heroic and the Germans as barbaric or cowardly. Before the war, Germany had been one of the biggest toy manufacturers in the world but after the start of the war people in Britain and Ireland stopped buying German products. The windows of local shops were filled with miniature toy soldiers and dolls dressed as nurses, which had been produced within the British Isles.

Florence and John McAllister pictured in 1915 with their sons, Vincent, Aloysius and Raymond. John worked in Newry Post Office and served with the Post Office Rifles (Courtesy of the McAllister family)

This very popular satirical children’s book, published in 1914, parodies the disastrous consequences of misbehaviour (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

This children’s jigsaw originally belonged to a

BELUM.017.1982)

Armagh family. It was a

The war also had an impact on school life. Teachers discussed the war with their classes. Some male teachers left to join the armed forces. Sometimes former pupils visited their old school when on leave from the army and during school assemblies there would be rejoicing when an old boy received a war medal and sadness when it was reported that a former pupil had been killed or wounded.

As the birth rate declined during the war, and the number of fatalities increased, the government and local authorities became more concerned about child welfare. During the war, Newry Urban District Council, as part of a child welfare scheme, appointed its first health visitor. It also distributed milk to the poor and held a special Child Welfare Exhibition in Newry Town Hall.

County

form of British propaganda at the start of the war (© National Museums Northern Ireland,

Mourne Grange Preparatory School, outside Kilkeel. Fifty-one past pupils from the school joined the armed forces. One of the masters, Bertram Best-Dunkley, won the Victoria Cross (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

SCHOOL LIFE

1. The following newspaper extracts discuss aspects of school life in Newry and Mourne during the First World War.

From The Down Recorder, 31st July 1915: The war, it has been observed, has widened the general outlook of even the youngest boy […] School has become part of the greater outside world; the tramp of regiments through the familiar streets shows that these streets lead to somewhere beyond.

From The Newry Reporter, 27th May 1916: MULLAGLASS NATIONAL SCHOOL CONCERT:

That the popular principal of the School, Mr. Thornberry, and his able assistant, Miss McKee, must have been very painstaking in the training of the pupils was demonstrated by the efficient way the boys and girls performed the various actions illustrating their different songs. “The Goose Step,” by the girls, was quite a striking exhibition of the famous German march of which we heard so much during the late months of 1914. It was quite an object lesson in precision, and one could not help imagining what an impressive sight it was to the unfortunate Belgians. […] The girls also went through various domestic duties, including sewing, knitting, and, of course, gossip, which was really very amusing. “The Captain of a Mighty Army” was sung by the boys in martial style, one of the number taking the solo part, and to complete the idea they were armed with air guns. The voices of both boys and girls were listened to with pleasure in the final chorus, “The Lads in Navy Blue,” which was rendered in real nautical style.

This pantomime advert appeared in The Newry Reporter, 12th January 1918.

• According to these newspaper extracts, how did the war impact on local school pupils?

2. What do you think children learned about the war? Look at this composition on “The War”, written by Annie Heslip, a student at Newry Model School, for ideas.

School essay on the First World War (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

‘DOING THEIR BIT’

3. The following newspaper extracts describe some of the activities undertaken by children and young people during the First World War.

From The Newry Reporter, 4th February 1915: COMFORTS FOR OUR SOLDIERS: The members of the Young People’s Guild in connection with the Unitarian Church, Newry, have dispatched parcels of comforts to the No. 8 Clearing Hospital, British Expeditionary Force, France, and to Lady French. Each parcel contains eight mufflers, two helmets, three pairs of mittens, and thirteen pairs of socks, the work of the Lady members of the Guild.

From The Newry Reporter, 11th March 1915: R.A.M.C., NEWRY: THE ROUTE MARCH TO NEWCASTLE AND BACK: The 110th Field Ambulance of the Ulster Division […] completed their route march on Tuesday. They left Newry on Saturday, and marched via Warrenpoint, Kilkeel, Annalong, Newcastle, and Hilltown, being entertained at each of these towns. The corps, consisting of 200 men, with band […]. Upon their arrival near Kilkeel on Sunday afternoon they were met by a large concourse of the townspeople, and by the members of the 1st Kilkeel (Lord Newry) Troop of Boy Scouts, who escorted them into the town. […] The Boy Scouts from Kilkeel accompanied the soldiers to Annalong, and at Annalong the Boy Scouts turned out and marched part of the way to Newcastle with them.

From The Frontier Sentinel, 6th November 1915: THE EGG COLLECTION AT KILKEEL: Last week a collection was made in Kilkeel to provide money to supplement during the winter the weekly supply of eggs contributed through the schools and individual collections. […] A sum of £6 was raised, and this, with what is already in hand, will it is hoped enable the Kilkeel Depot to continue to hold the proud position of being the largest contributor of eggs in Ireland. […] It may be of interest to many to know how the different schools in the district have contributed, and the following is believed to be the correct totals:- Kilkeel, 91 dozen; Ballinran, 78 dozen and eight; Glenloughan, 70 dozen; Victoria (Ballymartin) 57 dozen and five; Carginagh, 50 dozen and one; Kilmorey (Kilkeel), 46 dozen and eleven; Star of Sea (Glenloughan), 46 dozen and eight; Grange, 37¾ dozen; Brackney, 34 dozen; Cranfield 26¼ dozen; Ballmageough, 24½ dozen; Buigian, 23½ dozen; Atticall 23¼ dozen; St. Colman’s (Kilkeel) 10 dozen and five; Ballymartin, 4 dozen. Total, 523 dozen and eight eggs.

From The Down Recorder, 18th March 1916: Countess Kilmorey, accompanied by Miss Close, Miss Marshall, and four of the Kilkeel troop of Boy Scouts, motored to Newcastle yesterday and sold shamrock buttonholes, the proceeds being devoted to Red Cross funds.

From The Newry Reporter, 30th May 1916: CHILDREN’S DAY – SANDYS STREET: Children’s Day was observed in Sandys Street Presbyterian Church on Sunday morning, when the Rev. W. G. Strahan, B.A., preached an attractive and interesting sermon to the children, not to speak of the grown-ups, on “A Good Soldier of Christ,” using admirably for the purpose of illustration a recruiting poster, as well as a soldier’s gas helmet.

From The Newry Telegraph, 28th March 1918: EASTER EGGS FOR WOUNDED

SOLDIERS: GIFT

BY CHILDREN OF ST. MARY’S PARISH: A novel feature of the closing children’s service for the season at St. Mary’s Parish Church last Sunday afternoon was a contribution of eggs for the use of wounded soldiers in the Newry Hospitals. The suggestion was made to the clergy by Miss Moore, who is working energetically at the Barrack Hospital, and it was taken up heartily by the children, every one of them responded gladly and generously, money being given in the few cases where eggs could not be obtained.

Upwards of 170 eggs were contributed, and a pleasant feature about the gift was that most of the eggs bore greetings to the soldiers from the children – “With best wishes for Easter”, “Cheer up Tommy”, “Wishing you a speedy recovery”, “Good luck to you”, “We’ve not forgotten you,” and other such inscriptions evinced the personal interest of the children, who often signed their names, and sometimes added sketches on the egg shells.

• If you had been a child or young person living in Newry and Mourne during the First World War what might have been some of the activities you would have participated in? Use the above newspaper extracts to help you.

• Design a comic strip to encourage young people in the First World War to help the war effort by knitting socks or collecting eggs.

• During the war, flags were sold to raise money for various charities. Design and make a flag to assist the war effort. Perhaps it might be to help wounded soldiers or prisoners of war. Alternatively, it could be to raise money for Belgian refugees or to build a tank for the army or a battleship for the navy. The template in the Appendices can be photocopied or printed onto card to make the flag.

• Using either a real egg or the template in the Appendices decorate an egg to cheer up a wounded soldier.

• Imagine you are a wounded soldier who has received an egg. Write a thank you letter to the boy or girl who sent it. Use the following example of an actual letter that was sent by Private William Walker to Thomas (Tom) McCullough, a teenage boy from Monaghan Street, Newry, to help you.

From The Newry Reporter, 23rd October 1915:

SOLDIER’S LETTER TO NEWRY LAD:

You may be surprised to receive this note, but it is a fad of mine. My breakfast egg this morning had your name and address on it, so I thought I would write to you, as I was in Newry myself once, but I know nothing about it. I belong to the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers and to Belfast. I went to the Dardanelles at the beginning of July, and came off on the 21st August, as I got a bullet in my knee in a bayonet charge on Hill 70. I was taken to Alexandria, in Egypt. I went through an operation and had the bullet out. I lay there six weeks, I was then sent to England again. That was on September 26th. I landed in Southampton on October 7th – my 19th birthday – the best present I ever had. Well, I think I have said too much about myself. I am thankful that I am in Ireland again, and I hope to get home for a fortnight soon. I have no more to say at present, only I enjoyed that egg.

4. The following is an extract from the printed reminiscences of Robert Jones, from Warrenpoint. They were published in 1983 and in this particular extract he is recalling his schooldays during the First World War.

Another memory is the Carol singing on Christmas Eve organised by Mrs. Fleming of “The Crag,” to collect for St. Dunstan’s which was a fund for war-wounded and blinded Service or exServicemen. The party, drawn from both Warrenpoint and Rostrevor, would make its way round, carrying lanterns on top of poles – escorted by Tom (Gunner) Sloan. Tom was a smart, wellgroomed ex-Serviceman […]. We always arrived by kind permission of the Manager of the Great Northern Hotel to sing to the residents at dinner in the Dining Room at 7 p.m., then back to “The Crag” via Water Street […] And afterwards we would walk back to Warrenpoint with a glow in our hearts at having done something useful and pleasant. (Reproduced from Robert Jones, “Do you mind the time?” (1983), pp 20–21, courtesy of his daughters, Carol Day and Denise Cantley)

• How did the young Robert Jones feel after being able to ‘do his bit’ like the adults?

• What does St. Dunstan’s charity do?

5. The following extract from The Down Recorder, 28th November 1914, refers to the types of toys that were available to buy in shops during the first Christmas of the war.

As far as the youngsters are concerned, you may look far in the shops to find anything that has not some bearing upon the war. The boys may equip themselves as gunners or lancers, as sappers or privates of the line, complete as to all details […] Artillery you can find in miniature of all calibres from models of the siege howitzers to the most rapid of machine guns […] The

influence extends, moreover, to the girls. In place of the doll’s house there is the representation of hospital wards, whilst among the dolls themselves those dressed as Red Cross nurses or soldiers in khaki have the most prominent places.

This is an article from The Newry Reporter, 17th December 1914:

TOY-MAKING AT WARRENPOINT

A prediction made some time ago, that the scheme of toy-making undertaken in connection with the manual instruction class at the Warrenpoint Technical School would bring about satisfactory results, has been amply verified. A good number of the models have been completed, and we understand they are to be on sale in Warrenpoint shops next week. They included stronglyconstructed models of the Warrenpoint and Rostrevor trams, painted and finished off in capital style; models of the famous “long car,” and a number of children’s barrows, bearing the stencilled phrase “Made in Warrenpoint.” […] This is technical education with a decidedly practical application, and we believe the movement is capable of great extension throughout the country.

• What impact did the war have on children’s toys in County Down?

• Why do you think toys were made at Warrenpoint during the war?

FAMILY CORRESPONDENCE

6. James Feely from Newry served during the First World War as a stretcher-bearer with the Royal Army Medical Corps. He had three children: John, Willie and Nora. During the war James kept in contact with his family by sending postcards to his wife and children, as well as to his sister Maggie. The postcard shown here, “Forget me not”, was sent to his daughter Nora. On it he wrote: “Dear Nora, I hope you are a good girl. You can tell Willie I shall send him a PC [i.e. Postcard] soon. I hope you are doing well. Also Willie and John and Mother. Send me your photo, also Willie and John’s. Daddy.”

James was injured and died from his wounds on 13th April 1918. Just a few months later, on 18th October, his wife, Fanny, also died and their three young children were brought up by their aunt, Maggie.

The Feely children and the postcard sent to Nora Feely (Courtesy of the Feely family)

This next postcard was sent to Maud Elliott of Whitecross, County Armagh. It was sent by her older sister, Selina, who was a nurse in England. On the postcard Selina wrote: “This is just a little Remembrance you promised to write me but never did so. So I shall expect to have a good long letter soon. I suppose Lottie & you are at school? The weather is getting wintry already. Heaps of love to all. From Selina.”

• Imagine you are either a soldier or a nurse who is serving abroad. Write a short letter to a young relative at home. Remember to keep the language simple so that it can be understood by the recipient.

CHILD WELFARE

7. Look at the following sources which deal with child and maternal welfare in Newry.

From The Newry Reporter, 13th November 1915: CHILD WELFARE: Next week the Child Welfare and Food Exhibition will visit the town of Newry. The Exhibition owes its formation to the Woman’s National Association of Ireland, and it comes to the Frontier Town under the auspices of the Newry Urban District Council and the Newry District Nursing Society. The Exhibition, which will be here for three days, will be formally opened by the Chairman of the Newry Urban Council at 12 o’clock noon on Tuesday, and the lessons which will be taught by it are sure to be of a character that will be of the highest possible service at the present time. The terrible European war makes more necessary than ever the preservation and nurture of child life. We cannot afford to lose by premature death lives of children which can be saved, nor can we afford to neglect to remedy or prevent in those who survive the disabling defect or disease which can be removed.

From The Newry Reporter, 8th February 1916: INFANT WELFARE: Animated by a desire to encourage the Newry Urban Council in their endeavours to reduce the rate of infant mortality in the town of Newry, the Local Government board have agreed a sanction on trial for a period of two years the child welfare scheme which has been framed by the Council, with the invaluable assistance of the Town Clerk. The scheme, which was lucidly outlined in the letter which Mr. Cronin addressed to the Local Government Board, provides for the appointment of a maternity instructress, for whose services it is proposed to pay the Newry District Nursing Society an inclusive sum of £100 per annum, and the establishment of a municipal milk depot, which it is believed will be self-supporting, for the purpose of enabling nursing mothers, among the poor, to obtain for their children a proper supply of milk.

• Why did the First World War provoke Government interest in improving the welfare of children?

• How

did Newry Council try to improve the lives of mothers and children during the First World War?

Public notice that appeared in The Newry Reporter, 13th November 1915

William Cronin, Newry Town Clerk (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

This postcard was sent to Maud Elliott by her older sister, Selina

SECTION 7: COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE FRONTS

Communication between the home and fighting fronts was important in order to keep up morale on both sides. Servicemen exchanged letters and gifts with their wives, families and girlfriends. During the four years of the war, the Army Postal Service handled two billion letters and 114 million parcels. Soldiers’ letters were subject to censorship to make sure secrets were not revealed that would be of use to the enemy. Official Field Service Postcards were often written in periods of heavy fighting. All that was required was for the soldier to cross out a few lines in order to get his message across. The multiple choice options also formed an effective form of censorship and if the sender tried to add anything that was not preprinted on the postcard it would have been destroyed by the Censor.

People at home could read newspaper accounts of the war but these too were subject to censorship. An officially sponsored film, The Battle of the Somme, was shown in cinemas from August 1916 and crowds flocked to see it after its release. There were also slide shows which often involved a talk accompanied by some images.

First World War postcard received by Bridget Maguire, Thomas Street, Newry (Courtesy of Alec Lyons)

Field postcard sent by Sapper Thomas Duffy of the Royal Engineers to Mr Thomas Duffy of 30 King Street, Newry. Sapper Duffy died in July 1917 from wounds received in France.

Families at home dreaded receiving news of casualties or fatalities. An initial telegram was followed by an official army form and usually a more personal letter from the man’s commanding officer. Sometimes a body was not found and notification was sent that the individual was ‘Missing in action, presumed dead’.

One of the most popular souvenirs sent back home by soldiers were embroidered silk postcards. These were sold by Belgian and French women and contained embroidered images of various scenes and motifs, including flags, regimental crests and even seasonal scenes. Also popular as souvenirs were battlefield junk like bullets, shell cases and other debris from war which had been made into practical or decorative items. These items of ‘trench art’, as they were termed, were made either by the soldiers themselves or by others including civilians or soldiers recuperating from injury. Letters home could also be accompanied by buttons or matchboxes and some sent home, for safekeeping, their Princess Mary gift box which was distributed to all those serving in British uniform at Christmas 1914. Princess Mary, King George V’s only daughter, made a public appeal for money so that a Christmas gift from the nation could be sent to the servicemen. The standard gift box included cigarettes, tobacco, a lighter and pipe, as well as a Christmas card and photograph of the princess. Non-smokers received a pencil and writing paper.

Cartoon from The Newry Reporter, 21st October 1915

“Sweetheart” pin cushion sent by William McGrath to his wife at Collins Row, Newry. William served with the Connaught Rangers (Courtesy of Catherine Savage and William McAlpine)

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

1. The following, taken from The Newry Reporter, 24th October 1914, is the text of a letter written by Lance-Corporal Robert Sterling of the North Irish Horse who was serving in France at the time:

You will have to excuse me not writing to you long ago. I intended to do so several times, but the opportunity did not offer. I have written very little to anybody since I came out, as it is rarely one gets the chance to do so on active service. Until recently we have been hard at it, but now we are having a comparatively easy and comfortable time doing General’s mounted escort, attached to Headquarters. As you know, we cannot give much details in letters from the front, but the following few facts may be of interest to you. [...]

• Why did Sterling find it difficult to write?

• How might a field postcard have been of use to him?

• Why were men serving in the armed forces not able to “give much details in letters from the front”?

2. This is a photograph of the Princess Mary Christmas gift tin received by Joseph Bell. He sent the gift tin back home to his family in Newry.

• Why do you think people in the United Kingdom got behind the idea of providing money to fund a special Christmas gift for the troops?

• Who is pictured in the centre of the tin?

• Can you find the names of the United Kingdom’s Allies on the tin lid?

• Why do you think soldiers were keen to share their Christmas gift tins with their families?

3. Soldiers also sent home silk postcards, pin cushions and trench art. Here are some examples of silk postcards that were sent back by Newry brothers: Albert, Joseph and Samuel Bell (Courtesy of William McAlpine)

• Can you work out what counties are represented by flags on the silk postcards?

SECTION 8: POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS DURING THE WAR

In the years leading up to the First World War, Nationalists and Unionists were opposed over the issue of Home Rule. The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 temporarily defused the situation as Unionists and Nationalists both provided recruits and generally supported the war effort. Though there were some more radical Nationalists, or Republicans, they were very small in number.

THE EASTER RISING

During Easter Week in 1916 a small group of militant Nationalists, including Patrick Pearse, seized Dublin’s General Post Office and proclaimed an Irish Republic. British forces were brought into Dublin to put down the rising, which lasted for almost a week. The only Newry man to join with the rebels in Dublin was Patrick Rankin. Rankin, a painter from Queen Street, cycled down to Dublin to participate. Another Newry man, Harry Willis, was an unwilling participant. His car was commandeered by a group of armed Volunteers from Castlebellingham who he had to drive around various parts of Louth, Meath and Dublin before they released him and allowed him to return to Newry. Actions outside Dublin, though, were limited.

Sixty-four of the rebels were killed, along with 132 British soldiers and around 230 civilians. Public opinion was initially generally unsympathetic to the rebels due to the loss of life and the destruction of public buildings in Dublin. The Nationalist Frontier Sentinel newspaper described the rebels as ‘criminal’ and ‘insane’. After the execution of the key leaders and mass arrests of Sinn Féin supporters, there was an upsurge of sympathy among some of the Nationalist population. Among the local arrests were two men from Newry: John Southwell, a van driver from Queen Street and Robert Kelly, a stonecutter from Mary Street. From 1917 Sinn Féin flags began to be erected in the district and in May 1917 a Requiem Mass was celebrated in the Roman Catholic Dominican Chapel in Newry for the repose of the souls of the executed leaders.

Grave of Patrick Rankin, St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Newry (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Postcard showing the destruction in Dublin during the Easter Rising (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

ELECTIONS

Following the death of the sitting South Armagh Nationalist MP, Charles O’Neill, a by-election was held in February 1918. This provided the opportunity for the first electoral clash in Ulster between Sinn Féin and the Nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party. The election was a fiercely contested affair. Though Newry was located outside the constituency it hosted some of the electoral meetings of both parties. Violence characterised some of the campaigning. Countess Constance Markievicz was pelted with eggs in Newry, while Éamon de Valera was reputedly injured near Crossmaglen when campaigning for the Sinn Féin candidate, Dr Patrick McCartan. The Nationalist candidate, Patrick Donnelly, was a Newry solicitor and his campaign included visits by leading members of the Nationalist party including Joseph Devlin and John Dillon. In the end, the Nationalists retained the seat, securing 2,324 votes against McCartan’s 1,305.

Though Sinn Féin lost the election the campaign helped to boost the profile of the party in the area. It was also enhanced by the role of Sinn Féin in opposing the implementation of conscription in Ireland during the spring of 1918. Anti-conscription protests were held in April 1918 and an anti-conscription pledge was taken in Roman Catholic parishes. Nationalists of the district took part in a one-day strike on 23rd April and, faced with overwhelming opposition, conscription was never introduced. Local recruitment rallies also began to be disrupted by Sinn Féin supporters, most notably in Newry in late August 1918. Sinn Féin supporters, like Frank Aiken from Camlough, were arrested for carrying out ‘illegal drilling’ of Irish Volunteers.

In 1918 the Representation of the People Act was introduced. This expanded the electorate to include all men over the age of twenty one and, for the first time, women over thirty who were ratepayers or married to ratepayers. (It was not until 1928 that women gained equality with men and were able to vote at twenty one.) Further reforms of the electoral system in 1918 included the redistribution of seats. As part of this Newry was no longer treated as a separate parliamentary borough but instead was submerged in the enlarged South Down constituency. In the general election held in December 1918, as part of an electoral pact, the South Down Sinn Féin candidate, Éamon de Valera, withdrew his candidature to ensure a victory for the Nationalist,

South Armagh by-election poster produced by Sinn Féin, 1918 (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Group of south Down and south Armagh Nationalists, including Frank Aiken (standing, 2nd from left) (Reproduced by kind permission of UCD Archives, UCDA P104/670)

Éamon Donnelly and his eldest daughter. On Easter Sunday 1916, Donnelly joined with Volunteers from the north who mobilised at Coalisland, County Tyrone. He later played a key role in the rise of Sinn Féin and in the election of 1918 he acted as director of elections for the party in north-east Ulster (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Jeremiah McVeagh, who gained 8,756 votes against 5,573 votes cast for the Unionist, William Johnson. Across Ireland as a whole, though, the election was a disaster for the Nationalist Party. Sinn Féin gained 73 out of the 105 seats, while the Unionists took 26 seats and the Nationalists only six. Sinn Féin’s national electoral success was celebrated by some in Newry with a procession through the town.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

THE EASTER RISING

1. The following witness statements given to the Bureau of Military History refer to the Easter Rising of 1916 (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives):

Patrick Rankin of Newry: I, Patrick Rankin, was born in Newry in 1889 and I am a painter by trade. I became a member of the I.R.B. in 1907 […]

Peter McCann proposed that the three of us (Peter, my brother Owen and myself) should go to Dublin. […] I thought it over, one brother in the family was sufficient, and Peter McCann was better living for Ireland [...]. I got John Southwell’s bicycle […] as it was more free than my own, which was a Pierce of Wexford, and very heavy […]. It rained very heavily [...] until I arrived in Dublin about 7.30 p.m. (I carried a six inch revolver on my journey and, fortunately, I was not stopped by the police). […]

In a short time I was brought before Tom Clarke who knew me previously and he asked me had I any news of the North. I told him I had none. I think the old veteran knew as much as I did, but he never said a bad word about any man or county in the North. […] He thanked me for getting through to the G.P.O. but he would have been delighted and happy to have had some hundreds of his own people from the Northern Counties present.

John Southwell of Newry: On Easter Monday I went to my work in the Newry Mineral Water Company. Pat Lavery, who was Managing Secretary of the Company, told me to take my van out of the Company’s premises and do my usual rounds. I did so and went on a journey to the country. When I returned to Newry that evening I heard of Pearse’s orders to remobilise.

Paddy Rankin came to my house on Monday evening, got my bicycle, cycled to Dublin and took part in the fighting in the G.P.O. during the remainder of the week.

I was arrested with Bob Kelly after the surrender in Dublin. We were the only two Newry men arrested in Newry. Rankin had surrendered in Dublin. We were conveyed to Richmond Barracks. When we arrived in Dublin the execution of the leaders was taking place. Later on we were transferred to Wakefield Prison in England.

• Who was the only Newry resident to participate on the side of the rebels in Dublin during the Easter Rising?

• What do ‘I.R.B.’ and ‘G.P.O.’ stand for?

• Who were the two men from Newry, other than Patrick Rankin, who were arrested and imprisoned in the aftermath of the Rising?

Patrick Rankin (left) in the uniform of the Philadelphia National Guard, 1914 (Courtesy of Joe Murray)

• Read Patrick Rankin’s full witness statement which can be viewed on the Bureau of Military History website. Can you put together a timetable of his activities during Easter Week 1916? Using your timetable design a comic of what happened.

2. Patrick Rankin was not the only Newry man to be present in Dublin during Easter Week 1916.

The following article is taken from The Frontier Sentinel, 6th May 1916.

NEWRYMAN’S NOVEL EXPERIENCES:

Mr. Harry Willis, son of Mr. Thomas P. Willis, Newry, was one of those who on Easter Monday evening had his motor car commandeered by the Sinn Feiners near Castlebellingham, when he was returning from Dublin. The other occupants of the vehicle – Dr. Cronin, Mr. W. C. M. Smith, V.S., and Mr. W. H. Connor – were ordered out, and till 5 a.m. on Tuesday morning he had a most exciting time conveying parties of insurgents to Tara Hill, Oldcastle, Drumcondra, and other parts. At the end of his service he feigned penury, and the Sinn Feiners handed him 6s. wherewith to get his breakfast and a supply of petrol, and he states that he will have the “munificent” acknowledgement framed as a memento of the occasion. Mr. Willis’s father is a member of the Carsonite “Provisional Government,” and additional humour is lent to the performance through the same motor having participated in the memorable gun-running scenes at Larne a few years ago.

John Bannon was also present in Dublin during Easter 1916. He was in the Royal Irish Rifles. The following comes from an account he wrote about his wartime experiences (Courtesy of Patrick Bannon):

Then came the Dublin Rebellion – Easter week 1916 – when we were ordered for Dublin. A troop train left Belfast with a few hundred troops aboard, and after a very slow journey of six hours we arrived at Amiens Street Station, Dublin. Six hours later after leaving Belfast on our way up we had to be very careful with land mines on the rail and bridges blowing up. From the moment we arrived in Dublin we were sniped from every quarter house, top gates and windows, and from houses overlooking the station, and any of our boys who tried to leave the station generally got knocked out by these snipers.

After two days we left the Railway Station and got into the city, but in doing so lost quite a few men. The British Forces were in several parts of the city at this time, but were not in touch with one another, with the result one party at times was firing at each other and caused a number of casualties.

We had little to do on this affair and all were delighted when it was over.

• How was a Newry Unionist like Harry Willis involved in the events of Easter Week 1916?

• Why

was John Bannon in Dublin during the Easter Rising?

Thomas P. Willis (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

John Bannon (Courtesy of Patrick Bannon)

• What insight does Bannon’s account give into the street fighting that was engaged in during the week?

3. The following extract is taken from The Frontier Sentinel, 6th May 1916:

NEWRY VOLUNTEERS ASSIST THE GOVERNMENT: In Newry as in other centres both the Ulster and National Volunteers rendered assistance to the Government during the crisis. On the night of the 28th inst. [i.e. April] a number of the Ulsters were on guard in the Newry Post Office and during the following day, and on last Saturday night and during Sunday similar duty was performed by the Nationals.

• What did the Ulster Volunteers and Irish National Volunteers do when news of the Easter Rising reached Newry?

REACTIONS TO THE EASTER RISING

4. The following sources give an insight into reactions to the Rising in Dublin.

Extract from the diary of James N. Richardson, 27th April 1916 (Reproduced from James Nicholson Richardson of Bessbrook by Charlotte Fell Smith (London, 1925)): The Cloud of European War, as already recorded in this Diary, blew away our Irish cloud of threatened civil war in August, 1914, and for twenty months the two parties in Ireland have been more united and at peace than at any time during her checkered history.

But now comes another bolt from the blue.

An Irish Secret Organisation called ‘Sinn Feiners’ i.e., Independents – have poured into Dublin from all parts, under the pretence of Easter excursions – most of them well armed. They have seized St. Stephen’s Green and the Post Office, the Law Courts, Boland’s big Bakery, Jacob’s large Biscuit Factory, and have made the Lord Lieutenant practically a prisoner pro tem by getting possession of the entrance to the Castle.

It is scandalous that such a surprise should be possible. Bridges on the Great Northern line between us and Dublin have been blown up: several gallant station-masters and platelayers have been murdered, also constables shot on the road. Many Belfast gentlemen, some acquaintances of mine, had their motors seized and taken from them on their way back from Fairy Hill Races, near Dublin, on Easter Monday night, and to my mind it serves them jolly well right for using petrol so wastefully when we are all advised to save it as much as we can at present for public purposes.

In fact, we are in a state of rebellion and Civil War, and we here at Bessbrook being cut off by telephone and telegraph and post, with newspapers censored, are in a very anxious condition, both for our Dublin friends, ourselves and our relations in England, who will wonder how we are situated.

James Richardson, a Quaker, was the owner of Bessbrook Mill

Motion passed by Warrenpoint Urban District Council on 1st May 1916: “That the Council viewed with horror and detestation the recent insurrectionary outbreak in Dublin, and express satisfaction that the revolt has been so promptly quelled. The Council in this time of national peril believe it to be the duty of everyone to render what assistance they can in support of the Authorities to maintain law and order in the realm and protect the country from the danger that assails it. (Taken from Warrenpoint Urban District Council minutes, held at PRONI, LA/71/2CA/2, p. 139).

Letter written by Miss M. McCombe to a friend in Newry (Miss McCombe, daughter of John McCombe of Basin Walk, Newry, was a nurse in the Ulster Volunteer Force Hospital in France): It is only out here one realises that war is going on. I did feel so ashamed of the Dublin Rebellion; it makes these people make so little of the Irish. I am very glad their plot failed. (Recorded in The Newry Reporter, 17th June 1916)

County Armagh police report, April 1916 (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, CO 904/99): The Sinn Fein rebellion in Dublin has received no active sympathy from the Nationalists of this county and though undoubtedly there are some who sympathize with it nothing has been done in the way of outrage to indicate that the movement had any outward support.

Witness statement of John McCoy of south Armagh given to the Bureau of Military History (Courtesy of Irish Military Archives): After Easter Week the people generally were discussing the matter. The prevailing opinion was the unbelievable madness of the whole affair. The Press put the worst possible complexion on the whole business. The looting, the burnings and the loss of life were all put down to the “Rebels”. I heard a great many people saying “Weren’t they great men, it’s a pity there were not more of them” – others saying, – “Of course they were mad to attempt such a thing – if they were so keen on fighting why did they not join the Army” etc.

When the executions started and continued intermittently day after day, people got a shocked sense of the inhumanity of executing brave men who might have been foolish in what they had done. […] In a short space of time a complete revolution of feelings about the Rebellion took place amongst all decent intelligent Nationalists in the North. I also heard liberal minded Unionists speak with admiration for the courage of those who took part in the Rising.

• How do these sources describe the reactions in Newry and Mourne to the Easter Rising? Are they initially generally in favour or against the actions of the rebels?

• According to McCoy, what helped to changed many Nationalists’ views on the Easter Rising?

• Does the statement of John McCoy and the police report of April 1916 suggest that perhaps even from the start some among the local Nationalist population had sympathy with the rebels’ ideals?

1918 ELECTIONS

5. The following sources describe the South Armagh by-election of 1918.

Article from The Newry Reporter, 29th January 1918: At Crossmaglen rival meetings were held on Sunday afternoon. Great excitement prevailed, but there were no serious conflicts. There was a big force of police in the town, and many of them carried rifles. Mr. P. McConville, J.P., presided at the Nationalist meeting, and the speakers included: Messrs. Joseph Devlin, M.P.; Oswald Jamison, Belfast; P. Meehan, M.P.; T. London, M.P.; J. Ronayne, B.L., Dublin. The Sinn Fein propagandists were: Messrs. De Valera, Arthur Griffith, Austin Stack, Sean Milroy, Mr. P. Hughes, chairman of the Dundalk Urban Council, and others. On his way to the meeting place the Sinn Fein leader had an exciting encounter with a procession of 300 Hibernians. Mr. De Valera was driving in a motor car, accompanied by Messrs. Austin Stack, Sean Milroy, and Sean McEntee.

Two motors conveying other Sinn Fein speakers followed, and when near Creggan Bridge they met with the processionists. Mud was flung at the occupants of the motors as they attempted to pass; one man excitedly waved a long tin-pike over De Valera’s head, and eventually drove it through the wind screen of the car. The driver of the car was injured by a stone. Mr. McEntee was cut on the face, but all the others escaped unscathed.

Extract from John McCoy’s witness statement to the Bureau of Military History (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives): This election was unique in the tactics employed by the contesting parties. A large number of Volunteers from other parts of the country, principally Clare and Dublin – and some from Dundalk – came into the area, many of their officers in Volunteer uniform and all armed with hurley sticks. These Volunteers marched from place to place in Military formation and in hostile areas they were called on to protect Republican voters going to the poll. In many instances they had to repell attacks made on them by Hibernians or Orange crowds. In a few cases Hibernians and Orangemen joined up to attack them.

• What evidence is there in these sources that the 1918 by-election was hotly contested, with violent clashes between the opposing sides?

6. The sources below describe the aftermath of the 1918 South Armagh by-election:

Extract from Jack McElhaw’s witness statement to the Bureau of Military History (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives): The start of the South Armagh Election campaigning directed attention to all aspects of the Sinn Fein Movement. Companies of Volunteers were organised in many places. Frank Aiken was very active in organizing companies. […]

Branches of Cumann na mBan were also formed in many districts. When the Branch was formed in Camlough I was put in charge of them for drill instruction. I had responsibility for their military training etc. Sometime after the formation of this Branch in Camlough and when branches were got going in other districts Roseen Byrne and Nano Aiken relieved me of all my Cumann na mBan responsibilities.

Extract from a County Armagh police report, March 1918 (Courtesy of the National Archives, Kew, CO 904/105): There is no doubt, however, that the Election for S. Armagh with the influx of suspects and rebels generally has given a considerable impetus to Sinn Fein which is shown in an increased number of clubs and increased membership. A considerable number of cases of illegal drilling has also been reported.

Extract from John McCoy’s witness statement to the Bureau of Military History (Courtesy of the Irish Military Archives): The only ill effects that became apparent after the election was caused by a deep feeling of resentment amongst many of the official members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. Many of those men had taken part in some of the election fights which was a daily feature of the campaign and bad blood was stirred up which was not soon forgotten. The first appearance of this antagonism was the almost complete break up of the G.A.A. organisation in Co. Armagh and in Co. Louth, and other places in the North. In most teams the Hibernians and the Sinn Feiners were pretty evenly divided and neither party wanted to play together on the same team after the election. This meant that new teams had to be organised, all local Hibernians in one and all the Sinn Feiners in another. Our parish team before the election was the Forkhill Rovers. After the election we organised a team from the local Volunteer Company and called it the Mullaghbawn O’Rahillys and the Forkhill Rovers ceased to exist. In practically all other districts similar things happened.

• Though Sinn Fein lost the 1918 by-election in South Armagh, what evidence is there in the first two sources above that it helped to boost the profile of Sinn Féin in the district?

• From your reading of McCoy’s statement, what was the effect of the by-election on the G.A.A. in the district?

7. As a result of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, women were given the right to vote in parliamentary elections. The following article from The Newry Telegraph (17th October 1918) refers to the impact on the Newry Suffrage Society, which was affiliated to the Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation.

IRISH WOMEN’S CIVIC FEDERATION – MEETING IN NEWRY:

In consequence of the passing into law of the Representation of the People Bill, the Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation has been retitled “The Irish Women’s Civic Federation,” and a meeting of the Newry Branch of the Organisation was held in the Y.M.C.A. Rooms yesterday to consider the revision of the aims and objects of the federation in accordance with legislative changes.

The aims of the new federation are summarised as follows:-

1. Encouragement of education in civic and political questions.

2. The opening of public positions to women on the same terms as men, and the return of women on public boards, councils and committees.

3. Investigation of present social conditions.

4. Practical reform work.

5. Promotion of closer union between the various women’s organisations.

6. The extension of the Franchise to Women on the same terms as it is, or may be granted to men, and to secure equality of liberty and opportunity between men and women.

Mrs. Maude (who presided) and Mrs. Slipper addressed the meeting, and, after discussion, it was decided, on the motion of Mrs. Magowan, seconded by Mrs. Foster, to concentrate attention on the question of obtaining the appointment of a woman magistrate in Newry to deal with children’s and women’s cases.

• What did the Irish Women’s Suffrage Federation change its name to after women gained the parliamentary vote?

• What were the aims of the new federation?

• What did the women in Newry decide to concentrate their future actions on?

8. Look at this advertisement that appeared in The Newry Reporter just before the General Election that took place at the end of December 1918.

• Why do you think this meeting was held for women, while men were admitted only to the gallery?

9. The following article appeared in The Frontier Sentinel on 4th January 1919:

NEWRY AND THE SINN FEIN VICTORY:

On Thursday night, in most inclement weather, one of the largest demonstrations ever seen in Newry took place to celebrate the Sinn Fein victory at the polls. Headed by the Sinn Fein Band and 73 torches, to symbolise the 73 success[es], an enormous procession, consisting of members of the Sinn Fein Club, Cumann na mBan, Volunteers and the general public passed through River Street, Kilmorey Street, Hill Street, Trevor Hill, and Water Street.

At Margaret Square, under the chairmanship of Mr. J[ohn] Southwell a vast and enthusiastic gathering was addressed in a great downpour of rain.

The Chairman said they celebrated a victory over no section of the Irish people, but a victory of Ireland over England. […]

Mr. J[oseph] Connellan said the victory was won by the men in English jails more than any others, and he referred to the hardships and indignities inflicted on the Sinn Fein prisoners. He asked them to register their protest against the treatment meted out to their imprisoned comrades and unite their voice with the rest of Ireland in demanding their release […]

The meeting terminated with cheers for Sinn Fein and Mr. De Valera, and the singing of the “Soldier’s Song.”

A victory ceilidh […] was immediately afterwards held in the Town Hall.

• How was the Sinn Féin victory across Ireland in the 1918 General Election marked in Newry?

• What groups attended the celebratory event?

• What did Joseph Connellan, one of the speakers, demand?

SECTION 9: AFTERMATH

PEACE

On 11th November 1918 Germany and the Allied forces agreed to a cessation of hostilities. News of the end of the war was celebrated across Newry and Mourne. The flags of Britain and the Allies were flown from public buildings and carried through the streets. Thanksgiving services also took place in local churches. In Newry a torchlight procession, in which both Nationalist and Unionist bands participated, was held, and in Newtownhamilton there was a huge bonfire with an effigy of the ex-Kaiser placed on top. Further local celebrations were held in July 1919 following the signing of a peace treaty at the Palace of Versailles in France.

LIFE AFTER WAR

As the war neared its conclusion veterans’ organisations began to emerge. A branch of the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilised Sailors and Soldiers was formed for Newry and district at the end of May 1918. This organisation sought to promote fellowship between ex-servicemen, while also lobbying on behalf of their interests. The British Legion was founded in 1921 after a merger between a number of organisations including the National Federation and the Comrades of the Great War.

Many men returned damaged, physically or mentally. Some suffered from ‘shell shock’, a newly designated condition which is now known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Over 40,000 British men lost at least one limb during the war.

Flyer advertising Peace Celebrations at Warrenpoint, 1919

Officers and Committee of the Newry Branch of the British Legion, 1927 (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Prosthetic arm (Courtesy of the Science Museum/Science & Society Picture Library). This artificial arm was invented and made in Belfast, in the 1920s, by Surgeon Thomas Sinclair Kirk and engineer Alexander Pringle. The fingers were opened and closed by a lever on the wrist. Kirk’s grandfather, William Kirk, was MP for Newry, 1868–1871.

The 1919 Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act forced most women to leave their wartime roles as men came home and factories adjusted to peacetime production.

REMEMBRANCE

Even before the war had ended there was a desire to preserve the memory of those who had died. Special

services were held on anniversaries such as the Battle of the Somme and memorial services were held for individuals who had been killed. In 1917 a ‘Forget-me-not’ Day of commemoration was held in Newry.

After the war, thoughts turned to memorialisation. Churches, for instance, erected memorials. The War Memorial in the grounds of Mourne Presbyterian Church, Kilkeel, was erected to commemorate the fallen of the congregation and unveiled in 1923. Other Protestant churches chose memorial plaques or tablets, pipe organs or stained glass windows. Schools and workplaces also produced tributes. A memorial tablet was erected in Newry High School and Mourne Grange Preparatory School, outside Kilkeel, compiled a Roll of Honour of teachers and former pupils and named new classrooms after First World War battles. A Roll of Honour was unveiled in Newry Post Office in July 1916, which listed 25 staff. Plaques were also unveiled in Orange and Masonic Halls. The Irish National Foresters sold poppies in their Newry clubhouse in the late 1920s and St Joseph’s Brass and Reed Band performed at concerts to raise money for local war memorials. A War Memorial was unveiled in Bessbrook in 1934 and in Newry in 1939. These continue to provide a focus at annual Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Remembrance of the war could be politically divisive. At the time when the War Memorial for Newry was planned, the Northern Ireland Government refused to permit the Newry Old IRA Remembrance Association to erect a Celtic cross to the dead of 1916–1923.

The presence of First World War dedications on family headstones in both Protestant and Catholic cemeteries in the Newry and Mourne district are reminders of bereavement and the impact of the war on the area.

Memorial card for Sapper Patrick J. Donnelly (Courtesy of Newry Post Office Historical Society)

Members of the Newry Women’s Branch of the Royal British Legion at the unveiling of the War Memorial in Bessbrook, 1934 (Courtesy ofWilliam McAlpine)

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

PEACE

1. Read the following accounts of how news of the Armistice on 11th November 1918 was greeted in Newry and Mourne.

Extract from the published reminiscences of Robert Jones, Warrenpoint: Childhood memories lie deep for I remember too a very old man, Colonel Manser, running up Gray’s Road, now Gt. George’s Street, shouting, “The war is over, peace has come” on that first 11th of November morning in 1918. The news must have come by telegraph to the Post Office, managed by Mr. and Mrs. Fox or by telephone to the Manual Exchange managed by Miss Steenson in Church Street. How it came I don’t know, but the news spread like wildfire. […] On that memorable night in 1918, the Skating Rink was illuminated, the Bands were out, bonfires were lighted and an air of carnival was abroad. Bed was forgotten that night!

Article from The Newry Reporter, 12th November 1918: JOYOUS SCENES IN NEWRY: Union Jacks and the Stars and Stripes were displayed in various parts of the town, and there was an air of unqualified delight throughout the day. Lively demonstrators paraded the streets, and in the afternoon the bells of St. Patrick’s and St. Mary’s Parish Churches rang out joyous peals. The men in the military Barracks were given a holiday, and spent the day merrily. At night scenes of great animation were witnessed all over the town. A great public demonstration of rejoicing will take place to-night. All the local bands will participate in it, and there will be a torchlight procession.

Article from The Newry Reporter, 14th November 1918: FROM WAR

TO PEACE: REJOICINGS IN NEWRY: TORCHLIGHT DEMONSTRATION:

The employees of the local mills and factories were given a half-holiday. A number of the business establishments of the town also closed for the afternoon. The young people paraded with flags, which also adorned many private buildings […]. At night many houses, notably in Canal Street, were illuminated, and there was a torchlight demonstration through the chief thoroughfare of the town. The citizens of Newry turned out practically en masse, and there was a large influx of people from the districts immediately surrounding the town. Shortly after 8 o’clock a procession of monster dimensions formed up at the junction of Hill Street, William Street, and Kilmorey Street and, headed by several Belgian refugees, a large number of torch-bearers, and all the local Unionist and Nationalist bands, marched triumphantly through Hill Street to Kildare Street, where the victorious termination of the war was fittingly celebrated. […]

ROSTREVOR

When news of the signing of the armistice was received in Rostrevor on Monday morning the church bells were chimed and flags displayed. Owing to the absence of the honorary ringers, several of whom have been on active service for some time, change ringing was not possible. However, chiming bells were rung, ending up with “God Save the King” and “Jesus Shall Reign.” Everywhere the greatest enthusiasm prevailed. On Tuesday a huge bonfire was built and lighted on the sea-front.

• Make a list of how the Armistice was marked in the Newry and Mourne district.

REMEMBRANCE

2. Shown below are some of the ways people in Newry and Mourne remembered those who served and died in the First World War.

• Make a list of some of the different ways those who fought in the First World War are commemorated in the district.

• Look at the three War Memorials (Bessbrook, Kilkeel and Newry). What similarities and differences can you notice between them?

Wooden plaque at St Bartholomew’s Church of Ireland, Donaghmore, County Down (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

First World War Memorial at St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Drumbanagher, County Armagh (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Memorial tablet at Newry High School (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Memorial organ at Downshire Road Presbyterian Church, Newry (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

Memorial stained glass window in St Mary’s Church of Ireland, Newry (Newry and Mourne Museum Collection)

3. The following is

1938. It was

of

which

The above Association are desirous of honouring the memory of all who fell in the struggle for Irish independence from 1916 to 1922, and of Irish patriots generally throughout the ages. They have decided that the town of Newry – having a great National record, and being the centre of a very historic district which splendidly distinguished itself – is an appropriate place to erect a memorial. In the furtherance of the project they are confident of the wholehearted support of the citizens of Newry. I am instructed to ask the Urban Council to be kind enough to donate a site for the erection of a memorial at the John Mitchel end of Hyde Market (or St. Colman’s Park). Apart from its national significance and the interest which it will give to visitors to the town, it will be one worthy of the object – probably a Celtic cross – and one in which the citizens can take pride.

The following is the text of a letter sent from Samuel J. Baird, Honorary Secretary of the Newry Unionist Association, to James Brown, MP, Warrenpoint, dated 11th October 1938 (Courtesy of PRONI, HA/32/1/669):

The Committee of the above Association have requested me to get in touch with you in regard to the action of the Newry Urban District Council in granting to an illegal organization – the Irish Republican Army – permission to erect a Memorial at Hyde Park, Newry. The Memorial, it is believed, is to be erected opposite St. Mary’s Protestant Church, and would certainly be most objectionable. A memorial of this kind should not be allowed to be erected in Northern Ireland. My Committee desire me to ask you to use your influence with the Ministry of Home Affairs with a view to getting them to refuse sanction to such a memorial.

• From your reading of the above two letters, how could remembrance in Newry and Mourne be a divisive issue?

the text

a letter

appeared in The Newry Reporter on 11th October

sent by John Southwell of Queen Street, Newry (Secretary of the Northern Old IRA Remembrance Association, Newry Branch) to the Clerk of the Newry Urban District Council.

Bessbrook War Memorial

Kilkeel War Memorial

Newry War Memorial

• Using this, or the images of the memorials above, can you design a medal or memorial to remember one of the following: (a) those who died in the First World War (b) all those who served in the First World War (c) those who died in the Easter Rising in Dublin or (d) an inclusive memorial that commemorates all those who died in the 1914–1918 period, Protestant, Catholic, Nationalist, Republican and Unionist.

4. Shown here is a photograph of a medal that was designed and presented to men from Mourne who served in the First World War.

Mourne Medal (front and reverse) (Courtesy of Elizabeth Warnock)

APPENDICES

APPENDIX 2: FUNDRAISING FLAG TEMPLATE

APPENDIX 3: TIMELINE, 1912–1919

1912

11 Apr. Asquith introduced the Third Home Rule Bill in the House of Commons 14 Sept. Riot between supporters of Belfast football clubs, Celtic (Catholic) and Linfield (Protestant) 28 Sept. ‘Ulster Day’ when Unionists signed the Solemn League and Covenant

1913

31 Jan. Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) formed 17 Sept. While speaking in Newry Carson indicated the formation of a Provisional Ulster Government in the event of Home Rule including Ulster being implemented 25 Nov. Irish Volunteers formed

1914

2 Apr. Cumann na mBan founded as a women’s auxiliary to the Irish Volunteers 24–25 Apr. Larne gunrunning by the UVF 28 June Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, assassinated in Sarajevo

26 July Irish Volunteers land rifles at Howth, County Dublin. Later in the day troops fired on crowd at Bachelor’s Walk, Dublin 28 July Outbreak of First World War as Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia 3 Aug. Germany declared war on France 4 Aug. Belgium invaded by Germany; United Kingdom declared war on Germany 7 Aug. British Expeditionary Force landed in France 8 Aug. Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) passed 15 Aug. Press censorship introduced 23 Aug. Japan declared war on Germany and commenced occupation of German territory in the Far East 15 Sept. Suspending Act delayed implementation of Home Rule for a year or the duration of the war

20 Sept. John Redmond at Woodenbridge, County Wicklow, called on the Irish Volunteers to fight for Britain in the war, causing it to split 19 Oct. First Battle of Ypres began 29 Oct. Turkey entered the war 25 Dec. Christmas Truce (Western Front)

1915

18 Feb. Blockade of Britain by German U-boats commenced 22 Apr. Second Battle of Ypres began and first use of poison gas by Germans 25 Apr. First Allied landing at Gallipoli

7 May RMS Lusitania sunk by German U-boat off the Irish coast. Among those who were drowned were a number of men from the south Armagh and south Down area 31 May First Zeppelin raid on London

7 July Lord Wimborne, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, addressed an ‘All Ireland’ recruiting rally held in Warrenpoint

25 Sept. Battle of Loos and first use of gas by the British

12 Oct. Nurse Edith Cavell executed by German firing squad

31 Oct. Steel helmets introduced on the British Front Line

1916

8 Jan. Evacuation of Gallipoli completed

27 Jan. Conscription introduced in Britain

21 Feb. Battle of Verdun commences

24 Apr. Easter Rising began in Dublin

31 May– Battle of Jutland in the North Sea

1 June

1 July Battle of the Somme commenced; 60,000 were dead, wounded or missing by the end of the first day

15 Sept. First use of tanks on the Somme

26 Sept. Battle of Thiepval

13 Nov. Somme Offensive ended

7 Dec. Lloyd George became Prime Minister

1917

15 Mar. Tsar Nicholas II of Russia abdicated as Moscow fell to Russian revolutionaries

28 Mar. Formation of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) allowed women to serve with the armed forces for the first time

6 Apr. USA declared war on Germany

10 May Royal Navy introduced convoy system in response to German submarine warfare

21 May Imperial War Graves Commission established

15 Aug. Battle of Lens

26 Oct. Second Battle of Passchendaele began

1918

2 Feb. Irish Parliamentary Party candidate defeated Sinn Féin opponent and the Independent Unionist in the South Armagh parliamentary by-election

6 Feb. Representation of the People Act gave the parliamentary vote to all men over 21 and some women over 30; Redistribution of Seats Act made constituencies of approximately equal size. Newry was no longer a separate parliamentary constituency but instead was submerged in the enlarged South Down constituency

21 Apr. Irish Nationalists sign an anti-conscription pledge

23 Apr. One-day general strike supported by Nationalists in protest against conscription

22 Sept. Allies achieved victory in the Balkans

30 Sept. British and Arab troops took Damascus, securing stability in the Middle East

8 Nov. Armistice negotiations between the Allies and Germany begun

9 Nov. Abdication of Kaiser William II of Germany

11 Nov. Armistice signed at 5am, coming into effect at 11am

21 Nov. Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act entitled women to sit and vote in the House of Commons

14–28 General Election; Sinn Féin won 73 seats with Countess Markievicz the first woman Dec. elected to the House of Commons, though she did not take up her seat

1919

18 Jan. Peace conference began at Versailles, near Paris 28 June Treaty of Versailles signed

APPENDIX 4: NEWRY AND MOURNE MUSEUM EDUCATION SERVICE

Education

The Museum is committed to making the heritage of the local area accessible to all, including children and young people. There are a number of exciting learning opportunities at Newry and Mourne Museum that complement and bring to life the Northern Ireland Revised Curriculum. Teachers are encouraged to contact the Museum Education Officer who will tailor curriculum-linked lessons to their requirements using the Museum Collection.

School visiting times

10.00am – 2.30pm Monday to Friday. School visits must be booked in advance.

General Services

Newry and Mourne Museum offers a variety of educational opportunities for all visitors. We provide a range of workshops for local schools, lectures, guided tours of the Museum, reminiscence sessions and various learning programmes to the general public. Full details are on the Museum website at www.bagenalscastle.com.

For further information contact the Education Officer, Declan Carroll at 028 3031 3178 or email declan.carroll@newryandmourne.gov.uk

Newry and Mourne Museum at Bagenal’s Castle

Useful Information

Parking

Free car parking is available on site.

Access

All areas of Newry and Mourne Museum are accessible to wheelchair users and families with pushchairs and prams. There is a lift in the building. A baby changing unit and accessible toilet are available on the ground floor.

Supervision

Please be aware that other visitors may be using the building while your group is visiting. Adult supervisors must stay with their group at all times and are responsible for pupils’ behaviour.

Health and Safety

Newry, Mourne and Down District Council operates a Child Protection Policy and staff are trained in its implementation.

Break and Lunch Facilities

Although food and drink are not permitted in the Museum galleries it is possible for children to eat a packed lunch in the Banqueting Room and Meeting Room. Newry, Mourne and Down District Council operates a strict recycling policy.

Cost

Entrance to Newry and Mourne Museum is free.

The Border Town Exhibition at Newry and Mourne Museum

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks are due to the staff and volunteers of Newry and Mourne Museum for their assistance with the production of this booklet:

Dr Ken Abraham

Richard Burns Declan Carroll Noreen Cunningham

Jackie Dodds

Caroline Hegarty Andrew Henry Conor Keenan Greag Mac a’ tSaoir Eamonn McArdle

Amanda McKinstry Shane McGivern Anna Savage Kelly-Marie Savage Dympna Tumilty Pauline Walsh

Thanks are also extended to all those who contributed images and information for the booklet including:

Patrick Bannon; Sean Barden (Armagh County Museum); Boulder Public Library, Colorado; Cathy Brooks; Denise Cantley; Creggan Church of Ireland Select Vestry; Carol Day; Kenny Donaldson; Beatrice Elliott; David Elliott; John Farrelly; the Feely family; Pat Geary; Tim Geary; Joe Gleeson; Marcus Hall; Hugh Heatley; Irish Military Archives, Dublin; Christina Joyce; Monica Kendall; Kilkeel Branch of the Royal British Legion; Libraries NI Staff; Alec Lyons; Denis Mayne; William McAlpine; the McAllister family; Marie McKenna; Michael McKeown; Hugh McShane; Victoria Millar (Down County Museum); Pauline Moore; the National Archives, Kew; The National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield; National Museums Northern Ireland; Newry Post Office Historical Society; The Newry Reporter; Elana Patterson; Professor Senia Paseta; the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI); the RAF Museum, London; the Royal Irish Fusiliers Museum Armagh; Catherine Savage; the Science Museum; Ray Spence; the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas; John Taylor; Brendan Tohill; University College, Dublin Archives; Elizabeth Warnock; and Marcia Watson.

Every effort has been made to correctly attribute photographs and quoted material in this booklet.

Booklet written and compiled by Dr Robert Whan

© Newry and Mourne Museum, 2015

Back cover photograph:

1st Newry Scouts, pictured outside Downshire Road Presbyterian Church in 1921, with the Scouts’ Roll of Honour. The Roll of Honour commemorates the members and leaders of the Scout Troop who enlisted during the war, including eight who were killed (Courtesy of William McAlpine)