The new book, Offaly and the Great War, represents new and original historical research on the 1914-18 period. Lisa Shortall

The Parker Brothers of Clara and John Martin of Tullamore. One of the Parker boys was killed as was John Martin on 8 October 1918.

There was very little published work relating to Offaly in World War I until recent times. The 1983 essay by Vivienne Clarke was a first and rare examination of the period in Offaly, until Tom Burnell’s Offaly War Dead in 2010, and 2014’s Edenderry in the Great War by Catherine Watson. And so nearly every essay published in Offaly and the Great War which was launched to mark the centenary of the end of the Great War represents new and original historical research and findings, a very exciting prospect in the world of history publishing.The seventeen contributors have submitted essays that cover every aspect of the war and from almost all corners of the county.

In his opening essay, Michael Byrne provides a detailed overview of the political, economic and social landscape of King’s County between 1914 and 1918. Throughout the volume there are specific essays on Edenderry, Tullamore, Ferbane, Belmont, Ballycumber, Clara and Birr. Notable establishment figures from Offaly such as Major the earl of Rosse of Birr, Col. Howard Bury of Tullamore, Francis Hitchcock of Kinnitty, William Tyrell of Edenderry are each examined in turn. The participation of the Catholic middle-class is exemplified by the Sherlocks of Rahan and the Egan brothers of Tullamore.

The new book with 450 pages and almost 200 photographs is available for just €20 online at http://www.offalyhistory and from Offaly History Centre and Midland Books, Tullamore.

The historical records of the soldiers are skewed
The historical record is oftentimes skewed by retention of documentation relating to the leading class in society, and the sources for the study of the First World War are no different. The surviving source material for the nobility or establishment participant heavily outweighs the written record of the ordinary or unknown soldier. It follows then that the published histories can be top-heavy in accounts of the officer-class as the source material is more plentiful. Offaly History and the Great War attempts to rebalance that with essays featuring the ordinary Offaly soldier and works towards a full listing of participants from various areas. Paschal Sweeney describes the short life of Denis Geraghty of Ballycumber who was killed in action in April 1918 at the age of 19 years. P. J. Dooley recounts the lives of sixteen men from Belmont and Ferbane who were killed in the war. Eamonn Larkin similarly lists 82 men and women from the Ballycumber area who participated in the war, the name of 11 of whom were uncovered during the course of the research. Michael Byrne in his comprehensive listing of participants from Tullamore draws from multiple sources and provides a similar listing for Clara.

Three Sherlock boys from Rahan Lodge fought in the war and Gerard (left) was first Offaly man to hold a pilot’s licence and first to be killed in the war from the county.

Aviation History – Wallers and Sherlocks; from Ballylin to Birr
The theatre of war is described in essays relating to specific battles and conflict locations. Maurice Egan describes the action for the Egan brothers in the Battle of Messines and Joe Gleeson outlines Offaly participation in the First Air War, with descriptions of the air battles of the Waller brothers of Banagher who were highly decorated for their efforts. Without Joe’s research, many of us may not have known of the existence of an operational airbase at Ballylin House in Ferbane during the war. Or that Gerard Sherlock of Rahan Lodge may have been the first Offaly man to fly. Guy Warner in a broader essay on aviation in Offaly discusses the Royal Flying Corps aerial manoeuvres in Ireland in 1913 and the appearance for the first time of aeroplanes over south Offaly. Michael Byrne discusses the first aerial photograph of the town of Tullamore taken by the RAF in 1918 as part of a voluntary recruitment drive.

Two famous books on the Leinster Regt based at Birr

From ‘Great Men’ to the lives of women during the war
Soldiers, battlefields, airplanes, lists of killed or injured men – military histories tend to focus solely on the action and aftermath from the point of view of the men involved and this is only natural, but the war did not affect just the men on the front line – it affected every aspect of society, every class and creed, every man, woman and child whether on the frontline or not. The more recent examination of the social history of the war rather than the traditional empirical military and political histories or the histories of great men and soldiers, means that perhaps it is only now we are able to look back at the lives of women during this period with a greater understanding of their wartime experience. For example, Fionnuala Walsh’s essay focuses on Offaly women’s voluntary work for the war effort with the Red Cross, the impact of the war on ordinary women’s employment opportunities and its effect on household management, the effect of the so-called separation allowances provided to dependents of British soldiers and the lasting effects of the war for women with regard to bereavement and employment. In a similar vein the essay on Lois, countess of Rosse, and her management of a large scale prisoner of war relief scheme from Birr Castle, reflects women’s war effort at the top tier of society in Offaly. In the reading earlier, we saw how the forced repatriation of a German-born Birr resident, Dr Otto Boeddicker and his Kilkenny born wife, revealed the lack of agency suffered by women at this point in time. That her nationality was assumed into her husband’s upon marriage is something we can barely comprehend in this day and age but this was the legal reality for women at the time, and her life and that of her unmarried daughter, similarly without agency being a dependent, was forever altered by these circumstances and not for the better. Margaret Hogan discusses how the end of the war was a catalyst for change in terms of suffrage for women, with Irish women (but not all, as it was limited to married women over 30 years of age) voting on 14 December 1918 for the very first time. And while on the subject of women’s participation in the war, it is fitting to point out that while, traditionally, military histories were written by the boys for the boys, there are six women writers represented in the list of contributors in this volume producing a balanced analysis of the effect of the First World War in Offaly.

The rise of Sinn Féin during the war years
The Irish war experience is inextricably linked with the nationalist revolution and it could be argued that the latter might not have occurred without the former. Sean McEvoy’s insightful essay charts the rapid rise of Sinn Fein in Offaly in the post-Rising period between 1916 and 1918 and outlines the changed political landscape in Ireland by the end of the war which would in some respects become an unwelcoming homeplace for returning soldiers from the British Army. In his essay on William Tyrrell, Ciarán Reilly discusses the increasingly hostile reception faced by the Tyrrell family of Ballindoolin House, near Edenderry, in the aftermath of the war, with the house attacked during the War of Independence by an IRA party. The essay on the wartime experience of the fifth earl of Rosse reveals how the severely injured earl returned to a changed Birr, and the fact he had campaigned against Home Rule before the war was not forgotten, with some protestations against his election to local councils and committees, and a seemingly mean-spirited attempt to discredit his dairy enterprise by the Council.

Men from Clara who fought in the war

Commemoration
The aftermath of the First World War is further explored in chapters on commemoration and the uneasy relationship official Ireland has had until recent years with honouring the sacrifice of Irishmen in the 1914-18 conflict. It took until 1926 for a war memorial to be erected in Tullamore due to the political sensitivities of the period. The presence of the British Legion in Tullamore and its holding of annual Armistice Day parades and ceremonies until the northern Troubles in the 1960s is documented in an essay by Michael Byrne, and Stephen Callaghan provides for the first time a complete listing of the memorials erected in the Church of Ireland churches throughout Offaly.

Archives and war essays – the case of Howard-Bury of Tullamore and Francis Hitchcock of Kinnitty
As an archivist, one of the most interesting aspects of this body of research is the use by many contributors of original manuscript sources, in some cases newly discovered. In particular, fellow archivist, Jane Maxwell, in discussing the diaries and memoirs of Col. Howard-Bury, provides a fascinating examination of the genre of war-time diary writing and the more retrospectively and carefully curated genre of memoir, and how the use of historical written artefacts fills the gap in the official narrative of this period in Ireland. Memory writing again features in Ruth Barton’s analysis of the published memoir by Francis Hitchcock of Kinnitty of his experiences of serving with the 2nd Leinsters. Ciaran Reilly uses unpublished diaries and correspondence of the Tyrell family of Ballindoolin to underpin his research and a hitherto unexamined cache of approximately 750 prisoner-of-war letters sent to Lois, Countess of Rosse from Irish soldiers interned in Limburg and other German prisoner of war camps which have lain undisturbed in Birr Castle for 100 years have also been brought to light. On behalf of Offaly History, I am delighted to announce that with thanks to Heritage Council funding, through the unstinting support of Amanda Pedlow, Offaly County Council Heritage Officer, and to the generosity of the Earl and Countess of Rosse, these prisoner of war letters, many from ordinary Offaly soldiers, have been digitised and will be available to view on the website offalyarchives.com. A sample of about 50 of the letters is currently live on the site and over the coming weeks the remainder will come on stream.

The memorial plaque for John Morris of Crowe Street, Tullamore

While each of the essays stands alone as remarkable pieces of research in their own right, it can truly be said in the case of this volume that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. The contributors have provided a valuable record of our county in a pivotal point in history and a reference work for years to come and will be the definitive work on the Great War in Offaly.