Dublin's Great Wars
The First World War, the Easter Rising and the Irish Revolution

For the first time, Richard S. Grayson tells the story of the Dubliners who served in the British military and in republican forces during the First World War and the Irish Revolution as a series of interconnected 'Great Wars'. He charts the full scope of Dubliners' military service, far beyond the well-known Dublin 'Pals', with as many as 35,000 serving and over 6,500 dead, from the Irish Sea to the Middle East and beyond. Linking two conflicts usually narrated as separate stories, he shows how Irish nationalist support for Britain going to war in 1914 can only be understood in the context of the political fight for Home Rule and why so many Dubliners were hostile to the Easter Rising. He examines Dublin loyalism and how the War of Independence and the Civil War would be shaped by the militarisation of Irish society and the earlier experiences of veterans of the British army.

Introduction; 1. Prelude: Dublin and conflict, 1899–1914; 2. Dublin goes to war; 3. Outbreak, 1914; 4. Stalemate, 1915; 5. Gallipoli: Helles; 6. Gallipoli: Suvla Bay; 7. Preparations; 8. Rising; 9. Falling; 10. Consequences; 11. The Other 1916; 12. Success on the Somme; 13. Snow and sand; 14. Attrition: 1916–17; 15. Learning; 16. Victory from the jaws of defeat; 17. War of Independence; 18. Crossovers; 19. Civil war; 20. Peace; 21. Commemoration; Conclusion: three men.

Richard S. Grayson, of Goldsmiths, University of London, authored Belfast Boys: How Unionists and Nationalists Fought and Died Together in the First World War (2009), edited At War with the 16th Irish Division 1914–1918 (2012), and co-edited Remembering 1916: The Easter Rising, the Somme and the Politics of Memory in Ireland (2016). He is an associate member of the Northern Ireland WWI Centenary Committee, contributed to the BBC's series Ireland's Great War, co-edits the website Ireland WW1 and works closely with community groups and museums on historical projects.