The people of Australia and Ireland have much in common based on genealogy and a shared heritage. However, the connections between the Anzacs and the Irish in the First World War have been little known – until now. Historian Jeff Kildea tells the story of Australian and Irish soldiers who fought alongside each other at Gallipoli, the Western Front and in Palestine and of the thousands of Irish born men and women who enlisted in the Australian forces. But it was in Ireland itself that Australian soldiers cemented their relationships with Ireland and its people as tourists on leave, in some cases becoming involved in the Easter Rising of 1916. Some failed to return home and are buried in Irish soil.
To purchase a copy:
UNSW Press, 2007, Paperback, ISBN: 9780868408774
Cork University Press, 2007, Paperback, ISBN: 9781859184226
Available on Amazon as a paperback and Kindle and as an ebook on Apple Books
Reviews
This is a first-class bit of scholarship and a pleasure to read. (John Kirkaldy, Books Ireland, Feb 2008)
A splendid and supremely useful, as well as a consistently interesting record of an aspect of the Great War, and of unexpected Irish-Australian connections. Without it we would be much the poorer. (Thomas Keneally)
Anzacs and Ireland will fill a gap in the literature by examining and reflecting on the relationship between Australians and Ireland during the First World War and the ways in which the First World War has been commemorated – and sometimes neglected – in Australia and Ireland. It is written in a clear, readable style. (Dr John Connor, Senior Historian, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Australia)
Jeff Kildea’s Anzacs and Ireland is welcome on many counts, but chiefly because on publication it became the first work to address a missing dimension in the bibliography of World War I–the war service of Australia’s element of the Irish diaspora, generals, troops, chaplains and nurses. (Tom Johnstone, Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society, 2008)
Kildea has done tremendous work in recovering an intensely interesting series of individual Anzac narratives of experiences in wartime Ireland. (Keith Jeffery, History Australia, Volume 5, Number 1, 2008)
In Anzacs and Ireland Dr Jeff Kildea takes us across a little known landscape–the connections between the men of the Australian Imperial Force, the Anzacs, and Ireland between 1914 and the years immediately after the end of the Great War. He is well-equipped for this task having written and researched widely on Archbishop Mannix, ‘Billy’ Hughes, conscription and the divisions in Australian society in the early decades of the twentieth century.It richly deserves to be bought and read. (Richard Reid, Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, June 2008)
Anzacs and Ireland contributes significantly to the historiography of the Great War, providing a fresh perspective on both countries’ war experiences, and building on existing sparse narratives of Irish-Australian connections during this period. … Kildea’s … analysis of Irish-Australian association is of great significance, helping to redefine how we think about both countries’ war experiences, and establishing the relationship between them. (Fiona Devoy, The Irish Review, No. 40/41, Winter 2009)
Contents
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Explanations
Introduction
1. Shared experience – Gallipoli
2. Called to arms – Australian soldiers and the Easter Rising of 1916
3. The Irish Anzacs – Irish men and women in the Australian forces
4. Six-bob-a-day tourists – Australian soldiers on leave in Ireland
5. Wattle among the shamrocks – Australian war graves in Ireland
6. Who fears to speak of ’14–’18? – Remembrance in Australia and Ireland
Appendix 1: Australian soldiers recorded on Irish war memorials
Appendix 2: Australian war graves of the First World War in Ireland
Notes
Bibliography
Index