Answer the Call

In May 2014 Glasnevin Cemetery Museum appealed to members of the public to come forward with artefacts and heirlooms relating to Ireland’s involvement in the First World War. The response was overwhelming and the range of objects and stories brought out into public for the first time gave a unique insight into the history of Ireland during that period.

In 1914 the men and women of Ireland answered a very different appeal. Conflict had begun on 28 July when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. A tangled web of European treaties and loyalties meant that the world’s greatest economic powers were drawn into a war that would last four years and dramatically change the course of history.

Britain entered the war on the side of France, Belgium, Russia and others. It began a mass recruiting campaign to expand its small army, which Kaiser Wilhelm II had described as “contemptible” and turned to Ireland for help. Within the first few months over 50,000 men had volunteered for the army. Men and women of all political viewpoints, religious beliefs and social standings came together in way which had never previously been seen. All had their own individual reasons for volunteering.