Clontarf's Protestant Communities in the First World War

                                             

 

 

Trinity College Dublin, History

Senior Sophister Dissertation 1995

 

Section Guide:

Introduction

Ante-Bellum Clontarf

The Reasons for the War

Recruitment

Civilian ‘War Work’

Economic Impact of the War

Social Impact of the War

Disturbances and Restrictions

Post-War Consequences

Conclusion

 

List of Tables:

Table 1: 1911 Census Information on Population

Table 2: 1891 Occupational Background of the Male Inhabitants of the Township of Clontarf

Table 3: Clontarf Protestant Male Enlistment and Casualties

Table 4 : Chronology of Recruitment Among Clontarf's Church of Ireland Males

Table 5: Branches of Service of the Clontarf Methodist and Church of Ireland Recruits

 

Acknowledgements:

I would like to thank the many people who helped me in researching this dissertation. Their friendly assistance was indispensable. They are :

 

Dr. D. Fitzpatrick, my supervisor; Dermot Gilroy, Clontarf Golf Club; Enda McDermot, Clontarf Cricket Club; Clontarf Football Club; Joynt and Crawford, Solicitors; Rev. D A. Levistone Cooney, Clontarf Methodist Church; Rev. T Haskins, St. John the Baptist Church, Clontarf; Minister James Brogan, Clontarf Presbyterian Church; Dorris Hodgins; Hilary Fairman; the staff of the Freemasons's Archive, Dublin; and Geraldine Loftus of the TCD Computer Lab, for averting disaster.

 

 

 

 

Introduction

"We are now, at the moment of writing, going through one of the most anxious and trying times of the War. Many of our friends are in positions of danger, and our country as a whole is at a very serious crisis."^[1]

 

The danger referred to is the Ludendorff Offensive of March-July 1918. War memorials in the three Clontarf Protestant churches attests to the impact the war had in Clontarf. This dissertation examines the affects of the conflict on Clontarf, and the population's involvement in the war effort. Comparisons will be made with other parts of the then United Kingdom, and from this it will be seen if the influence of the war on Clontarf matched the Irish and/or UK experience. Whilst some topics can be discussed for all communities in Clontarf, the primary sources available mainly concern the Protestant communities, especially the Church of Ireland. The focus of this study is therefore on Protestant Clontarf.

 

Ante-Bellum Clontarf

Clontarf was a ‘chiefly residential’ suburb of the City of Dublin. It had a coastal location, backed by a large area of agricultural land. It had formerly been a separate township, but was annexed to the City in 1900 because it could not finance a proper drainage system. The Township of Clontarf had included the distinct areas of Clontarf, Marino and Fairview^[2]; Clontarf proper lay between the coast-end of the Malahide Road and Dollymount and corresponds to the modern-day area of that name.^[3]

 

Table 1: 1911 Census Information on Population^[4]

                                   

 

Its population was concentrated around the Malahide Road, Howth Road, St. Lawrence Road, Hollybrook Road, Castle Avenue, Vernon Avenue and Dollymount. The data on twenty two streets in Clontarf West 26/, examined to create Table One, revealed only one case each of streets inhabited almost exclusively by either Protestants or Catholics, out off twenty two streets. This indicates that housing was not segregated along religious lines, though Catholics were more inclined to live in the eastern part of Clontarf, where their local church stood.^[5]  Each Protestant community had distinct bodies organised on religious grounds, such as choral and childrens groups. But there was inter-community contact, in sports clubs, the local Voluntary Aid Detachment and the Clontarf Citizens Association, for instance. On a personal level, mixed marriages were not rare.

 

Clontarf was developed in the nineteenth century as a middle class suburb.^[6] The occupational background of the Protestant communities in 1911 is hard to establish as this information is not given separately for Clontarf in the census’s after 1900. Even before this, there is no treatment of the exact area under examination. The 1891 Census for the Township of Clontarf does reveal a high middle-class population.

 

Table 2: 1891 Occupational Background of the Male Inhabitants

of the Township of Clontarf^[7]

 

 

This information is two decades old for our purposes, taken when the population was 5,104. By 1911, the population of the same area had risen 175% to 8965. Even though the religious background of the total population did not change much, it is not known whether the middle class members were concentrated among the Protestant communities or in any particular areas in Clontarf or Fairview. It will be assumed that Clontarf’s Protestant communities had a mixture of working class and middle class members.

 

The large number of sports clubs active in Clontarf are evidence of a significant middle class population. Tennis, yachting, golf, rugby, swimming and cricket were all provided. An examination of the membership of two of these clubs reveals that the Clontarf Golf Club was exclusively middle-class, that half its members came from outside Clontarf, and that they were of mixed religion.^[8] Clontarf Football Club also had a mixed religious composition, though it was largely Protestant.^[9]

 

One source describes Clontarf as a 'conservative district'.^[10]  It can also be assumed that the Protestant communities were Unionist in politics, though there were 'widely diverging political opinions' among the Methodist community.^[11]  From 1912, the prospect of Home Rule for Ireland , and possibly civil war, loomed; a Home Rule bill was actually placed on the statute books in September 1914, to take affect after the war. Protestants in Clontarf participated in the war with the knowledge of disturbing political change when the conflict terminated.

Chapter One

 

Clontarf's Protestant communities supported the war effort in practical ways such as enlistment, 'war work' and co-operation with economic measures. In the next three sections, the local view of the reasons for war, the extent and pattern of recruitment^[12] and the voluntary aid activities supported by the population, will be examined.

 

The  Reasons for the War

Germany and France went to war on 3rd August 1914. The United Kingdom declared war on Germany the next day. There were various reasons for this: ties of alliance with France; the violation of Belgian neutrality by Germany; a desire to defeat a rival for world dominance. The attitudes to the war expressed by the Church of Ireland community reveal what Clontarf Protestants felt the war to be about. The armed forces are referred to on one occasion as "..defending our land and homes from invasion, and all the horrors that have overtaken the Belgium people."^[13] Another reference was to the men from the parish who had enlisted "...to uphold the honour of our country."^[14] After the war Reverend Connell referred with pride to "...the sailors and soldiers who protected the sanctity of our homes, and have handed down to us our freedom and liberty uncurtailed..."^[15]. This shows that people believed the war to be about national honour, liberty and defending against invasion by Germany. These were the widely accepted reasons for fighting to victory^[16] and must have helped sustain support for the war effort.

 

Recruitment

The outbreak of war resulted in an increase in the size of the British armed forces. The need for more men was met by voluntary recruitment and later, in Britain, by conscription. There were a number of combat theatres and Clontarf men served in Belgium/France, the Dardanelles, the British colonies and on the oceans. Recruits went through a period of training and when posted spent their time on duty or rest. Fighting, when it occurred, was very dangerous and those in the front line experienced the  terrors of modern warfare - charges against machine guns, massive artillery barrages, poison gas, et cetera. Poor hygiene, boredom and military discipline were among the discomforts of trench life, with few, precious comforts. An idea of this can be formed from the recorded experience of the 7th Royal Dublin Fusiliers ( in which a number of Clontarf men served ) at the Dardanelles in 1915:

 

"...the enemy made a counter-attack, but they were mowed down, and soon all was quiet save for a snap of a sniper's rifle as a chap incautiously raised himself. Those of us who were not on watch were glad to lie down and smoke and talk of those who had fallen until our watch arrived."^[17]

 

Recruitment in Ireland was voluntary for the whole war (unlike in other European countries). It was promoted by an organisation of local committees and recruitment centres, headed by the Central Council for the Organisation of Recruitment in Ireland, and, from October 1915, the Department of Recruitment for Ireland. Use was made of public figures, bands, posters and war heroes to achieve a response. For the Clontarf region the sources that exist for examining recruitment are war memorials in the local Prebyterian, Methodist and Church of Ireland church buildings and a roll of honour for Clontarf Cricket and Football Club. Full details are available for the Methodist and Church of Ireland in regards to casualties and total recruitment, though there is a degree of overlap, involving ten men, who are recorded in both communities’ lists of recruits, probably as a result of religious conversion. The persons listed as involved from the Church of Ireland community may be taken as coming overwhelmingly from Clontarf.^[18] From this data recruitment will be examined for the Clontarf Protestant community as a whole. Comparisons with Catholic recruitment cannot be made owing to lack of information. As happened elsewhere in Ireland, no memorial was erected for the members of the Catholic population in Clontarf who enlisted. However, arguably this reflects post-war attitudes to the war and military service, and not the attitude of the population during the war. It is known that a representative of the Clontarf Catholic community, Alderman Michael Moran, was an executive member of the Central Council for the Organisation of Recruiting in Ireland, thus indicating support in his community for the early war effort^[19]. It may also be assumed that Catholic members of Clontarf Football Club were among the many who joined up from that club^[20].

 

The total number of men who enlisted from the Methodist and Church of Ireland communities was 214. Looking at Table 1, this represents 26% of the male population  and 13% of the total population in 1911. The combined number of those killed is 37, which represents 4.5% of the male  Methodist / Church of Ireland population.

 

It is also possible to estimate the extent of Presbyterian enlistment from census and war memorial information. Clontarf Presbyterian Church also served the Fairview and Ballybough areas^[21]. This means that the war memorial commemorated not just men from Clontarf. Taking the fourteen who died as one-sixth of the total who served, this gives a total of 84 men for Clontarf East and West D.E.D.^[22] This represents 26% of the male Presbyterian population, the same proportion as for the Church of Ireland / Methodist population. As two-thirds of male Presbyterians lived in Clontarf, this proportion of the total, 56, is taken as an estimate of enlistment from that area. The total number of Clontarf Protestants who enlisted is therefore around 270, with 49 deaths (4.7% of males).^[23]

 

Table 3: Clontarf Protestant Male Enlistment and Casualties

 

 

 

Figures with * are estimates: see above and footnote 24. The figure in brackets is the number of persons from that community whose death or involvement is also commemorated by other communities. There are two brothers commemorated by all three congregations, though census information indicates that one was C of I  and the other Presbyterian. The  C of I casualties include one civilian, who died when the S.S Leinster was torpedoed in 1918.

 

These figures indicate a heavy male involvement in the prosecution of the war. There were various, overlapping factors that explain involvement. The most obvious consideration is that a Protestant population would be inclined, as Unionists, to loyally support their King and Country in war-time. This was indeed the case, as can be seen from the verbal identification with the war effort and their active involvement in 'war work'. Reverend John Connell, the Clontarf Church of Ireland rector, for example, stated that

 

 "We are all called upon at this time to do our part in the crisis through which our Empire is passing." ^[24]

 

 It is not possible to compare with the rate of enlistment among Clontarf Catholics to see if religious / political identity influenced the decision to enlist. However, the information for Dublin County and City in 1915 indicates that Protestants were 24 % of those recruited, whlist being only 21% of the City and County population, indicating a somewhat greater inclination to join-up among Protestants.^[25] However, D. Fitzpatrick has pointed out that these county returns for recruiting in 1915 show Catholics were more likely to join-up than Protestants in 14 Irish counties.^[26] As the percentage of Protestants enlisting varied from county to county there must have been other factors involved.

 

The greater likelihood of Protestants joining- up in Dublin could be ascribed, in part, to the enthusiasm shown by the middle classes. Clontarf was a middle-class suburb, a fact helping to explain the presence of 64 officers among the 175 Church of Ireland recruits. A sample was taken of 27 males who joined the armed forces. Of fifteen men on whom there was information fourteen were clerks, whilst the fathers of the rest were middle-class, bar two brothers whose father was from the working class.^[27] This shows a very high middle-class background among recruits. Official figures for Britain indicated that 29% of employed men had enlisted up to March 1916. But among the financial, commercial and professional classes the figure was 40 % or over.^[28] This enthusiasm can, in part, be attributed to the fact that the middle-class males were likely to be healthier than many working class employees and so a larger proportion were more likely to pass the medical examination taken by all those wishing to join-up.^[29]

 

Another factor accounting for recruitment levels was pre-1914 military careers in the British Army. Around 46,000 out of over 200,000 Irish recruits were pre-war servicemen (officers, regulars, naval ratings or reservists).^[30] . Rejoining the Colours or following in a father's footsteps probably influenced a small number of Clontarf Protestant recruits^[31]. A more likely influence from the family on recruitment was the desire of sons and brothers to follow other members of the family who volunteered from 1914 on. The sample of Protestant enlistees and officers referred to above was drawn from 21 families. Six of these families had more than one son in the armed forces, 28% of the sample. This suggests that in a large number of cases recruits could have been influenced in their decision to join-up by the recent example of a brother.

 

Apart from religion, class and family, another useful explanation for joining the armed forces is the influence of groups on an individual. D. Fitzpatrick in a recent analysis, notes that "Those belonging to militias, fraternities or sporting clubs were particularly susceptible to collective pressure."^[32] There are several different examples of this influence on Protestant officers and men from Clontarf.  Two members of the Clontarf lodge of the Freemasons served in the army and at least three other Clontarf men from another Dublin lodge served^[33]. Another contributing source of fraternal / group influence was third level education. There were ten Clontarf Protestants who joined the armed forces whilst they were undergraduate students at Trinity College Dublin. Eight of them had already joined the College's Officers’ Training Corps^[34]. This indicates that the OTC, the ethos of the College during the war and the example of friends were an influence on those Clontarf men at Trinity. The same conditions may have existed at other third level institutions attended by Clontarf persons. The 12th Company of the Boy's Brigade ( Dublin Battalion) was a Clontarf unit and mainly Church of Ireland in membership. This U.K organisation was for boy's of twelve to seventeen. The company's activities included drill, band, ambulance skills and gymnastics. It disclaimed the view of some parents that it was a military organisation.^[35] However, past  members were very numerous among Protestant recruits, in the U.K, Dublin and Clontarf. In the latter case, four officers and seventy members served in the war.^[36]  This is a large proportion of Church of Ireland recruits, but as membership ended at the age of seventeen this may reflect more on the popularity of the Boy's Brigade than on its direct influence on people's decision to enlist. A stronger but indirect influence may have been the instilling of the qualities of physical culture and duty. The same influences would have come from the 32nd Company, which also operated in the Clontarf area and which had close links to the Presbyterian community. Sport in Clontarf was a motivator for its followers to join-up. Both Clontarf's rugby football club and cricket club closed down because so many of their members enlisted. From Clontarf Football Club 108 men joined- up. As one member put it,

 

" Then came the anxious time when the golden rule of sportmen, "Play the game" was to be translated into real life ...Soon everything was abandoned for the greater game..."^[37]

 

129 members of the Cricket and Football Clubs joined in total. Twenty one became Royal Dublin Fusiliers, of whom fourteen were in the 7th Battalion's D Company,"the Pals", a group of middle-class sportsmen.^[38] Of the 214 Methodist and Church of Ireland recruits, 35 were among the 129 who joined from these two clubs. Members of sport's clubs were influenced by the example of their club mates and the idea of war as a 'sport' to join the colours^[39]. Private Reggie P. Wisdom was a member of the Artists’ Rifles ^[40], another 'Pals' unit that offered the chance of serving with persons of the same background. These various examples suggest that in general membership of fraternities was a strong influence on those receiving commissions or enlisting^[41]. However, the decision of Clontarf men to join-up must have been formed by overlapping influences, friends, family, patriotism, not one alone.

 

The next aspect of recruitment examined is the rate at which Protestant Clontarfers joined the armed forces. This relies on information for the Church of Ireland community exclusively. The number joining up was highest in the first period, when enthusiasm was undented by massive losses, stalemate and the prospects of a long war. The figure for Clontarf in 1914 in Table 4 would also include reservists and those already in the armed forces. The numbers entering military service in 1915 were at a higher level (in proportion to the intake for 1914) than in Ireland, overall. Like elsewhere, the numbers joining up declined markedly after 1915. This decline was greater in 1917 in Clontarf than at the national level. There was a slight revival in recruiting in 1918, both nationally and in Clontarf. It seems that most of those from the Church of Ireland community who were willing and able to join-up did so in the first half of the war. Thereafter new recruits were probably men who had just reached military age.

 

Table 4 : Chronology of Recruitment Among

Clontarf's Church of Ireland Males

 

(A) Proportional Comparison

Recruitment in 1914 = 100

Ireland^[42] 1914 100,  1915 105,  1916 43,  1917 32,  1918 24

Clontarf  1914 100,  1915 127,  1916 66,  1917 12,  1918 27

 

(B) Actual number joining the armed forces^[43]

                               

 

 

The information is based on the monthly list in the Clontarf Parish Magazine of Church of Ireland parishioners serving in the army and navy.

 

Unit affiliation is known for all recruits, but rank is only given for members of the Church of Ireland. Of the 175 Church of Ireland recruits, 64 were officers, 36.5% of the total, whereas officers represented only 3.5 % of those in the British Army in 1917/18 . A striking feature of those serving in the army is the high number in the special units such as the Royal Army Medical Corps, the Royal Engineers, Motor Transport, Royal Army Veterinary Corps and the Artillery units. 76 Methodist and Church of Ireland men, 35.5% of all recruits, served in these units. This is perhaps further evidence of a there been a large proportion of educated, middle- class males among the recruits. Another comment that can be made from the tables below is the above average involvement in the Royal Navy. This is a explained by Clontarf's coastal location. Kilrush, Co. Clare, for example, was a seaport and 13.3% of its recruits joined the Royal Navy.^[44]

 

Unit affiliation was important. On one level it could influence the initial decision to join up, in the case of ‘Pals’ units or the dashingly portrayed Royal Flying Corps for example. It would influence a persons chance of survival.^[45] Units were also important for public support - people identified with the fortunes of national formations or regiments from the local region:

 

“There can be very few in Clontarf who [sic] had not relatives or friends in the 10th [Irish] Division, which includes the 7th Dublin Fusiliers with its famous “Pals” Company. As we all know, the doings of this Division have never received adequete notice either in the despatches of the Commander-in-Chief or in the Press...”^[46]

 

It is interesting to note the low proportion of Protestant Clontarf men in their local infantry regiment. In Kilrush 54% of those joining the army entered the local regiment, the Royal Munster Fusiliers; in Clontarf only 11% joined the Royal Dublin Fusiliers.^[47]

 

Table 5: Branches of Service of the

Clontarf Methodist and Church of Ireland Recruits^[48]

                                   

 

 

 

A different category of service was that of the sister of Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service commemorated on Clontarf Methodist Church’s memorial plaque. Women could serve in the armed forces in a non-combat role in several units.^[49] These units served at home and overseas, their uniformed members an auxiliary to the military forces. However, recruitment was a predominately male affair and the majority of women served on the home front. This part of the war's impact is the focus of the next section.

 

Civilian 'War Work'

Civilian 'war work' took a variety of forms. Among women in Ireland opportunities for patriotic service lay in the feminine areas of nursing and charity work. For males who held jobs valuable to the war effort, or who were too young, too old or unfit, but who wished to do war service, there were various options. Teenagers of the 12th Company Boy's Brigade (Dublin Batt.) were employed at the outbreak of war as orderlies for Dublin depots and barracks, whilst the company's ambulance section yielded volunteers for the Royal Army Medical Corps’s Home Hospital Reserve.^[50] Clontarf men had the choice to join one of the Dublin divisions of the St. John's Ambulance Brigade. Another interesting male activity was the formation of the Clontarf Sports Club Drilling Corps:

 

"At present the tramp of marching men, and the sharp commands of drill instructors, are to be heard beneath the glare of electric lamps: the Clontarf Drilling Corps performs its evolutions on the 18th fairway."^[51]

 

These corps served as voluntary defence forces, at a time when the threat of invasion by Germany was considered possible. They were formed across the United Kingdom, by groups such as sports clubs and businesses; for example, the I.R.F.U and the Great Northern and Western Railway Company.^[52] There is not much known about the Clontarf Drilling Corps, but it probably resembled other Irish corps in their high middle class and Protestant involvement. Perhaps because members or the corps enlisted or because the threat of invasion receded, the Clontarf Drilling Corps was wound down in October 1915.^[53]

 

Clontarf men and women supported local and UK-wide initiatives, the essential purpose of which was to provide support for soldiers and sufferers in the war. A host of funds and organisations functioned of a scale and specialised nature similar to late twentieth century charities^[54]. The variety of activities was bewildering even at the local level in Clontarf. As one man, a child at the time, recalled

 

“It was an age of committees, committees for entertaining troops, committees for knitting...”^[55]

 

As a guide, the recipient of this activity was either civilian or military: the latter included Belgian refugee's, soldiers families or persons distressed by the economic disruption of war. Military beneficiaries were prisoners of war, sailors and soldiers at the front or stationed locally, and the wounded. Aid was either directed to individuals privately or to central organisations for general use. Activities took the form of donations and payments in conjunction with fund raising activities, such as golf competitions, or practical work such as fetes, concerts and 'comforts’-making for soldiers. The groups which performed voluntary aid were a mix of the pre-war, such as sports clubs, the Church of Ireland Bible and Literary Association, and the Presbyterian ladies’ working party, which had existed before to aid missionary hospital needs. Others, like the Methodist Soldiers’ Entertainment Committee, were new.^[56]  War work, thus, was performed locally by a mixture of single- and interdenominational groups.

 

Assistance for casualties of the war was dominated by the British Red Cross Society (BRCS), which opened Irish branches in late 1914, and the St. John’s Ambulance Brigade (SJAB). It was towards these organisations that Clontarf directed much of its charity work. A nursing division of the SJAB had been formed in Clontarf in March 1914. This preceded the war and may have been a response to the threat of civil war over Home Rule.^[57] The division, 25 strong and cross-denominational, performed various related tasks for war wounded, serving in Dublin and English hospitals, for example. One lady served in France.^[58] The division also helped with the entertainment of wounded soldiers at Clontarf Golf Club^[59]. This was all part of what one war time M.P called

 

“...the sacred cause of relieving our sick and wounded sailors and soldiers.”^[60]

 

In May 1915 the Irish Automobile Club organised a wounded soldiers’ club, by which soldiers were driven to Lord Iveagh’s private grounds or the Royal Dublin Society’s hall. Golf clubs offered funding for these trips, or held fetes on their own grounds with the Automobile Club’s co-operation. By November 1915 Clontarf golf club was one of twelve clubs in Leinster holding entertainments^[61]. Indeed, of over twenty events in aid of the war effort held by Clontarf Golf Club between August 1915 and September 1918, only two were not devoted to wounded soldiers or the organisations helping them.^[62]

 

The war service on which there is the most regular information is the Clontarf Church of Ireland ladies working party. This group was formed in December 1914 to provide comforts for soldiers and sailors. Items such as socks, shirts, handkerchiefs, gloves and belts, even sand bags for the 10th (Irish) Division at the Dardanelles, were made up or repaired. There were twenty to thirty women involved each week, meeting in the town hall or in private houses. It does not appear to have been an inter-denominational gathering, despite the common interest in helping enlisted men^[63] . There was a working party in the Presbyterian community and similar groups may have operated among the other communities that had menfolk in uniform^[64]. The need for the service of groups like theirs was greatest around Winter. Their activities slowed in Summer when warmer weather at the front and July/August holidays at home took affect. The work was funded in a wide variety of ways, namely

 

"...subscriptions (of members), donations from Tennis and Golf Clubs, Concerts and Entertainments, Jumble Sales, Proceeds of Library, payments for use of telephone, sale of flowers, work, cakes, jigsaw puzzles, etc. etc. "^[65]

 

This support involved the rest of the community and was essential in the face of the rising cost of materials: "Owing to the high cost of material it is not at all easy to find funds to provide work for such a large number of workers...". The output of the party was sent to national organisations or to private individuals: "Some of the work done is sent to the Castle Hospital and some to the Red Cross, but many articles are given by ladies to men in whom they are personally interested and whose exact wants they know."^[66] The group were encouraged by letters from those who received their gifts, by the appeals of the Red Cross Society and the news all around them: "We hear on all sides of the need being great both for our sailors and soldiers at the front, and those invalided home in our hospitals."^[67] Also, many of the ladies had sons fighting in the war.^[68] This form of 'war work' not only provided an outlet for patriotism and personal concerns but also provided  intra-community contact : "The meetings are very bright and sociable and have done much to draw the ladies of the parish together...".^[69]

 

Another regular form of war service in Clontarf was the entertaining of soldiers stationed on Bull Island. In September 1914 the grounds of the Royal Dublin Golf Club were commandeered by the War Office.^[70] A School of Musketry was organised on the island. Here soldiers spent a week learning the skill of shooting.^[71] The rapid turn over of trainees did not prevent contact with the local community being built up. Concerts were provided for the soldiers by three Clontarf Churches.^[72]  Whilst one of these was either the Catholic or Presbyterian communities, the Church of Ireland and the Methodists were definitely involved^[73]. Both were concerned to entertain the troops and to provide for their spiritual well being. The Methodists provided concerts on the main land every Thursday and the Church of Ireland on Monday in a YMCA Hut on the island.:

 

"Our parish undertook, from the first, to provide a concert every Monday night to entertain the men, and most of the musical members of our congregation can bear witness to the hearty appreciation with which their efforts are met."^[74]

 

In the other direction, permanent staff members of the 'Bull Camp' played a role in local life. One officer, for example, gave a talk on 'The making of a war shot' at a Church of Ireland social gathering.^[75] and the commander of the camp was inspecting officer at the 1918 Annual Inspection of the 12th Co., Dublin Boy's Brigade.^[76] There was probably similar contact with the other Clontarf communities. The relationship was that of people with friends and family in the war doing something for soldiers training for the same duty.

 

It is hard to estimate the number of persons from Clontarf active in 'war work'. The overall impression is that the Protestant communities (and Catholic members of sports clubs) supported war charities throughout the conflict with their time and money. The various activities that were carried out in Clontarf were mirrored across the U.K, though in Ireland membership of the BRCS and SJAB was concentrated in Dublin and Ulster.^[77]

Chapter Two

 

Having examined the active involvement of the Clontarf Protestant communities in the war, this chapter looks at the  wartime economic and social affects of this 'total war', as detected in Clontarf. Next, government war measures and the 1916 Rising are briefly addressed. The long term impact of these, and other aspects of the war, concludes the chapter.

 

Economic Impact of the War

This section examines the economic impact of the war on Clontarf. The 1891 Census (see Table 2, page three) shows the Clontarf Township had a sizeable middle-class. The sample of twenty one Protestant families with sons in the war (see page ten) showed twenty had middle class backgrounds. The question of the war's economic impact is therefore examined with special attention to the middle-classes. There are three themes: prices, incomes and shortages, the food question, and the duty of economy in war time.

 

The higher cost of imports and a scarcity of labour contributed to a rise in the cost of living in the UK. The Sauerback- Statist indices, based on wholesale prices and unit value of imports, shows that between 1914 and 1918 food prices rose by 215%, and the cost of raw materials by 234%.^[78] There are numerous references to increased prices among the Clontarf population. Among the commodities affected were food, blankets, clothing, coal, building materials and paper^[79]. The rise in prices put pressure on peoples spending powers and led to a need for a similar rise in wages: Clontarf Golf Club's two green keepers received four wage increases between 1916 and 1918.^[80] In Britain wages are believed to have doubled, mainly in the later part of the war, and most dramatically among the those who were the most poorly paid workers before 1914.^[81]  In Ireland agricultural labourers wages rose, just enough to keep in line with price rises. However, one Labour writer argued that increases in wages were not as great or as widespread among workers in Ireland as among those in Britain^[82]. This may be because there were less trades and industries here in the 'mainstream' of the war economy, such as railways, engineering, munitions works.^[83] Those who were general labourers or had industrial occupations in Clontarf may have suffered hardship; some of those involved in transport would have been more secure. For the middle classes the picture is less clear. The Times History of the War, a contemporary, upper class source, portrays the middle classes as being caught between rising prices and higher income tax, on fixed salaries. In addition the loss of a breadwinner's income, if they entered military service, would not be fully recompensed by their new army wages or separation allowances^[84]. A. Marwick has noted, however, that middle class clerks may have benefited from the expanded government bureaucracy and lawyers from the legal tangles caused by the Defence of the Realm Act, whilst small businesses profited from the 'war boom'.^[85]  One occupation for which there is information on in Clontarf is the clergy. Church of Ireland clergymen were hurt by war prices because they were on fixed incomes.^[86], whilst both the Methodist and Presbyterian communities had to increase the income of their ministers.^[87] So there is evidence of an increasing financial burden on the middle-class members of Clontarf.

 

Apart from the increased cost of goods, some were also simply less available, owing to shortages caused by the loss of labour, the sinking of shipping and the pressure on internal transport systems. Coal and sugar were scarcer and dearer, for instance .^[88] The national supply of food did not fail during the war, but there were fears that it would. Initially, despite being dependent on imports of food, there was no serious food problem in the  UK. However, the bad world harvests of 1916, the unrestricted German U-boat campaign in 1917, and the appearance of food queues in major cities, produced the fear of a failure of food supplies. The potential impact of this on workers at home and the morale of family men in the front line prompted the government to intervene. The power to make food regulations was adopted in November 1916 and compulsory tillage was introduced in 1917, requiring farmers to have a minimum area of their land under tillage and for townspeople to cultivate small plots. Dublin Corporation established a land cultivation committee and operated 'market gardening schemes' around Dublin, including Marino, Fairview and Clontarf. Additional land at Killester was acquired and plans made for a housing scheme for soldiers.^[89] When it sought to acquire the lands of Clontarf Golf Clubs for cultivation purposes, the club protested that it already rented five of its forty acres as allotments and grazed 380 sheep on its lands. However the members recognised that

 

"To-day the food question must take precedence of games or anything else."^[90]

 

This reveals the seriousness with which the threat of food shortages was held. The Club averted the loss of its links by arranging the use of lands at Croydon Park for allotments.^[91] Apart from local and national government efforts to promote more food production, townspeople also took on board this work voluntarily, as a way of getting fresh vegetables or money. Growing your own food was also seen as a patriotic duty. As an Irish War Savings Committee pamphlet put it:

 

"If we have any ground, every foot that we can use for growing or raising food...is a gain to ourselves and our country"^[92]

 

This practise was taken up enthusiastically in Clontarf:

 

"Allotments were all the rage and most people grew their own food."^[93]

 

Measures of economy were practised increasingly as the war progressed. This was a response to the economic affects of the war and patriotic appeals to conserve resources. The Irish War Savings Committee, targeting the well-off in particular, appealed for people not to buy dearer houses or to decorate; for them to ignore fashion changes in clothes and to use 'hand me downs'; travel for pleasure, membership of sports clubs and indoor entertainment were all to be cut-down.^[94]  The civilian population did not fully behave as requested. Indoor entertainment was very popular across the UK, people did not dress drably and the ladies of the Clontarf Church of Ireland working party still went on Summer holidays^[95]. However, the message did take affect as the months passed:

 

"One of the things we are all learning now-a-days is the necessity for economy. Nothing should be destroyed till it has been quite used up."^[96]

 

One sign of this is the reduction in group excursions. In 1915 the Clontarf Church of Ireland  Bible and Literary Association held a field trip with a varied feast of food.^[97] However, the Presbyterian Sabbath School excursion was abandoned in that year and there was no annual social meeting held by the Methodist community in 1917 or 1918. The Church of Ireland's Sunday School excursion and Infant Fete was not held in 1917, 'owing to the food regulations and the King's Proclamation'.^[98] It can be presumed that the other events were cancelled for the same patriotic reasons.

 

The sources used show Clontarf's Protestant communities experiencing price rises, practising economies and producing food themselves. How much the last two were done out of necessity, and how much they were done out of patriotism, is unclear. The middle class population may have faced financial hardship. The working class population could have faced deteriorations or improvements in their standard of living, depending on their occupational background. However, the clearest indication of the economic fortunes of the Clontarf population during the war is when comparison is made with the neighbouring Protestant parish of St. Thomas. Here the war's economic impact, dearer food, clothing and coal, was felt sharply, owing to the number of poor persons in the parish.^[99] In Clontarf itself orphans and distressed ladies needed greater support from the parish.^[100] The war bore heaviest on the poor; by comparison the majority of the Protestant population of Clontarf were secure.

 

Social Impact of the War

The war caused alot of disruption initially.^[101] However, by September life in Dublin was getting back to normal. This section examines certain aspects of how the influence of the conflict extended beyond the direct war effort, affecting women, sport, and social/cultural life.

 

The scale of involvement of women in the war effort and the types of war duties they performed in the UK were reflected, to a large degree, in Clontarf. It was characteristic of war service across the UK that women played a leading role.^[102] This characteristic is borne out in Clontarf where local organisers for national bodies and funds were women.^[103]  There was an active nursing division of the St. John V.A.D . Women were also active in  entertainments for wounded soldiers and members of the 'Bull Camp'.^[104] However, whilst the First World War is noted for it's impact on women in British society, in opening up new areas of work for women, and giving those in work related to the war- effort greater economic and social independence.^[105], in Ireland, unlike in Britain, there was not great scope for the take-over of male jobs as there was no conscription applied in Ireland and there was enough non-skilled male labour to fill jobs created by war needs or jobs vacated by recruits.^[106]. However, the large expenditure of time and effort made by women in the war was not without consequences in Ireland. In the UK as a whole it led to a successful outcome to the campaign for the right of women to vote in parliamentary elections^[107]. It also led to Church of Ireland women been admitted to the vestry. Previously membership of the vestry was restricted to male parishioners over twenty one.^[108] In March 1914 a petition had been submitted to the General Synod of the Church of Ireland asking that women be made eligible for election to the vestries. In May the petition was discussed by the Synod but defeated.  Among the arguments in favour of the petition was the quantity and quality of work done by women in the Church and their generous donations to funds.^[109] This devotion also characterised women’s role in 'the war effort', as has been shown, and the war strengthened the idea that women should have the same role as laymen in the Church.^[110] The extension of the franchise to women also undermined opposition to this idea.^[111] In Clontarf, the matter was formally debated at a war time social event, with a majority in favour, and was approved by the male Vestry in 1919 and again in 1920.^[112] The Church synod in May 1919 defeated a motion to give women a greater role in the Church, but at next year’s Synod women won the right to be on select vestries. ^[113]  The war can, therefore, be said to have produced greater recognition for some women in Ireland, because the normal tasks of women in the community were given improved national value.

 

The most dramatic effect of the war locally was probably the absence of the many young men who gradually joined the armed forces. The military age in the First World War was 18 to 40. Using census figures it can be estimated that of a male Protestant population of around 1026, 386 were in the 18-39 age group^[114]. The 270 estimated recruits therefore represent 70% of that age group. This was well above the figure of 24% for Irish recruits as a percentage of men aged 15-39^[115], showing the influence of an urban, Protestant background on recruitment.

 

The absence of many of the young men of Clontarf had an immediate affect on normal community life. As F.W.R Knowles recalled

 

"there was no [outdoor] entertainment, though the older locals carried on the tennis clubs, since the younger men were in France."^[116]

 

Clontarf's yacht, lawn tennis and golf clubs stayed open, in the last two cases because of their middle-aged membership. But the Royal Dublin Golf Club was closed by the War Office and the cricket and rugby clubs by lack of players. The latter two clubs were threatened by the public attitude that sport should not be conducted in war time as it kept young men (the players) out of the army and the spectators away from their important jobs. It was considered an affront to have such activity whilst those who had selflessly joined-up were fighting and dying.^[117] Speaking after the war, one Clontarf rugby club member recalled the debate on the I.R.F.U proposal that play be halted:

 

"A great deal of time was spent at the last Annual Meeting deciding whether the members of the club should play football during the season or not. The vote went in favour of playing [16 to 11] and 'friendly matches' were arranged and played until January 1915 when it was found impossible for the club  to raise a team owing to the many members having joined His Majesty's Forces..."^[118]

 

Golfing was also threatened by public attitudes to men of military age and good health not 'doing their bit'. But this was not as serious in Ireland as in Britain, where the higher proportion of men joining up created more pressure on those who did not enlist.^[119] Golfing justified its existence by stressing the charity work it performed and the economic affects of club's closing.^[120] Clontarf Golf Club was still affected in other ways. One lady, referring to the low involvement of the Ladies Section in golf competitions, noted that

 

"The lack of enthusiasm may be due to the fact that the ladies of the Club are more or less engaged in 'War Work'.^[121]

 

Sport in Clontarf thus faced the loss of participants and public reservations over its continuation in war time. The other side to the patriotic spirit of the war was the criticising of any shortcomings and a desperation to be 'politically correct' viz a viz  the war^[122]:

 

"...citizenship carried with it a new obligation, and for any man or woman to be doing nothing of national importance became a reproach."

 

This no doubt led to tensions at times, but the response of Clontarf Football Club in not taking the extreme patriotic course of action shows that the early temper of the people was not too demanding.

 

Another part of people's outlook in the war included a hostile image of the German Empire. The image of the 'treacherous Hun', was propagandised by the government and the media, and accepted.^[123] There is no echo of this attitude in the Clontarf Church Parish Magazine. However, when Dublin Corporation decided to remove the Freedom of the City from the German Celticist Kuno Meyers, over his criticisms of the British war effort, three Clontarf representatives voted in support of the motion. One representative opposed it, whilst two others did not vote.^[124] This indicates that Clontarf was not untouched by feelings of hostility towards enemy nationals.

 

Apart from the different duties that people undertook, the war modified activities unrelated to the war effort, such as socialising and cultural life. 'Kharki, V.C', a poem by a Clontarf woman, is one example of this and of the prevalence of a military influence on life and thought:

 

"Don't grieve now, poor mother, your boy is at rest,

 And he lies where all heroes would be,

 With the colours grasped tightly, a smile on his face,

 In his blood-sodden, tattered Kharki."^[125]

 

The programme of the Clontarf Church of Ireland Bible and Literary Association in February 1915 consisted of a concert with patriotic music and three talks: 'The Army Service Corps', ' A Sailor's Life' and 'An Infantry Soldier in Training'. However in February 1917 and 1918, by way of contrast, the programme was on spiritual and social matters.^[126] In all the Association held twenty two meetings with a military theme. Fifteen were held in the first seventeen months of war. Only half as many were held in the remaining thirty five months. This is under a quarter of the frequency for August 1914 to December 1915. It seems there is evidence of the war predominating to a wide extent in way’s not related to the war effort, and, furthermore, that whilst civilian support for the war effort continued steadily, an element of war weariness crept in. When people socialised they seem to have desired relief from the gravity of life in war time, seeking laughter instead of serious themes (such as talks on the war).

 

"In these sad times it is doing a good work to make people laugh..."^[127]

 

This aspect of the war is reflected in the concerts held for the soldiers at the Bull Island School of Musketry, by the Methodist community, the tone of the events being described as 'somewhat incongruous' with any moral benefit.^[128]  But most of the congregation did not mind. Soldiers and civilians welcomed fun and normality amidst the great conflict they were caught up in.

 

Disturbances and Restrictions

The war generated restrictions and disturbances that impacted on life in Clontarf. The government was empowered by the Defence of the Realm Act to take various measures to carry on the war successfully. One war-winning measure applied in Clontarf, already referred to, was the seizure of the golf links on Bull Island for infantry training purposes^[129]. Apart from dislocating the Royal Dublin Golf Club, this action deprived children in and around Clontarf of a favoured playground.^[130] The presence of a large military camp in the area may also have brought the restrictions on public houses under DORA into affect. A more serious government measure attempted in Ireland was conscription. This was introduced in Britain in 1916, but not in Ireland, owing to the likely opposition of Nationalists. Conscription in Ireland was however planned as a result of the German Spring offensive in 1918. But massive opposition by the Catholic Nationalist population forced the government to withdraw the measure. The reaction of Clontarf Protestants is not certain but it is likely that opposition to the measure was lessened by the enlistment already of so many men of military age.

 

Clontarf was on the fringe of the fighting in the 1916 Easter Rising and experienced some of the consequences that flowed from it. Frances Taylor, a Methodist woman living at the coast end of the Howth Road, kept a diary from the outbreak of violence on April 24th, until May 4th. In it she records the frightening affect the Rising had:

 

"The sniping is going on very bad from houses in the locality. Several persons have been shot between here and Fairview. People are lying dead on the streets since Monday and no one dare venture to take them away. We are completely cut off from the outside world and we know nothing whatever of the bigger war with Germany."^[131]

 

Sometimes the fighting was close, at other times people just listened to distant guns, and each night they watched Dublin burn. Soldiers were positioned to guard the nearby railway bridges. Communications, fuel supplies, transport and food distribution were suspended. A food train arrived at Clontarf railway station from Belfast on Saturday 29th April that relieved the lack of bread, floor and meat in the district. Life began to return to normal in May as the rebels surrendered^[132]. No lasting damage had been suffered in Clontarf, unlike in the city centre, but the country was placed briefly under martial law. Arthur Griffith, the leader of Sinn Fein and a resident of St. Lawrence Road, was one of hundreds of people rounded up by the authorities as rebel suspects. Though he had no part in the Rising, his movement were opposed to the British war effort. He was released in 1917, but was rearrested in 1918. Official restrictions still continued. The Boy's Brigade, for instance, was temporarily affected by the government's post-Rising ban on drilling, but managed to secure a permit to proceed with their activities^[133]. There is no evidence of opposition to official restrictions. Clontarf's Protestant communities, having identified with the war effort, were not alienated by the various government measures to win the war and counter rebellion.

 

Post-War Consequences

After the armistice in November 1918 the various affects of the war in Clontarf declined by different degrees. Economic conditions still produced rising prices, until 1920, when a long predicted depression began. In 1919 outdoor sport and other features of normal life resumed. There were still wounded and ill soldiers for the ladies's working parties to provide for, and the men folk who had joined up were not all demobilised until sometime in 1919.^[134] Among the returning soldiers and sailors were many long term or permanently wounded casualties; as the Church of Ireland rector, Reverend Connell, noted

 

"...some of them have and will return to us in perfect health and strength, others, although their lives have been spared, return shattered in health, and crippled in body."^[135]

 

In addition, 49 deaths were suffered in Clontarf as a result of the war. This would represent 13% of the younger male Protestant adults. The demography of the area seems to have been influenced as a consequence; the number of births in the Methodist community, for example, for the period 1919 to 1928 was only two-thirds that of the pre-war period 1904-1913.^[136]

 

All three Protestant communities decided to erect memorials to those who died in the war^[137]. For the Church of Ireland it took the form of beautifying their church building by panelling the chancel. A stone Celtic-cross was placed in the grounds of St. John the Baptist Church, with the names of thirty three parishioners who died. In addition, all the men who had served in the army and navy were commemorated on a roll of honour inside the church. The Presbyterian community installed a large stained glass window in their church. It featured Christ's death and resurrection, and images of suffering in war; for instance, a fallen soldier, and a mother and child seated in a cemetery. Its theme was borrowed from the painting 'La Pieta", 'broken for us'. The Methodist community placed a marble plaque in their church, which listed the names of those who died and all who served in the armed forces. Five women members of VADs and QAIMNS were included separately on the plaque, paying tribute to the role of women, and civilians generally, in the war.

 

The major long term impact of the war may have been the altered political conditions in the country. Whilst people in Clontarf were concerned with the shape of post-war Europe and hoped 'to make the world a better world than it was before', political conditions in their own country were deteriorating, and would lead soon to bitter violence, especially in Dublin, Belfast and Munster.^[138] Home Rule was postponed in 1914 until after the war, but was never implemented in southern Ireland. The war had persuaded a tiny republican movement to stage the 1916 Rising and had dictated the government's harsh response to this action, as well as the unpopular and unsuccessful decision to introduce conscription. The decline of the monolithic nationalist Irish Parliamentary Party and the rise of the Sinn Fein movement was, thus, largely a consequence of wartime events and the December 1918 General Election revealed the transformation in Irish attitudes. A struggle between the government and the Republicans ensued. The Treaty that resulted in 1921 created an Irish Free State, linked to Britain constitutionally, economically and by security needs. The Protestant communities in Clontarf were removed from the United Kingdom into a widely independent country, in which, as a result of partition, their co-religionists were a small minority.

 

Conclusion

The war demonstrably had a large impact on Protestants in Clontarf, economically, politically, socially and by way of the wide involvement of men and women in the war effort. Their experience was widely similar to that of the majority of people in the United Kingdom. Within Ireland, however, excepting the economic and political changes, this experience was arguably shared only by other urban and/or Protestant communities^[139]. The urban factor meant concentrated pools of manpower, not tied to the land by labour needs, and more readily exposed to the propaganda of duty and the examples of their fellow countrymen or women. The Irish Unionist background of the communities resulted in an uninhibited acceptance of duty and the justness of the war. Membership of groups, such as sports clubs and religious congregations, further encouraged participation.

 

The war affected and involved the Protestant population to a degree unexperienced before or after. They could not escape the economic or political impact of the war, but they also employed personal and community resources in performing different war services and their response to the events and trials of 1914 to 1918 was marked by a patriotic spirit. For the young men of the area who followed their friends, brothers and the patriotic call, and 'joined the colours', the war brought new, and probably, harsh experiences. Even for those soldiers who escaped injury and the majority of the population who stayed at home, the war was not economically or politically rewarding. However this was beyond their power to avert and the Protestant communities in Clontarf followed the prevalent response and participated in the war.

 

 

Dear reader,

 

If you know of any tales, records or memorabilia relating to Clontarf and the First World War, I would be interested to hear from you.

 

Regards,

Warren Lawless

 

Copyright 1995, 2001