Ireland centralpower?

[Henrik Andersson]

Arabs who fight aginst the turks fight aginst the entent.
So the irish who fight aginst U.K must fight fore the centralpowers?
Germany try to help the irish white money and weapons.

[Quelimane]

A quick look at the internet shows that the Southern Irish remained overwhelmingly loyal to the UK in the First World War. There was apparently no conscription in Ireland in WWI but hundreds of thousands of Irish from Protestant north and Catholic south volunteered for the British Army. Even during the Easter Uprising of 1916 there were hundreds of times as many Irishmen in the British Army as taking part in the rebellion. So Ireland was definitely an asset the the Allies, not the Central Powers.

Q

[phylo_roadking]

The IRA in 1916 was a VERY tiny minority even of militant Irish Nationalism - remember the REST of the many thousands of Anti-Union "Irish Volunteers" that had mobilised during the pre-War Home Rule Crisis didn't turn out in support of the IRA as they were expected to...by the IRA!

And....on the way to the GPO, the IRA party was jeered and pelted with vegetables by the many hundreds of wives, sisters, and mothers of loyal Irish soldiers "in foreign fields" who had sent their Army Pay home VIA the GPO....and the IRA was about to stop them collecting!

[Henrik Andersson]

But the germans tyr to support the uprising?

[GarethCollins]

It wasn't as black and white as that. The Uprising had a lot of support. The Irish had been fighting for freedom for centuries and were treated like second class citizens by the Anglo-Irish and Loyalist Scots-Irish. It is true many Irish volunteered for service but this was more to do with the abject poverty there than any kind of loyalty to the crown (at least to the Nationalists, there was loyalty of course by the Unionist majority in the north). The Irish did not like the British there. They

Overwhelming support for freedom from the occupying British did not come until the Crown Forces decided to execute the leaders of the uprising. When that happened there really was no going back. Southern Ireland began steps for nhome rule and the North remained under the crown where the Catholic minority up there were forgotton about by the south & persecuted for many decades.

With regards to the central powers, it was more a case of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'. Ireland had not been in any financial or economical position to enter any kind of war until recently. It was merely about independence and the most the Central Powers hoped for was for the Rebels to maybe keep a few Regiments busy with them instead of the western front.

[Patrick]

But the germans tyr to support the uprising?

Sorry not to respond sooner, but I just noticed this thread.

The Germans did in fact try to support the Easter Rising, but it was rather halfhearted. Sir Roger Casement, an Irish nationalist, attempted to raise an "Irish Brigade" from POWs but was unable to do so. The Germans meanwhile took 10000 rifles, 10 machine guns, and ammunition that were captured from the Russians on the Eastern Front and loaded them on a ship bound for Queenstown (now known as Cobh). Although the ship was manned by German sailors, there were no German officers/men otherwise sent to help train the Irish. The British had captured German codes from a German cruiser wrecked in 1914 and were aware of what was happening. The supply ship was intercepted by the Royal Navy off the coast of Ireland before the cargo could be offloaded and she was scuttled to avoid capture. Casement, meanwhile was separately transported to the Irish coast on the submarine U-19, but captured shortly upon landing and hanged in 1916.

Much more detail on German support (or lack thereof), admittedly written more like a Boys Own yarn than a scholarly account but good nonetheless, can be found in "Rebels: The Irish Rising of 1916" by Peter de Rosa.

[Henrik Andersson]

Thanks fore info!