Irish schools, republicanism and World War One: remembrance and memory making

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between aspects of patriotism and militarism as fostered in Irish schools in the early twentieth century and their influence on past pupils who enlisted in the British Armed Forces during World War One (hereafter War), or fought as republican insurgents during the Easter Rising, 1916 (hereafter the Rising). It suggests that the complex influences of schools on pastmen who fought has been neglected and concludes by discussing the complexities of commemoration for those who fell, regardless of allegiance, suggesting that, possibly, contemporary acts of remembrance also serve schools in a manner that looks beyond honouring the dead.1