PRONI | British army recruitment in Ulster,1903 1918

PRONI and the Antrim and Down branch of the Western Front Association were delighted to welcome Dr Tim Bowman to give a presentation to mark the publication of his latest book, The Disparity of Sacrifice’. This event took place on Zoom on 14 October 2020.

British army recruitment in Ulster was more politicised than in the rest of Ireland, drawing on both the Irish National Volunteers and Ulster Volunteer Force. However, the limits of this politicised recruitment were seen by Spring 1915. While politics was important, there were considerable disparities within Ulster with a rural / urban split particularly evident and economic factors proving very important. Pre-war traditions carried on into the war, especially in rural areas. British recruiting propaganda was poor in Ulster, the only Province wide recruiting campaign organised in the final months of the war.

Dr Timothy Bowman is Reader in modern British military history at the University of Kent and co-author, with William Butler and Michael Wheatley, of The Disparity of Sacrifice: Irish Recruitment to the British Armed Forces, 1914-1918 (Liverpool University Press).