Dedicated To The Bravery And Loyalty Of The Men From The Tyneside Irish Brigade
The immigration of the Irish into the North East brought far reaching consequences for the development of the area. Many monuments bear witness to the labour provided by the Irish. Railway viaducts at Durham and Chester le Street were built by navvies, and yet the majority of the industries that brought them have disappeared. Even the world-famous Durham coalfield no longer has a working colliery. However at the turn of the century coal was king. It provided work for one of the hieghest industrial populations of the country, and provided power for other industries. The Durham and Northumberland coalfields were thriving as output increased, for the demand to make more steel to make bigger and better warships, as war loomed nearer. 1913 had been a boom year for the coal industry, and by the summer of 1914, coal was stockpiled high. There was a lull in production and consequently most colleries were working a two or three day fortnight. Unemployment was at a high level and men were travelling all over the region looking for work, in a desperate attempt to feed their families. This then was the background at the time of the raising of the Tyneside Irish Brigade.
early days and formation
The story of the Tyneside Irish Battalions is an inspiring one, a story of bravery and loyalty, but ending as with so many Great War battalions in tragedy and sadness due to the ' idiotic brass hats ' who had overall command of the battles, and who would use old fashioned tactics to see that these fine men and their regiments would be wiped out and left in the fields of France and Flanders forever. At the outbrreak of the Great War in August 1914 the young men of Newcastle flocked to recruiting offices. It is estimated that probably as many as 20,000 volunteered for service with the county regiment, the 5th of Foot, Northumberland Fusiliers, too many infact for that regiment alone but were readily accepted by other English regiments. On the 11th of August Lord Kitchener's famous proclamation was released along with a powerful poster asking for the first 100,000 volunteers. Kitchener was requesting men from the age of 19 and 30 to join the army.
Many Irishmen and young men of Irish decent flocked to join the colours. The atmoshere at the time along with the national newspapers presented the outbreak of war as a big adventure. Britains armed forces had not been in a major conflict since the Boer War, and surley with the might of the British Empire, this show would be over by Christmas. National pride and a sense of adventure took a grip of the whole nation. To many Irishmen who had never been abroad this seemed like a great idea, Irishmen had been doing the same thing for for hundreds of years. It could not be any worse than the conditions they were living in and the pits were idle. They had to eat and they had to feed their families. Th early Kitchener battalions of the Northumberland Fusiliers, The Durham Light Infantry and the Green Howards found recruits flocking to their depots. The Green Howards was a favourite with the Irish because of the name, in particular with the Catholics. Those who did not join would later enlist in the ranks of the Tyneside Irish. There was however a call that all these Irishmen should transfer to Irish regiments and a letter apeared in the Northern Daily Mail on the 22nd September 1914 under a heading called
An Irish Call To Arms. The letter stated the following:
An Irish Call To Arms. The letter stated the following:
Sir - The idea of forming an Irish fighting force in response to the appeal of Lord Kitchener for recruits, has been publicly endorsed by the Prime Minister on the ocassion of his visit to Dublin, and it is anticipated that men of Irish birth or decent, resident in Great Britain, will be able to join. Many have already fallen into the line by joining Irish units, but of the 2,000 young Irishmen who have joined the colours in South Durham and North Yorkshire during the past two months, the overwhelming majority are not associated with Irish Regiments. It is understood that the war office will give favourable consideration to applications for transfers to the new Irish Corps, and for that reason i desire to ask all who have Irish relatives in the recent lists of recruits to forward their names either to Mr John Mulcany. Mitchell St, Birtley, Co Durham, Mr Farrell Keirman, 285 Burley Road, Leeds, or to myself. The name of the regiments must also be given. I hope that officials of Irish organisations in Darlington, Stockton, Middlesborough, The Hartlepools and other large centres of large population will
co-operate in the preperation of as complete a list as possible.
co-operate in the preperation of as complete a list as possible.
The first indication that an Irish Regiment was going to be raised from the Irish community in Tyneside appeared in the Newcastle Evening Chronicle. The date was Saturday 12th Sepember 1914, and the letter was addressed to the Editor. The title was ' TYNESIDE IRISH proposal to form a New Regiment ' The following was printed:
" It is evident from the statement of Mr Asquith in the House of Commons last night that every available man in the country must be got to join the New Army if the enemy is to be overcome. That there are thousands of suitable men who have not yet come forward cannot be denied, and all citizens must make a strenuous effort to get these men to join the colours at once. The idea of regiments of " Pals " which has received the sanction of of the War Office, and has proved such a huge success all over the country, is a good one, and in order to give it our full support and do our utmost to assist the country in this terrific struggle that an Irish Regiment be formed on Tyneside, which Irishmen of all classes and denominations can join. The number of Irishmen resident in this district is a large one, and although great numbers of our countrymen have already joined, we believe it is possible to get the necessary number of men who, no doubt would prefer to enlist in such a regiment of a distinctive character in which all would be comrades and friends. A meeting to promote this object will be held in the Collingwood Hall, Irish National Club, Clayton Street, Newcastle, on Sunday 13th of September at 3' oclock, and every representitive Irishman on Tyneside, regardless of politics or religion, should consider it his bounden duty to attend.
The original idea for the formation of the new regiment was that it would cut across religious and political divides, although originally it was planned that the Tyneside Irish Battalion was to offer its services to the predominately Irish Catholic 16th ( Irish ) Division which had been raised to counter that of the 36th ( Ulster ) Division ( see sections on the 16th and 36th ) Lieutenant General L.W Parsons declined the offer, with a comment that would have been found most offensive, saying that he wanted no ' slum birds ' in his division. I cannot imagine for what reason he would have made such a comment. These were Irishmen who had been brought up in the toughest of enviorrments, had all the qualities to make excellent soldiers yet he stuck his nose up at them. He wanted ' the clean, fine, strong hurley-playing country fellows found in the Munster, Connaught Rangers and Royal Irish. The War Office replied to the offer of raising a Tyneside Irish battalion saying ,
