Who were the Irish men who went to serve in the British Army during the First World War? What was their motivation?

In this extract the voices of some of those Irish men who survived the Great War outline why they joined up. The reasons vary from being a supporter of John Redmond, family tradition and belief in a duty to defend small nations.  

This documentary was broadcast in 1966 which was also the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising an event that was commemorated nationally by events countrywide and programmes on radio and television. 'And in the Morning' attempted to look at why so many Irish men served and died in the British army in a foreign war when other Irish men were rising against Britain in Dublin.

Broadcast on the 17 November 1966 the RTÉ Guide listing for 'And in the Morning' read,

"Fifty years ago tomorrow, the long drawn-out agony of the battle of the Somme was ending. It had been the greatest battle the world had ever seen, and among more than one million casualties, 5,000 irish men were killed. Dr. Charles Dickson, M.C., was one of those who survived. An RTÉ film crew revisited the battlefield with him this year to tell the story of the Irish at the Somme and to ask why they were there." 

(RTÉ Guide November 11, 1966 Vol. 3 No. 46 p24)

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