“Ex-soldiers, you have fought for freedom. Where is it?”

Although Irish soldiers had been promised that they would be treated as heroes when they returned from the front, the reality was in stark contrast, with many left to fend for themselves, at best, forgotten, at worst, betrayed and abandoned, and often in penury.
To make matters worse, unwanted by the British government, and viewed suspiciously by many in a changing Ireland, the veterans faced alienation on all sides.
In Athlone, the feelings of disillusionment must have been particularly acute, as the town had backed the war effort unstintingly. Athlone was one of the foremost recruitment centres in the country for the British Army during World War 1.
A whopping 800 to 1,200 men from the town and hinterland are believed to have served in the British Army during what was known at the time as The Great War.
In September, 1924, the Legion of Ex-Servicemen, whilst on a deputation to members of the British parliament, outlined that there was the very specific number of 1,257 demobilised British Army soldiers in Athlone.
Nationally, in 1920, its estimated that some 200,000 discharged and demobilised soldiers returned to Ireland. The legion itself had 120,000 members across the country at that stage.
Further evidence of the scale of Athlone's involvement was made clear when a local recruitment committee arranged the presentation of certificates of honour to families of the soldiers in 1916. Some 360 made contact – and many more may not have wished to draw public notice to their family's war involvement. Their names were listed in the Westmeath Independent in 1915 and 1916. Plans for a third presentation evening never materialised - the Easter Rising probably intervening.
Official figures showed that in late 1915, 407 people were drawing separation allowance, eligible to wives and dependents, at Athlone post office. Taking into account that many single men, without dependents, could not claim the allowance and that recruitment would have continued for most of the war years, it's feasible that some 800 to 1,200 men did join up from the general Athlone region.
If these figures are hard to pin down, providing an estimate of the number of Athlone casualties is even more fraught with danger.
One local historian has compiled a detailed - albeit not complete - list of Athlone serviceman killed during World War 1 which outlines some 85 names.
Whatever about exact figures, it's clearly evident that Athlone had made a major commitment to the war effort.
As is generally the case in wartime, that commitment was not spread equally across society.
The background of the soldiers was revealed in a comment in an editorial in the Westmeath Independent in July 1915.
“There is scarcely a working class family in the town that has not one or more of its members at the front.”
In August 1916, of 47 members of the Athlone Brass and Reed Band – a working class tradition - before the war, 35 had joined up (of which three had lost their lives) and three were working in munitions factories.
So what factors were behind this staggering level of enlistment?
The town's established military tradition would have obviously helped, and the presence of the British Army barracks in the town would have made military life appear normal to townspeople. The grim poverty experienced in the early years of the war would also have encouraged many to volunteer. Soldiering at least offered a steady income.
Athlone was also a strong Home Rule town, providing many recruits to the Volunteer movement before the war, who stayed loyal and backed the volunteers' stance in joining the British fight in the war.
When the war was declared, the vast majority of the 180,000 volunteers sided with John Redmond's support for the war and became known as the National Volunteers. A small more radical faction composed the Irish Volunteers.
The Redmondite view was supreme in Athlone and most of the volunteer movement would have favoured Ireland's participation in World War 1.
The urban council was dominated by the Irish Parliamentary Party - the old conservative nationalist elite, who were fully behind the war.
The town's pillars of the establishment were also all Home Rulers.
These people were the backbone of a massive local recruitment campaign sparked off in 1915 to boost recruitment numbers.

 

A recruitment advertisement from the Westmeath Independent in 1915
Local recruitment committees were established in many towns across the country but the Athlone committee appeared particularly active. And a number of choreographed recruitment rallies were staged to generate interest.
A recruitment office is believed to have been located in Main Street close to the current day Sean's Bar
The chairman of the recruitment committee, and also then chairman of Athlone Town FC, Michael J Lennon, in some ways encapsulated the political stream of thought which was backing the war effort in Ireland. A member of the urban council, a magistrate at Athlone court, a staunch Home Ruler, Lennon, a Connaught Street publican, was the epitome of the middle class Catholic establishment which had found an economic and political niche in the empire.
Although an ardent nationalist, he believed Ireland's place was in the war effort.
Addressing one of a series of war rallies held in Athlone to enlist recruits, Lennon, in December 1915, said:”Surely when this war is over, the rights of all nationalities will not be denied by the worldwide empire to this great nation of ours. In the future we must be an island within the empire.”
Beside him on the platform was the local representative of the ruling imperial class the Right Hon Robert Arthur Handcock, Recruiting Officer for Athlone, and later to become Lord Castlemaine, who was happy to smudge over the real political question facing Ireland at the time – its status within the empire.
“As far as we are concerned politics as we know them are dead,” he conveniently told the same rally.

 

An appeal for recruits from King George published in the Westmeath Independent.

Immediately after the Easter Rising, as the republican movement attempted to build up its strength, Athlone's urban core was still resistant to Sinn Féin and its allies for basic economical reasons.
Separation allowance, paid to wives of soldiers, was a crucial lifeline for many.
Whilst their menfolk were being slaughtered in the fields of Belgium and France, those at home in Athlone did not have things all their own way either. During that same period, there was a scarcity of many commodities - resulting in what the Westmeath Independent described as “a certain measure of distress in Athlone amongst the very poor”
“The payment of separation allowance to dependents of men with the colours materially aided in relieving the hardships which must otherwise have been very acute for a large proportion of the population.”
However, there were many who benefited too from the war that raged across Europe.
During the war, volunteers and recruits came flooding in to the local army barracks, with every available inch of space utilised. Such was the demand that impromptu camps were erected in the Meadows, at Gallowshill and at the old Ranelagh Grounds, the one-time home of Athlone Town FC, close to where the current Athlone Extrusions building is located.
This, naturally, had an economic spin-off for Athlone. Traders who had struggled to keep afloat before the war suddenly found their businesses buoyant as the soldiers spent generously.
At the cessation of the day's work at 6pm until curfew at 10pm, Athlone became abuzz as thousands of recruits to the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) battalion swamped the streets nightly.
Taking into account that the Athlone woollen mills had also secured what must have been massive orders from the Russian Army during World War 1, it's clear that Athlone had a strong economic benefit in the war effort.
However, by mid 1916, the Easter Rising, and more importantly, the British repression that followed, had helped to fan the flames of republicanism. To many newly-radicalised Irishmen and women, those returning in the uniform of the empire were representatives of that empire.
To make matters worse, the veterans could not rely on the British administration for support.
This was an experience shared by millions of returning soldiers of all nationalities - the rhetoric of creating nations fit for heroes proved to be hollow jingoism; nothing more than wartime propaganda. They returned to life of unemployment and poverty - their sacrifices on the field of war forgotten.
For some, the step from fighting for the rights of small nations abroad to serving Ireland's cause in the War of Independence was no great leap. These radicalised ex-servicemen - and their valuable military skills - would have been welcomed with open arms, too, by the republican movement. But many who simply wanted to return to civilian life found themselves caught up in a primal political battle. In Athlone, the changing times was best exemplified by an incident on July 19, 1919, which had been designated as Peace Day, a day in which parades were held throughout Ireland, with thousands attending.
In Athlone, participants in the parade gathered in St Mary's Square to find a huge poster had been erected overnight bearing the inscription “Ex-soldiers, you have fought for freedom. Where is it?”
If the Republican movement was keen to politicise the war commemorations, so too were the British Empire.
Some 16 months later, in the lead up to Armistice Day on November 11, 1920, posters with the following notice were plastered on shop fronts and walls throughout Athlone: 'Shopkeepers of Athlone are hereby ordered to close their premises on Armistice Day, November 11, in honour of the fallen heroes of the Great War and the police murdered in Ireland. This notice applies to all business houses and factories. And failure to comply with this notice renders destruction of said premises. (Signed) Black and Tans. God Save The King.'
This came just a few days after major reprisals by the British forces in Athlone, which involved the burning of a number of houses and the Athlone Printing Works and Westmeath Independent offices.
Although the Black and Tan notices were repudiated by the Brigadier General of what was then Victoria Barracks in Athlone, it's easy to see the impact this propaganda would have on public perception of ex-servicemen.
With these posters, the Black and Tans were deliberately associating the World War 1 soldiers with the British military repression in Athlone. To have the Athlone remembrance commemorations hijacked by the Black and Tans in this overtly political way must have been a local nationalist war veteran's worst nightmare.

This is a shortened version of an article on World War One first published in 'When We Were Kings: The Story of Athlone Town's 1924 FAI Cup triumph' by Tadhg Carey. Contact the author at tadhgcarey@gmail.com