46 Dublin’s Great Wars Richard Grayson

On this episode John Dorney interviews Richard Grayson on his recent book Dublin’s Great Wars, which examines Ireland’s capital city’s experience both of the First World War and nationalist revolution from 1914-1923.

They discuss the varied motivations and social backgrounds of the recruits. Their experiences at the battlefronts. How the war came to define rival and mutually hostile brands of Irish nationalism and republicanism. How the war veterans fared on their return to Ireland, challenging assumptions about their presumed political allegiances and treatment by republicans and how commemoration of the war is a far more complex story than simply wilful ‘forgetting’.

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