The Irish At War

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We are not by choice a warlike people. When our native institutions flourished before the seventeenth century they were not based on a warlike conception of society. The forces with which medieval Irish warfare was waged were largely mercenaries introduced from Scotland-the galloglasses.

Yet, apart altogether from the warfare that is discussed in this series of papers, few peoples have seen such widespread military service as ours. Few peoples have served under so many alien flags. No country as small as ours has earned such a name for itself as the home of soldiers. We have had an extraordinary military history at home and abroad. In the development, century after century, of our domestic affairs, the names of Clontarf, Faughart, the Yellow Ford, Benburb, Aughrim, New Ross, 1916 stand out as perhaps the greatest among very many battles that our forefathers had to fight before the Ireland that we know emerged. They are the battles described in this book. They illustrate our history from the battle-axe to the mortar shell. They were blows struck to sparkle the fire of our freedom.