Creating commemorative spaces in independent Ireland: the construction and use of publicly sited First World War memorials, 1919–1970

In the aftermath of the First World War, widespread public commemoration of the war dead came to be focused on the war memorials erected on the squares and thoroughfares of many towns and villages in the countries involved in the conflict. For dead soldier’s families, not afforded an opportunity to honour their loved ones with the traditional rituals of mourning and interment, war memorials afforded a surrogacy for these important rites. However, the experience in Ireland was different. As Ireland embarked on a bloody and divisive journey towards political independence from Britain between 1916 and 1922, the commemoration of the 35,000 Irish men killed while fighting with the British Army during the war became highly politicized post 1919. In the nascent Irish-Free State, the socio-political space came to be dominated by nationalist rhetoric and ideologies and war memorial construction in this post-colonial context was stunted. While a national war, memorial was finally completed in Dublin by 1939 that memorial is outside the scope of this research, which instead focuses upon the construction of commemorative spaces outside the capital city, where only 12, publicly sited war memorials were completed during the period 1919–1930. This article charts the ‘life-cycle’ of these war memorials considering their planning, design, funding, location, unveiling and subsequent usage as sites for annual commemorative ceremonies of remembrance down to 1970. It highlights the range of challenges faced by organizing committees in securing sites for their memorials, while also demonstrating a heightened awareness within committees, as to how these memorials were going to be interpreted and ‘read’ by those who viewed them. Sensitivity and nuanced attention to detail with regard to the design, iconography, inscription and materials used in mediating a specific ‘Irishness’ for each memorial is detailed in illustrating how local war memorial committees tried to pre-empt challenges from those with antagonistic attitudes and views. Working within these constrained political environments, many of the resulting war memorials were based on conservative and hackneyed designs inspired by the Celtic Revival, in marked contrast to the more diverse range of memorials evident in Northern Ireland. Unveiling ceremonies provided opportunities to demonstrate the underlying purpose of each memorial as a site of commemoration for soldiers from each local area, a function which as this article articulates many fulfilled until 1970, when the outbreak of violence in Northern Ireland and the subsequent ‘Troubles’ brought a hiatus in commemoration in the Republic of Ireland.