Irish Catholic Troops and the Shield of Faith during the First World War

This article examines the religiosity of Irish Catholic soldiers who served in the British Army during the First World War. Drawing on the letters, diaries and memoirs of servicemen, newspapers, contemporary books, the observations of Catholic chaplains, official army records and Catholic publications, it takes a popular religion approach examining both orthodox Catholic beliefs and practices as well as more unorthodox ones such as the sacralisation of religious literature and the use of various objects as talismans. This article argues that Irish Catholic troops drew upon their religious toolkit to help them endure the challenging conditions of active service. In this regard, they mirrored the religious behaviour of many other Western Christian soldiers during the First World War. While the primary focus of this article is on Irish Catholics, it also contributes to a growing body of scholarship that has stressed the importance of religious frameworks in helping soldiers cope with the challenges of mass industrialised warfare in the early twentieth century.