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New figures show 20,000 Irishmen fought for Canada in WW1

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  • 01-08-2014 5:14pm
    #1
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭


    New figures show 20,000 Irishmen fought for Canada in WW1
    Almost 20,000 Irish soldiers served in the Canadian army during the first World War, according to new figures.

    A total of 19,327 of those who served in the Canadian Expeditionary Force came from Ireland.

    The number comes from an unpublished document from the Department of National Defence in Canada, but may well be an underestimation as many of those who enlisted in the Canadian army from across the border in the United States would have been regarded as American.

    Canada’s involvement in the first World War was colossal, with 630,000 enlisting out of a population of eight million. Some 60,661 were killed.


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    #2
    riffmongous
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 12,626 Mod ✭✭✭✭riffmongous


    Unlike the other British dominions as they were at the time, Canada went out of its way to specifically recruit Irish soldiers and a number of Irish battalions were raised during the war for those who were Irish-born or of Irish descent.

    I see there is still a battalion in the modern Canadian army called the Irish regiment, with a lineage dating back to WW1, I wonder if there are any modern Irish character to it?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Regiment_of_Canada


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    #3
    Jawgap
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20,297 ✭✭✭✭Jawgap


    The Irish Regiment of Canada fought a series of sharp actions in the breakthrough at Monte Cassino.

    Having crossed the Melfa (an action for which Maj Keefer Mahony of the Westminster Regt received the VC) they were relieved by the 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers (part of 38th (Irish) Infantry Brigade).

    Legend has it that when the move was being organised there was a Canadian soldier directing traffic, shouting "Canadian Irish this way! English Irish, that way!!"


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    #4
    tac foley
    Registered Users Posts: 5,504 ✭✭✭tac foley


    Read - http://cdnarmy.ca/inf/irrc.php

    First World War

    ARRAS, 1917,'18
    HILL 70
    Ypres, 1917
    AMIENS
    SCARPE, 1918
    DROCOURT-QUTANT
    HINDENBURG LINE
    CANAL DU NORD
    PURSUIT TO MONS
    FRANCE AND FLANDERS, 1917-1918

    Second World War
    LIRI VALLEY
    MELFA CROSSING
    GOTHIC LINE
    MONTECCHIO
    CORIANO
    LAMONE CROSSING
    Fosso Munio
    Conventello-Comacchio
    ITALY, 1943-1945
    IJSSELMEER
    DELFZIJL POCKET
    NORTH-WEST EUROPE, 1945

    Recent news from Subury ON -

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vicCbHDHMgI

    tac


  • Options
    #5
    tac foley
    Registered Users Posts: 5,504 ✭✭✭tac foley


    Jawgap wrote: »
    Legend has it that when the move was being organised there was a Canadian soldier directing traffic, shouting "Canadian Irish this way! English Irish, that way!!"

    It's true.

    tac


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