White Feathers.

R.Dub.Fusilier

during WW1 and other conflicts women in Britain gave white feathers to men of military age , who were not in uniform , as a way to shame them into joining the army and fighting at the front. did this happen in Ireland and was it common? and was this practice right?

Snickers Man

I believe it was a not uncommon sight in Grafton St, especially in the first two years of the war.

I think it is a very dangerous thing to confuse cowardice with lack of empathy for a particular cause. Although the war was generally popular in Britain as a whole, at least at the outbreak, and there was a huge wave of enthusiasm for the first wave of recruiting, there were always dissenting voices against it and for a variety of reasons.

Some extreme Irish Nationalists and Republicans took the view that England's difficulty was Ireland's opportunity and that Irish men of military age should steel themselves to take the fight to the old enemy now that there were some "gallant allies in Europe" who were effectively acting in concert.

Then of course there were socialists whose analysis of the situation came to the conclusion, quite reasonably, that this was a squabble between the ruling classes of an ancien regime of monarchists, fuedalists and emerging capitalist exploiters and that the working class should have no hand act or part in being set against its brethern in different countries.

And then of course there were the conscientious objectors, who were treated abonimably by all sides.

The problem with handing out white feathers to young men who would later prove themselves to be many things but not cowards was that you were belittling your case if you ever wanted to say that "violence achieves nothing."

If you are on the one hand saying "Join up and wage unimaginable total war on the civilian populations of France, Belgium, Turkey, Palestine, Mesopotamia etc" it's difficult later to say to those same men that taking up arms for what they saw as their own cause was wrong in itself.

You can say it, but you would find it hard to be taken seriously.

I suspect such behaviour convinced many a reluctant supporter of the 1916 and later risings of the righteousness of their actions.