Crimean War

"The Crimean War was a war between Britain, France and the Russian Empire in support of the Ottoman Empire, from 1854-6. After forty years of peace the British populations wanted a war. Thus an ill-prepared and ill-supplied British force went to the East. Unlike the charge of the Light Brigade and Florence Nightingale - ‘the lady with the lamp’, the responses of Ireland and Irish people to that conflict are largely unknown in the wider nineteenth-century historiography, especially with regard to lesser known personalities.
There has been extensive work done on the Crimean War in Britain since the conclusion of the conflict but work from an Irish perspective has been minimal. Works to date include Evelyn Bolster (1964), Brian Griffin (2001), David Murphy (2002) and Maria Luddy (2004). Although those works have looked at the aspect of Ireland, the war and certain people in the war to varying degrees, practically no attention has been given to the response of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, its congregations and its ministers.
The aim of this article is to give an account of the life and endeavours of the Rev Galbraith Hamilton Johnston, the first Irish Presbyterian chaplain to the British army during the Crimean War, 1854-6. His personal letters, three in total, written in the East, and printed in the Missionary Herald in the months April-June 1856, give an understanding of the personal outlooks and difficulties faced by ministers in the East, as well as the opinions of a minister who preached and tended to his congregation in peacetime at Hillsborough for thirty-one years."

"‘Removing some big guns’ was the headline of an article that appeared in the Irish Press on 6 November 1970 and which reported that ‘Four artillery piece’ were to be ‘moved into Collin’s Barracks in Dublin’ from an unspecified location ‘at Islandbridge’. According to the paper the action was ‘purely in self-defence’ on the part of the army and came ‘after years and years of cribs, complaints, jibes and jeers by citizenry and visitors alike at the state of these old Crimean War trophies standing on army property’. However, as one army spokesman informed the paper at that time the guns were in fact not on military ground nor were they the property of the Defence Forces.
So what were these guns, where did they come from, why, and how did they end up in a small little park on quayside of the River Liffey and what happened to them after 1970? It is the aim of this article to tell the story of Dublin’s six Crimean trophy guns and their accompaniment of cannonballs, charting their origins in the naval dumping grounds of the Russian naval base of Sebastopol and their travels not only across the seas to Woolwich in England and then to Dublin, but also across Dublin City from one park to two barracks before finally coming to rest in 1998. It will also track the changes in opinion towards the guns over the years and the threats which it was faced with as well as the instances where people sought to save them. "

""""The years of the Crimean War saw a substantial change in the attitude of the British press and public towards soldiers and their wives and during the Crimean War. To date a substantial lack of a comparison with Ireland exists even among the few Irish Crimean War studies. Yet the question must be asked is the silence simply due to a lack of similar response on the other side of the Irish Sea or did Irish people, the Irish press, and military wives themselves respond with the same enthusiasm, patriotism, determination and philanthropic fervour as their contemporaries in Great Britain? Was the Patriotic Fund active in Ireland? Did Irish ladies send out their linen to be used as bandages in the east? Did Irish women volunteer as nurses? Did individuals go to great lengths to aid those women and children left behind by their departing military men folk?

It will be the aim of this forthcoming paper to answer these questions and highlight how the Irish public and military wives in Ireland responded to the war, its events and its issues between 1854 and 1856. It will illustrate that Ireland actively and enthusiastically participated in the new social idea that crystallized in the early months of 1854 – that the state and the public had a duty of care to soldiers’ families. It will show that in spite of a lack of exposure within Ireland’s nineteenth-century and modern historiographies Irish society as a whole, in sync with the wider United Kingdom, did respond to the Crimean War and the social challenges which it created.""""

""The Crimean War was a war between Britain, France and the Russian Empire in support of the Ottoman Empire, from 1854-6. After forty years of peace the British populations wanted a war. Thus an ill-prepared and ill-supplied British force went to the East. Unlike the Charge of the Light Brigade and Florence Nightingale - ‘The Lady with the Lamp’, the responses of Ireland and Irish people to that conflict are largely unknown in the wider nineteenth-century historiography, especially with regard to lesser known personalities.

There has been extensive work done on the Crimean War in Britain since the conclusion of the conflict but work from an Irish perspective has been minimal. Works to date include Evelyn Bolster (1964), Brian Griffin (2001), David Murphy (2002) and Maria Luddy (2004). Although those works have looked at the aspect of Ireland, the war and certain people in the war to varying degrees, none have given any attention to a man who for nearly all of his ecclesiastic life he devoted himself to the needs and welfare of the servicemen of the British Armed Forces and who during the Crimean War devoted every inch of his being to mitigating the sufferings of the servicemen, their wives and their children in Ireland.

This highlights the character of Dublin-born clergyman and Chaplain to the Forces First Class, the Rev Charles Josiah Hort. He is one of the unsung Irish heroes of the Crimean War who afforded those people ‘every attention’ and making all ‘the necessary arrangements for their conveyance to their respective homes’ before being sent to the Crimea himself in December 1855. Charles Josiah Hort stands as a shining light in social and humanitarian work and is one of the clearest examples of how Irish people and Ireland as a whole responded to the Crimean War and his story deserves to be added to Ireland’s ever-growing Victorian historiography.""

""‘What news from Sebastopol?’ was the headline of a report in The Times newspaper in mid-1854, the paper was reporting on the hysteria and the desire for knowledge which was gripping Britain at that time. Yet Great Britain was not the only part of the United Kingdom eager for information from the seat of war and neither was it the only one to commemorate its glories and failure in poems, works of art or memorials.

Today Ireland is lucky to still possess over one hundred such memorials to both the Crimean War in general and the people who fought and died in it. Those memorials which can be seen all across the island range from simple marble plaques in churches to monuments in town squares and from cannons outside courthouses to the names of entire streets. Yet it was not just the fighting men of the army and navy who have been memorialised but also a number of animals, in particular two horse called ‘Dickie Bird’ and ‘Crimean Bob’ and a terrier called Boxer.

This article brings together the stories of the three Irish animals who served through the Crimean War, 1854-6 and who were all memorialised after their deaths in 1860s and 1870s. It will use these stories to highlight the rich memorial heritage of that war which still exists in nearly every county Ireland today. ""

""In St Mary’s Church of Ireland Cathedral in Limerick today there can be seen a beautiful, large stained glass window which according to local folklore was donated by Florence Nightingale. Yet the person in whose memory it is supposedly donated is not as well known – his name was Augustus Stafford O’Brien Stafford and the window was erected by public subscription as ‘both a tribute of private affection’ and ‘a record of his labours in the east’.

In spite of his inauspicious early years, he was a key figure in the public’s response to the catastrophes of the Crimean War, 1854-6. He was an ordinary man who, alongside Florence Nightingale, devoted himself to alleviating the distress of the fighting men in the Crimea from both the British and the French forces. He returned in 1855 and devoted his remaining years to bringing the British government to account for its failures in the East and to ensuring that those soldiers who survived the war received what they were due and that their families would also be cared for.

This article brings the story of this lesser known politician, who had a strong link with Limerick, to wider public attention because of his personal efforts during the Crimean War: in Russia and inside and outside of the House of Commons. Although he was not born in Ireland his close family connection and Clare estate ensured that he was ‘a well-known and well-loved land-owner’ around Limerick and that he was seen by many as an ‘Irishman’ if not a Limerick man.""

"According to Orlando Figes (Crimea: the last crusade, 2010) religion was at the very heart of the Crimean War from the original dispute over the Holy Sepulchre in 1853 to the mass plantations of Christians in the Crimea after 1856. Yet to date in spite of several Irish historical studies and two substantial articles on the Society of Friends in Britain, no definitive study has been on the Society of Friends in Ireland during the Crimean War 1854-6 or its responses to it.
This article will show that in spite of Catholic Church’s criticisms and failure to properly observe the national days of prayer and celebration, the Society of Friends was the only Irish denomination to oppose the conflict. All the other religious denominations supported the war with the Roman Catholics, Anglicans and Presbyterians all providing military chaplains. It will be also shown that in spite of actively attempting not to do so during all three years of the war, a small number of Friends did stray from the anti-war path. 
Although the Society of Friends in Ireland is primarily remembered today in Irish ‘folk memory’ for its response to the Great Famine this article shows that its response to the Crimean War only a decade later is of equal interest, and that it forms an integral part of the Quaker’s history in Ireland as well as Ireland’s response to the war as a whole."

""The Crimean War was a war between Britain, France and the Russian Empire in support of the Ottoman Empire, from 1854-6. After forty years of peace the British populations wanted a war. Thus an ill-prepared and ill-supplied British force went to the East. Unlike the charge of the Light Brigade and Florence Nightingale - ‘the lady with the Lamp’, the responses of Ireland to that conflict are largely unknown in the wider nineteenth-century historiography.

Although there has been extensive work done on the Crimean War in Britain since the conclusion of the conflict, work from an Irish perspective has been minimal. Works to date include Evelyn Bolster (1964), Brian Griffin (2001), David Murphy (2002) and Maria Luddy (2004). Some of those works have looked at this aspect of the war as a small part of the larger picture but none have given more than a few pages to this area of the war.

This paper argues three things: as a group Irish MPs and peers were more critical of the two British governments’ war policies than they were supportive. The issues which elicited responses from Irish MPs and peers were common among all three major political parties. Finally, that the members of the two British administrations in Ireland did differ in both their levels of and actual responses to the issues of those years.""

"The Crimean War was a war between Britain, France and the Russian Empire in support of the Ottoman Empire, from 1854-6. After forty years of peace the British populations wanted a war. Thus an ill-prepared and ill-supplied British force went to the East. Unlike the Charge of the Light Brigade and Florence Nightingale - ‘The Lady with the Lamp’, the responses of Ireland to that conflict are largely unknown in the wider nineteenth-century historiography.
Although there has been extensive work done on the Crimean War in Britain since the conclusion of the conflict, work from an Irish perspective has been minimal. Works to date include Evelyn Bolster (1964), Brian Griffin (2001), David Murphy (2002) and Maria Luddy (2004). Some of those works have looked at this aspect of the war as a small part of the larger picture but none have given more than a few pages to this area of the war. This paper will argue three things: as a group Irish MPs and Peers were more critical of the two British governments’ war policies than they were supportive. The issues which elicited responses from Irish MPs and Peers were common amongst all three major political parties. Finally, that the members of the two British administrations in Ireland did differ in both their levels of and actual responses to the issues of those years.
It is the aim of this paper is to highlight and analyze the variety of responses of Irish politicians to that short but hugely important conflict of the mid-Victorian period. This paper should be included in your series so that Ireland’s involvement in and responses to one of Ireland’s forgotten wars can be brought to the wider historical audience."

"How much agreement can there be about the content of Irishness?’ is a question which R.V. Comerford asked in the study Irishness in a changing society. Although there has been extensive work done on the concept of Irishness certain aspects have not been given enough attention within Ireland’s historiography. Certain elements and periods still require further attention; one in particular is the mid-Victorian period and the poetry and balladry produced during it.

Through the analysis of a variety of contemporary poems and ballads from the Crimean War, 1854-6, this paper argues that Irishness played a key role in both poetry and balladry. It shows that the Irishness of those works was often played up through the inclusion of Irish place names, Irish regiments and people, both real and imagined. The presence of Ireland within the both United Kingdom and the Alliance of Britain, France and Turkey was also emphasized. Although a nationalist element was present in some verse and prose this was far outweighed by the pro-British, patriotic expressions which over-arched those expressions of Irishness."

""Ireland regularly confronts scholars with problems of chronology, periodization, and the charting of genealogies; one prime example of this is the 1850s. For many historians up until the most recent decades it was seen as the post-Famine era, but more recently it has begun to be seen, in line with Britain, as the mid-Victorian period. Although in many cases these are interchangeable, it is nonetheless advancement.

Coupled with this, the issue of the Crimean War and how Irish society responded to it has been all but been totally omitted from Irish popular history, thus perpetrating the idea that Ireland has nearly always been outside of the boundaries of both European and world history. This paper shows that Ireland was in fact deeply affected by the war and that all areas of society: parliamentary and popular politics, religion, culture, the military and even economics, responded to the conflict, its issues and events. It also shows that the responses in those areas were the same as those in Britain, some parts of Europe, the United States of America and British dominions.""

""The Crimean War represents an example of a time when Ireland was not isolated but in sync with the global context, politically, religiously, socially, militarily, economically but most importantly in the area of militant nationalism, both at home and abroad. This can be seen firstly in the attempts by militant elements of the Irish Diaspora in America to organise an invasion of and an internal revolt within Ireland during the years 1854-6. Secondly it can be seen in the global response to the campaign for the pardoning of the former Young Irelander leader William Smith O’Brien and his remaining convict confederates.

The aim of this paper is to show that during the years of the Crimean War Ireland was not in geopolitical isolation but was instead within the ‘already evolving contexts and amorphous supranational networks’ of the wider world. It will also show that the actions of the Irish ‘Diaspora’ in Britain, Australia, Canada but most importantly America played a major role in the area of ‘revolution’ in Ireland.""

"Remembering the dead has been a key part of human societies across the world throughout history into the present day. There is a desire to keep the memory of loved ones, friends and comrades alive for as long as possible if not indefinitely. This desire to honour the dead and preserve their memory and their deeds in life has and is never more potent than during or after war. Many people are aware of the huge number of monuments, events and parks dedicated to the millions of soldiers who died in the Great War, 1914-18, yet they may not be aware of the large number of memorials erected to the thousands of soldiers who died in Great War’s dress-rehearsal: the Crimean War, 1854-6.

The conflict was a very important yet largely understudied event in Irish history even though Ireland responded to it in all the areas of politics, religion, the military and the economy. Yet it is the popular responses of Irish society such as the memorials erected to the war-dead were the clearest, most abundant and most lasting. This paper gives a detailed account of a selection of these memorials in order to highlight their number, diversity and geographical disposition across the island of Ireland. It also analyses who it was that commissioned these memorials and why as well as whom they employed to create them."

"‘How much agreement can there be about the content of Irishness?’ is a question which R.V. Comerford asked in the study Irishness in a changing society. Although there has been extensive work done on the concept of Irishness certain aspects have not been given enough attention within Ireland’s historiography.
Through the analysis of a variety of contemporary poems and ballads from the Crimean War, 1854-6, this paper will argue that Irishness played a key role in both poetry and balladry. It will show that the Irishness of those works was often played up through the inclusion of Irish place names, Irish regiments and people, both real and imagined and that the presence of Ireland within the both United Kingdom and the alliance against Russia was also emphasised.
It is the aim of this paper is to highlight that in the mid-1850s Irishness was generally not at odds with Britshness, but was seen as part of it. This paper should be included in your conference so that this almost anomalous period can help historians, social and political scientists to further interrogate the legitimacy of Irishness within Irish studies.  "