Former Irish paramilitary organisation
The Irish Volunteers (Irish : Óglaigh na hÉireann ), also known as the Irish Volunteer Force or the Irish Volunteer Army ,[ 3] [ 4] [ 5] was a paramilitary organisation established in 1913 by nationalists and republicans in Ireland.[ 6] [ 7] [ 8] It was ostensibly formed in response to the formation of its Irish unionist/loyalist counterpart the Ulster Volunteers in 1912, and its declared primary aim was "to secure and maintain the rights and liberties common to the whole people of Ireland".[ 9] Its ranks included members of the Conradh na Gaeilge , Ancient Order of Hibernians , Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Brotherhood .[ 10] Increasing rapidly to a strength of nearly 200,000 by mid-1914, it split in September of that year over John Redmond 's support for the British war effort during World War I , with the smaller group opposed to Redmond's decision retaining the name "Irish Volunteers".
^ "The Irish Citizen Army" . BBC.co.uk . Archived from the original on 13 November 2012. Retrieved 4 June 2018 .
^ "Manuscripts & Archives Research Library - Ashbourne 1916 Memorial" . Ireland and the Easter Rising . Trinity College Dublin . 25 August 2015. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017. Retrieved 31 March 2018 .
^ Gerry White and Brendan O'Shea. Irish Volunteer Soldier 1913-23 . Osprey Publishing, 2013. p.10. Quote: "Those wishing to enlist then had to sign the following enrolment form: I, the undersigned, desire to be enrolled for service in Ireland as a member of the Irish Volunteer Force... ".
^ Doerries, Reinhard. Prelude to the Easter Rising: Sir Roger Casement in Imperial Germany . Routledge, 2014. p.20. Quote: "The message came from Count George Noble Plunkett 'as the delegate sent by the President and Supreme Council of the Irish Volunteer Army'".
^ The Irish Volunteer Force/Irish Republican Army (IRA) Archived 3 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine . BBC History.
^ Coleman, Marie. The Irish Revolution, 1916-1923 . Routledge, 2013. pp. viii, ix, xix, 9
^ McCaffrey, Lawrence John. The Irish Question: Two Centuries of Conflict . University Press of Kentucky, 1995. p.129
^ Bureau of Military History . Witness Statement 741: Michael J Kehoe, Member Irish Brigade, Germany, 1916 Archived 23 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine . pp. 18, 23, 40, 47, 57, 62
^ Foy, Michael; Barton, Brian (2004). The Easter Rising . Sutton Publishing. pp. 7–8 . ISBN 0-7509-3433-6 .
^ William O'Brien and Desmond Ryan (eds.), Devoy's Post Bag , vol. 2, pp. 439-41 (letter from Patrick Pearse to John Devoy , 12 May 1914). Reproduced in National Library of Ireland, The 1916 Rising: Personalities and Perspectives Archived 29 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine , online exhibition, accessed 12 September 2015.