Distant Drums: For King, Emperor, President and Czar

Man, dweller in mountain huts, possessor of coloured mice
Skilful in minor manual turns, patron of obscure subjects, of
Gaelic swordsmanship and mediaeval armoury
The technique of the public man, the masked senilities are
Not for you. Master of military trade, you give
Like Raleigh, Lawrence, Childers, your services but not yourself.
Charles Donnelly, Poem

Dispossessed and disenfranchised, disciplined and dedicated; courageous loyal, doughty and audacious-the sentimental, and not exclusively native view, of the Irish soldier fighting under a foreign flag. 'Low, vulgar men without any one qualification to recommend them - more fit to carry the hod than the epaulette' - an alternative and widely held opinion of that same 'universal' warrior. There is nothing which uniquely qualifies the Irishman to be a soldier. He is of medium height and weight for a European, is not gifted with any superior stamina or powers of endurance, is no more accurate with a rifie, is not more or iess self-disciplined than the average. So why, along with the German, is the Irishman burdened with a reputation for military sagacity, craft and daring sans pareil? If the Germans dominate the officer class of the 'transcendent' army then the Irish must surely have provided most of the NCOs.
Is the notion of the superhuman Irish fighting man a myth or is there a certain, almost spiritual, quality about an Irishman in uniform? This is obviously a rhetorical question. Subjectivity, chauvinism and a host of maudlin irrelevancies make any definitive judgement impossible. Searching for the sort of endorsements which would enhance a positive thesis is rather like invoking the Bible to settle an argument. Contrary quotations can always be cited to prove the antithesis. No attempt, therefore, will be made to pursue that chimera except to say that the concept of the 'Fighting Irishman' carries with it an implicit element of condescension. Often unintended, the notion can be as much a patronising obeisance to undiscriminating Irish pugnacity as it is homage to Irish courage and resilience. There are hints of the nineteenth-century Punch view of the drunken brawling Irishman with the thickset simian appearance for whom discretion could never be the better part of valour because he was illiterate and unable to understand either concept anyway.

That the mythology even exists is curious in itself. Why should the Irish rifleman, lancer, fusilier or trooper be more aggressive or invincible than those around him? After all, the one thing which most Irish soldiers have had in common since the 1700s is that they have been fighting in someone else's army and prosecuting someone else's war. Only rarely has the Irishman fought for his homeland, seldom for anything which was native or necessarily dear to him. Periodically he might fight for (or convince himself that he was defending) his religion. But more often he risked life, limb and liver for a foreign potentate who reciprocated by putting a roof over his head and bread on his table. Certainly, on occasion, he might respond with particular truculence to an army fighting under the Union Jack, but he might, on those occasions, find himself opposed by another Irishman struggling no less enthusiastically in the British cause. It is not sufficient to dismiss such commonplace occurrences with blithe references to antagonistic political or religious traditions on this island. More often than not those two adversaries were from the same tradition.

Perhaps the real truth behind the idealised 'Fighting Irishman' lies in the very nature of war itself. It is hardly a solitary pastime. Like the various sports which could be said to have replaced it as a focus of aggressive nationalism or ethnic territoriality, it is a group activity. The British establishment, though conscious of the potential dangers, had the wit to place the Irish soldier shoulder-to-shoulder with his fellow countryman in some of the most prestigious units in its army. Other nations, often for convenience, did likewise. The result was a soldier far more motivated than one fighting for his personal survival alongside strangers.

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