Paul Taylor has written a welcome study of the experience of Irish ex-servicemen who returned to the twenty-six counties that formed the Irish Free State after their service in the First World War. The book is divided into three sections. The first asks whether they were the target for I.R.A. violence because of their participation in the war. The second assesses whether Britain, the imperial power, fulfilled its obligations to the ex-servicemen. The final section focuses on the extent to which the ex-servicemen were treated as equal citizens of the new state and the extent to which they became part of an integrated independent Ireland. These questions are important and are handled with some skill by the author. There is some repetition in the work but Taylor justifies this on the grounds of clarity in discussion.

Ex-servicemen were heavily concentrated in urban centres, though some of the figures provided by Taylor are probably exaggerated (p. 12). There is little evidence that ex-servicemen acted as a group with specific interests during the inter-war period in Ireland, with the possible exception of Remembrance Day ceremonies. Many were reluctant to participate in Remembrance Day ceremonies due to their imperial associations. Only a minority were active in the British Legion and most maintained their nationalist convictions. In some cases, individuals joined the I.R.A.; others joined the R.I.C. or the Black and Tans. It is estimated that some twenty five per cent of ex-servicemen joined the National Army after the Free State was established. This remained the most distinctive action by ex-servicemen during the entire inter-war period.

The most controversial section of the book is Taylor’s challenge to claims made by Peter Hart and Jane Leonard, among others, that ex-servicemen were targeted by the I.R.A. during the War of Independence and Civil War because of who they were and not for what they had done (spying, etc.). The author makes an impressive case that these claims should be re-evaluated. Taylor provides a series of tables and supplementary data to demonstrate persuasively that ex-servicemen were neither discriminated against in the general society nor were they specifically targeted by the I.R.A. as ‘enemies within’.

On the basis of these data, ex-servicemen were less likely to be targeted than the general population (all else being equal). Furthermore, in a painstaking reconstruction of the occasions that ex-servicemen, who were not members of the crown forces, were killed by the I.R.A. (ninety nine in all), the author makes a strong case that these were killed as spies or for close association with the Crown forces rather than because they were ex-servicemen. This case is supplemented by the claim that the I.R.A. went to considerable trouble to prove the individual guilty in a trial rather than simply execute those suspected of spying. Revealingly, Taylor also shows that very few of the claimants to the British Irish Grants Committee based their claim for compensation on the grounds that their losses were a consequence of war service. This is a significant contribution which will undoubtedly provoke further analysis and discussion.

The second section examines the relationship between ex-servicemen and the British government. This is a complex area, especially after the Irish Free State was established. The author shows fairly conclusively that the British government and the Ministry of Pension in particular remained committed to the Irish ex-servicemen. The ministry had a network of offices throughout the Irish Free State dealing with pension, medical issues and even the education of children. Moreover, the British government provided the finance to build a large number of homes for ex-servicemen during the 1920s (247 homes were built in Killester, County Dublin, for example). Taylor suggests that Irish ex-servicemen were treated more generously than their British counterparts and an Irish supreme court decision described this contribution as an ‘elaborate scheme of pensions and gratuities and free medical treatment and surgical treatment’ for the ex-servicemen.

The final part of the book provides a detailed discussion of how Irish government and society responded to the presence of 100,000 ex-servicemen in their midst. Cumann na nGaedheal was generally sympathetic to the ex-servicemen but so too were de Valera and Fianna Fáil. Taylor makes the claim that most ex-servicemen were Fianna Fáil supporters by the 1930s. However, this claim is based on a Ministry of Pension report on ex-servicemen and is not corroborated by additional evidence. The same report concluded that ‘the consensus of opinion is that there is no general discrimination against ex-servicemen’. Taylor explains this outcome in a number of ways. In the first place the War of Independence did not radicalise Irish society or its politics. Indeed, the 1922 and 1923 elections legitimised a moderate conservative political consensus. Participation in the national army also provided these individuals with an important stake in the new state. Moreover, ex-servicemen were not excluded from employment because of their service. Politically, they never formed a homogeneous interest group which might have threatened the existing political system. Taylor suggests that most returned to their communities and integrated without serious difficulty. It is likely that their political loyalties resembled those of their communities.

This is an interesting study that explains why the ex-servicemen were not targeted as a group, but also why they did not become the focus of disaffection during the turbulent inter-war period. In other states ex-servicemen contributed to the breakdown of democracy, but the new Irish state proved capable of neutralising any such threat.