The Irish Volunteers, Ireland, July 1914

Pricing:  $85 USD SRP per set Features: - white metal - hand painted - historically accurate Delivery: In Stock

Formed to counter the growing trend to division by groups such as the Ulster Volunteers and to promote a free and independent Ireland the Irish volunteers were the forerunners of the IRA. Fostered by a growing sense of nationalism the Irish Volunteers included a woman's arm and a youth movement and became increasingly prominent in the struggle that was Irish politics of the time.

Exploiting a legal loophole para-military groups in Ireland were able to arm themselves. Irish nationalists groups feared the arming of the Ulster Volunteers in April 1914, seeing it to be a move that would not only undermine efforts to free Ireland from direct British control but also one that could actively repress independence movements.

In answer to this the Irish volunteers used the same loophole and in July 1914 the nationalist Erskine Childers landed 900 rifles from Germany at Howth, seven miles from Dublin and was greeted by 800 volunteers who had turned out to receive their weapons.. This force was the nucleus of the movement that launched the uprising in 1916, when "a terrible beauty was born".

The set shows a pair of volunteers in a mixture of civilian and military dress and a member of the women's arm in her distinctive military style uniform.