Irish Volunteer Force

Irish Volunteer Force – forerunner to the Irish Republican Army

The Irish Volunteer Force (IVF) was created to strengthen the hand of nationalists who were campaigning for Home Rule for Ireland.

Ironically, it was based on the Ulster Volunteer Force, which had been created for exactly the opposite reason – to back the Ulster Unionists’ campaign against Irish independence.

That was the kind of political polarisation engulfing Ireland after the Home Rule Bill was introduced in 1912.

Irish MPs held balance of power in British parliament

Image from John Redmond's last years by Stephen Gwynn

John Redmond 1917

John Redmond, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, was able to drive the Bill through because Irish MPs held the balance of power between the Conservatives and the Liberals after the 1910 General Election.

While the Bill delighted Irish nationalists, it outraged Ulster Unionists who feared losing power and influence if they were absorbed into a Catholic, nationalist Ireland.

At first, Redmond and British politicians thought the opposition would quickly fade away but it didn’t. The feeling against Irish independence grew stronger in the six counties of Ulster.

Ulster Unionists opposed Irish independence

In 1913, the Unionists formed the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) as a paramilitary organisation to show the British and Irish nationalists how far they were prepared to go to resist independence.

In November 1913, Eoin MacNeill wrote an article in the Gaelic League paper, An Claidheamh Soluis, encouraging nationalists to form a similar organisation but with the exact opposite purpose – to promote Irish independence.

It was an immediate success with membership soaring to 160,000 by the summer of 1914.

Irish leader was suspicious of volunteers

Redmond was suspicious of the IVF at first. He was opposed to violence, even for the purpose of achieving independence. In fact, although he helped navigate the Home Rule Bill through Parliament, he didn’t want full independence – just greater self-rule without breaking the tie with Britain completely.

He saw no value in Ireland severing ties with the British Empire given that hundreds of thousands of Irishmen had fought, and in many cases died, to create it.

This was later to put him at odds with other Irish nationalists, but in 1914 those nationalists valued his support. To overcome Redmond’s doubts about the IVF, the leaders allowed him to nominate half the seats on its organising committee in June 1914.

This was enough to overcome his doubts and he gave the organisation his support.

Irish volunteers split at the outbreak of First World War

However, the force split a few months later in September at the outbreak of the First World War.

The British Government said the Home Rule Act would have to be suspended for the duration of the war and Redmond accepted their assurances that it would be implemented once peace was restored.

He saw this as no more than a few years delay and urged members of IVF to enlist and fight on the side of the British Army. Most of them were happy to do so and some 40,000 men enlisted.

Some Irish volunteers not prepared to support British war effort

However, a small group of more militant members remained. There were only a few thousand at first but their numbers had grown to 15,000 by early 1916.

These were the men that the leaders of the Easter Rising thought could provide the firepower to force through Irish independence.