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# history lesson
'When are the other boys coming?' WWI posters try to recruit Irish friends
Guilt, fear and the lure of hero worship were all used by the Dublin recruitment office in 1915. Check out the posters.
THE RECRUITMENT OFFICES in Dublin during 1915 played on Irish men’s emotions as they tried to convince potential soldiers to sign up.
Guilt or scare tactics were quite commonly used in recruitment posters commissioned by the Department of Recruiting for Ireland.
Other ideas to lure young men to the front used included camaraderie, hero worship and revenge.
There was also an attempt to emasculate those who did not volunteer for an Irish regiment.
About 49,000 Irish men and women died in World War I. Altogether, up to 350,000 men from Ireland served in the British forces. Many volunteered, some were conscripted while living in the UK and others joined US, Canadian and Australian units.
The Library of Congress in the US has digitised some of the posters used to help recruit more soliders to the Front:
1915. (Image: Hely’s Limited, Litho., Dublin/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
1915. (Image: David Allen & Sons Ltd., 40, Great Brunswick St., Dublin/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
A 1915 poster from the Department of Recruiting for Ireland. (Image: Alex. Thom & Co., Ltd., Dublin/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
A 1915 poster from the Central Council for the Organisation of Recruiting in Ireland. (Image: M’Caw, Stevenson & Orr, Ltd., Dublin & Belfast/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
A 1915 poster from the Department of Recruiting for Ireland. (Image: Alex. Thom & Co., Ltd., Dublin/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
1915. (Image: Hely’s Limited, Litho, Dublin/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
A 1915 poster from the Central Council for the Organisation of Recruiting in Ireland. (Image: M’Caw, Stevenson & Orr, Ltd., Dublin & Belfast/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
A 1915 poster from the Central Council for the Organisation of Recruiting in Ireland. (Image: M’Caw, Stevenson & Orr, Ltd., Dublin & Belfast/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
1915. (Image: W.E.T. ; John Shuley & Co., Dublin/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
1915. (Image: Chorley & Pickersgill Ltd., Leeds and London/Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
1915. (Image: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.)
Read: Ireland has always been the best small country in the world in which to do business
More: American campaign to help ‘starving, cold, barefooted children’ of Ireland
Slideshow: Irish World War I recruitment posters
