CORPORAL JOHN GEORGE DUNLEA
ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS
31ST OCTOBER 1916 AGE 34
BURIED: AUCHONVILLERS MILITARY CEMETERY, FRANCE
This is an interesting inscription that declares John Dunlea's political allegiance for all who can read it. The first clue comes from the inverted commas round the words 'An Irish volunteer'. They indicate that whilst Dunlea may well have volunteered for the British army on the outbreak of war he was already a member of the Irish Volunteers, a paramilitary organization formed in 1913 in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteers: the former, largely Roman Catholic and from the south, were supporters of Irish Home Rule and the latter, Protestants from the north, fiercely opposed it.
When the war broke out, the leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party, John Redmond, recommended that the best way to ensure the enactment of the Home Rule Bill was for those in favour of it to support Britain in her struggle against Germany and join the British army. British gratitude would secure Irish Home Rule. Redmond also argued that these soldiers would be fighting for the freedom of all small nations like themselves; nations like Belgium and Serbia whose independence had been violated by the German and Austro-Hungarian armies.