PRIVATE VINCENT ARNOLD
ROYAL DUBLIN FUSILIERS
22ND MARCH 1917 AGE 25
BURIED: STRUMA MILITARY CEMETERY, DENMARK
'Ireland', this one word summarises a world of conflicting patriotism, loyalty, heartbreak and pain.
Vincent Arnold was born in Clonmult, a tiny community close to Ballydonagh More in Co. Cork. His family were Roman Catholics and Vincent was the youngest of his parents' seven children. Aged 20 in 1911 he was working as an ironmonger's assistant in Youghal, just 13 miles from where he was born; aged 23 in 1915 he was serving in the British army.
Ireland was in turmoil. The question of Home Rule had divided the country and not just north versus south and Catholics versus Protestants. Just a month after the outbreak of war, John Redmond, the Irish Nationalist politician, pledged his support for the Allied cause and urged members of the Irish Volunteers to join the British army, claiming that, "The interests of Ireland - of the whole of Ireland - are at stake in this war". Many Irishmen did enlist, motivated by a sense of adventure, love of Ireland, loyalty to Britain or poverty. Many others saw England's difficulty as Ireland's opportunity and pressed on for independence.
Arnold served in the 7th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers and died of wounds in Salonika on 22 March 1917. When the war ended and the time came for his family to chose an inscription the turmoil in Ireland had worsened. In January 1919 Sinn Fein formed a breakaway government, Dial Eirann, and declared independence from Britain. In September 1919 the British Government outlawed Sinn Fein and the Dial and then in November 1920, following a period of escalating attacks, ambushes and reprisals, it declared martial law.
Dublin, Belfast and Co. Cork were at the centre of the violence. In December 1920 the centre of Cork City, just 30 miles from Clonmult, was burnt out by British forces and in February 1921 one of the worst atrocities took place in Clonmult itself. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in May 1921, which partitioned Ireland, the two sides agreed on a truce. However, this was not the end of the violence as fighting broke out between the republicans who opposed and those who supported the Treaty.
Who loved Ireland more, those who wanted to maintain the union with Britain, those who were happy to support the partitioning of Ireland or those who were determined to achieve full independence? And where did the family of a soldier who had died in the service of the British crown stand? The use of the single, enigmatic word 'Ireland' on Vincent Arnold's headstone gives no clues.