The Sherwood Foresters of 1916: memories and memorials

Moran, James; Cullen, Fintan

Abstract

This paper examines the memorialisation of the Sherwood Foresters who fought during the Easter Rising of 1916 in Dublin. These men, from Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire in the English midlands, suffered the greatest casualties of the British regiments involved in the insurrection, and participated in the firing squads that executed the rebel leaders. Yet the public and artistic memorialising of these English soldiers is not widely known, and this interdisciplinary paper seeks to tell the unfamiliar story of what happened to the Sherwood Foresters after the fighting of Easter Week ceased. We use archival material in order to explore how, at the time of the Rising, these men believed that they would be remembered. We examine the way that the Sherwood Foresters of Easter Week subsequently appeared in literature and drama. And we analyse the way that those soldiers have been commemorated in funerary memorials.

Citation

Moran, J., & Cullen, F. (2018). The Sherwood Foresters of 1916: memories and memorials. Irish Studies Review, 26(4), 436-454. https://doi.org/10.1080/09670882.2018.1514659

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 10, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Sep 12, 2018
• Publication Date: Sep 12, 2018
• Deposit Date: May 25, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 13, 2020
• Journal: Irish Studies Review
• Print ISSN: 0967-0882
• Electronic ISSN: 1469-9303
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 26
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 436-454
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09670882.2018.1514659
• Keywords: Easter Rising; Sherwood Foresters; Literature; Great War; Cemeteries
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/924556
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Irish Studies Review on 12/09/2018, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09670882.2018.1514659