Sporting heroes who answered Ireland’s call played part in first World War

For three Irish sportsmen, the first day of 1912 began in the company of nearly 20,000 noisy, sports-mad Parisians. When Alfred Squire Taylor, William Victor Edwards and William Beatty sprinted on to the Parc des Princes turf, it was in front of one of the biggest crowds the French capital had seen.

Regular games of international rugby were still a novelty, and the arrival of the Irish team had excited the city’s population so much that thousands of tickets had been snapped up days in advance.

Even though France were relative newcomers to the recently formed Five Nations Championship, the expectation of a home victory was still high. The side had improved in recent years and had beaten Scotland in the previous season.

Ireland took to the field with five debutants, while the French selectors had chosen six new faces.

Edwards, from Strandtown in Belfast, who played in the pack for Ulster, was making his first appearance in Irish colours. He was strong and well-built with powerful shoulders, and after impressing selectors during club games in Belfast, he was chosen to be Ireland’s new number eight.

Twenty-three-year-old Beatty, who had made his international debut at the same Paris ground two years earlier, was a prop and had been on the winning side in March 1910 when Ireland won by 8 points to 3.

Taylor, who had played school and university rugby and then for Ulster, was a speedy and talented centre.

The Irish and French teams included doctors, accountants and students, amateurs who played the game for fun. They were young men at the peak of physical fitness, the sporting heroes of their day, with much to look forward to.

At the start of 1912, the idea of a bloody European war beginning in 1914 was unimaginable.

But of the 30 players who took the field to cheers that January afternoon, 10 – seven French and three Irish – would die as a result of the forthcoming four-year conflict. The first World War affected the lives of hundreds of sporting stars.

Edwards was killed in December 1917 during the defence of the city of Jerusalem. As well as rugby he was a gifted swimmer and regularly took part in championships. He became the Irish 200-yard swimming champion, in addition to being an accomplished water polo player. He was also fond of sea swimming and in August 1913 he made history by becoming the first man to swim across Belfast Lough.

Taylor became a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps. While treating a wounded comrade during the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, he was hit and killed by a German shell.

Beatty, who rose to the rank of major with the Royal Army Medical Corps, lived to see the end of the conflict but died in 1919 as a result of his experiences on the Western Front.

Gifted stars

Rugby was not the only sport to lose hundreds of its most gifted stars. Irish international athletes, hockey players and cricketers all enlisted when war broke out in August 1914.

Irish soccer captain Harold Sloan, the first man to score a goal at Dalymount Park, lost his life as he served with the Royal Garrison Artillery in January 1917.

A natural striker, the Dubliner scored a famous hat-trick for Ireland against Wales in 1905.

Like those who played soccer, thousands of GAA members volunteered to fight. This area has received little attention and while important research has been conducted by Ross O’Carroll and Donal McAnallen, the number of GAA players who joined the British Army during the Great War is difficult to quantify.

However, it is clear the figure runs into thousands and includes Belfast man William Manning from the Falls Road area, who died in March 1918 in the colours of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Manning played for Antrim in the 1912 All-Ireland final, which they lost to Louth. A year later, when the final was played in the new Croke Park ground, James Rossiter lined out for the Wexford team. He was a skilful player with a great first touch, and his team established a reputation for tough tackling.

Despite their ability they were unable to conquer Kerry, and they lost in 1913 and the following year.

In the early part of 1915 Rossiter decided to enlist and he saw service with the Irish Guards. It appears he took soldiering in his stride. In one letter home, he wrote that he found playing in an All-Ireland Final more nerve-wracking “than an attack on the Germans”. Rossiter was killed in October 1915.

The participation of GAA players in the British Army was controversial, and Sean Etchingham, president of Wexford’s county board, argued that no honourable man should ever support recruitment into the British forces.

A century on, attitudes have altered. The past still presents difficulty but many people are now prepared to embrace history rather than shun it.

Stephen Walker is a political correspondent with BBC Northern Ireland. Ireland's Call: Irish Sporting Heroes Who Fell in The Great War is published by Merrion Press