Medical Inspection of Troops in Ireland

[MJROB]

Hi Everyone,

I'm conducting research on Irish soldiers, and I'm very interested in finding out more about the medical inspection of Irish troops during enlistment. Does anyone have any suggested reading for what is, in my opinion, an under-represented in the secondary literature?

Obviosuly, conscription was never introducted to Ireland and so I am interested in how troops were medically examined in Ireland and how the lack of military service acts in the country had an effect on the physical and mental insection of potential recruits in comparison to mainland Britain.

Any advice at all would be hugely appreciated.

MJ

[kildaremark]

Hi MJ, There is a medical form on quite a large amount of the attestation documentation in the service records on various paid website. A good sample of these would give you many statistical details..Mark

[corisande]

Ireland was then, as you know, part of the United Kingdom

Have you any reason to suppose that the medical inspections were any different in Ireland to anywhere else in the UK.?

[MJROB]

Thanks KildareMark.

Corisande, this is a subject that I have just recently started to look into. To my understanding, as conscription was never introduced to Ireland, I'm not sure if Military Service Acts that accompanied its implementation also applied to Ireland where, obviously, a man volunteered to enlist rather than be summoned by conditions of different conditions (height, age, marriage etc).

I do know that many medically unsuitable men were able to enlist in the British Army at the earlier stages of the war, and attempts were made to rectify this with the different military service acts that accompanied conscription and was wondering about their influence, if any, on Ireland.