Bureaucracy, Propaganda and the Conscription Crisis

This chapter discusses the propaganda organisations established in Ireland during the First World War. Tasked with organising military recruiting in Ireland, these bodies included the Central Council for the Organisation of Recruitment in Ireland (CCORI), the Department of Recruiting in Ireland (DRI), and the Irish Recruiting Council (IRC), which were in existence at various stages across the war, from May 1915 until its termination. It addresses how these bodies were set up, organised, and, ultimately, how successful they were. It places these organisations into the unique Irish context, as propaganda activities operated in the context of Irish Home Rule in 1914-15, during the Easter Rising in 1916, and the Conscription Crisis in 1918. It also places their activities within the wider British context, particularly drawing comparisons with the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC).