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Irish Officers in the British forces, 1922-45 looks at the reasons why young Irish people took the king´s commission, including the family tradition, the school influence and the employment motive. It explores their subsequent experiences in the forces and the responses in independent Ireland to the continuation of this British military connection.

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1. Who Became an Officer? 2. ´I was born into an Army family´: Irish Officers and the Family Tradition 3. ´A great training school for the army´: Irish Officers and the School Influence 4. ´We were an unwanted surplus´: Irish Medical Emigration and the British Forces 5. ´We were all Paddys´: The Irish Experience of the British Forces 6. ´The irreconcilable attitude is apparently confined to the purely political sphere´: Responses in Independent Ireland to an Irish Military Tradition

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Steven O´Connor is an historian who specialises in British-Irish military connections. He currently holds a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Centre for Contemporary Irish History, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. He previously held a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship at the Centre for War Studies, University College Dublin, Ireland where he completed his PhD in 2012.

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