Carole Hope

In the year of the centenary of the outbreak of the Great War it is positive and laudable that more attention will be paid, on this anniversary, to the role of Irish soldiers in the conflict, than on the occasion of any previous communication.

No Irishman deserves to be remembered more than that most courageous Jesuit Chaplain, Father Willie Doyle.

While Doyle was revered by the troops of his own 16th (Irish) Division he was also, counter-intuitively, highly respected in the ranks of units like the loyalist 36th (Ulster) Division, many of them Belfast working-class Protestants. Doyle was seen by Irish troops, Roman Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, to put his life on the line on a daily basis in offering comfort, consolation and philosophical reassurance to anyone who required it. He was to pay the ultimate price of his resolve and his compassion.

While his life has already been recorded, it is high time that his bravery and humanity was brought to the attention of a modern readership by a 21st century scholar. Carole Hope’s study of Fr.Willie Doyle and her insights into his military service are a valuable addition to the new research into the Irish contribution to the First World War that will emerge over the course of the four year commemoration of ‘the war to end all wars’.