Blackpool To The Front

'Blackpool to the Front!' was a rallying cry first heard at the Battle of Étreux in August 1914 when the Royal Munster Fusiliers halted an entire German Army Corps. The experience of the hundreds who enlisted from the industrial Cork suburb of Blackpool mirrors the experience of the 200,000 Irishmen who joined up. At least sixty-nine Blackpool men made the ultimate sacrifice: factory workers, sons, husbands and fathers. Some enlisted to escape poverty, some to defend 'the rights of small nations'. They fought in France, Flanders, Gallipoli, Palestine and on the high seas. This is their story.

Mark Cronin was born and reared on Dublin Hill/Blackpool. At the North Monastery School he gained a great love of history. A member of the Blackpool Historical Society and the Western Front Association, his other interests include literature, theatre, cinema and music. His grandfather, Gus Birmingham, was one of the Blackpool men who survived the First World War.