When the British government declared war against Germany in August 1914, a great drive to gain popular support by presenting the conflict to the public as a morally righteous endeavour began in earnest. Stories of German violence against French and Belgian civilians, largely based in fact, were central to this process of ‘cultural mobilisation’. The German serviceman thus came to be widely regarded in Britain as inherently cruel and malevolent while his British counterpart was revered as the embodiment of honour, chivalry and courage. Yet by the autumn of 1920, less than two years after the Armistice, the conduct of members of the crown forces in Ireland was being publicly drawn into question by British commentators in a manner that would have been unthinkable during the war against Germany. Drawing on contemporary press reports, parliamentary debates and personal narrative sources, this article explores and analyses the moral climate in Britain in 1920 and 1921 and comments on the degree to which memories of atrocities committed by German servicemen during the Great War informed popular and official responses to events in Ireland.

中文翻译：

---

“爱尔兰鲁汶”：1914 年的记忆和爱尔兰独立战争期间英国的道德氛围

当英国政府于 1914 年 8 月向德国宣战时，一场通过向公众展示这场冲突作为一种道德上正义的努力来赢得民众支持的巨大努力开始了。德国对法国和比利时平民的暴力故事，主要基于事实，是这一“文化动员”过程的核心。这位德国军人因此在英国被广泛认为天生残忍和恶毒，而他的英国同行则被尊为荣誉、骑士精神和勇气的化身。然而到 1920 年秋天，也就是停战后不到两年，英国评论员公开质疑爱尔兰皇家军队成员的行为，这在对德战争期间是不可想象的。借鉴当代新闻报道，