The 2nd Battalion landed at Boulogne-sur-Mer as part of the 5th Brigade in the 2nd Division with the British Expeditionary Force in August 1914 for service on the Western Front. Its marching song "It's a Long Way to Tipperary" became famous. By October, the battalion was involved in the fighting around Ypres. On one occasion Private Grogan rushed seven Germans who had occupied a section of trench. He killed all of them. It cost him a cut forehead and four teeth.