Isn't Ireland part of the UK? Yeah im pretty sure it was. They were not nuetral they were and important country that helped the allies beat the germans. Im guessing they used the British guns and had uniforms similar to Britain. Im pretty darn sure they were part of the allies though.
It was neutral to my knowledge. http://www.reform.org/TheReformMovement_files/article_files/articles/war.htm
Ahhh i see where I was mistaken. I knew that there were Irish fighting in the war but they must have been fighting with Britain not Ireland.
The were thousands of Irish Republic citizens both male and female, who served in the British Armed Forces during the war. Even today, it is still possible to meet people from the south of ireland serving in the forces. My eldest brothers late father was a Cork man who ended up serving twelve years in the army including ww2.
Eire, nor the Republic of Ireland, was neutral. However, men enlisted in the Brirish Army - my regiment, the North Irish Horse had many. They were of course all volunteers as were the chaps from Ulster. Gerry
Hi Gerry, Was that "nor" supposed to be a "not"? The British army received about 70,000 volunteers from "Neutral" Ireland and 50,000 from Northern Ireland.
Yes the Republic of Ireland was officially neutral during the Second World War although many of her citizens could not stand idly by and went off to enlist in the British Army. Indeed Montgomery and Alexander were of Irish Descent. To our eternal shame our president sent his commiserations to the German Ambassador upon the suicide of Adolf Hitler. We were probably the only country to do so.
It was believed that Ireland's Prime Minister at the time, Eamon de Valera, was the only government leader to convey official condolences to Eduard Hempel, director of the German diplomatic corps in Ireland. De Valera's gesture was unique among leaders of neutral nations in the final weeks of World War II and was criticized worldwide. The presidential protocol record for 1938-1957, made public this week (December 30th 2005) within a trove of previously secret government documents, shed new light on one of the most embarrassing chapters in the history of independent Ireland "its decision to maintain cordial relations with the Nazis even after news of the Holocaust emerged". President Douglas Hyde visited Hempel on May 3, 1945, a day after Ireland received reports of Hitler's death. Eamon de Valera argued that to refuse condolences "would have been an act of unpardonable discourtesy to the German nation and to Dr. Hempel himself. During the whole of the war, Dr. Hempel's conduct was irreproachable. ... I certainly was not going to add to his humiliation in the hour of defeat."
When the Holocaust information became known some Irish believed it to be a British propaganda. I suggest you read IRELAND during the Second World War by Ian S Wood, ISBN 1-84067-418-0 It was not known as the Second World War in Ireland it was the ' Emergency' Charles Haughey burned a Union Jack on College Green Dublin on VE day!! Aye MalcolmII
Well it goes to show that 70,000 Irish people showed more solidarity with the suffering and danger that the world was in than the Irish government did. I mean, you don't have to be actually involved to call a war a war. The British Government called the troubles in Malaya an 'Emergency', not the whole of Europe, North Africa and most of Asia in armed conflict. Amazing considering how much they over played their patiotic struggle for independance in comparison.
If you go to the Irish Defence Forces website and look in the History section, it is still called that! But it does say that the army was mobilised in 1939
Overplayed??? Well thats a matter of opinion Plant-Pilot Took us long enough!! 800 years! Mind you there are still a lot of idiots over here who seem to think that England is still "The Auld Enemy". Utter fools.
Britain was not ready to fight in 1939. At that time British Army strength was only 220,000. Almost fifty percent of this total included units that were serving overseas. (Stanhope, 1979) In order to boost the Army strength and deal with the German threat, conscription had to be enforced in May 1939. Despite the urgency of the task, conscription was not used in Northern Ireland. The province presented a problem when it came to recruiting or conscripting individuals to fight against the Axis powers. This problem is best summed up by Churchill’s statement in May 1941. He had to concede in Parliament that the imposition of conscription on N Ireland was “more trouble than it was worth.” The source of the “trouble” was Irish Nationalism. During these early months of 1939, the Roman Catholic Clergy and Irish Nationalist leaders held meetings throughout N Ireland to discuss conscription. They saw compulsory military service as a degradation of their Nationalist ideals. Conscription, they proposed, would have to be aggressively opposed by all Nationalists. By July 1939 there had been over 120 Irish terrorist outrages since January. This included fatal bombings and shootings in both N Ireland and Great Britain. In order to cope with the terrorist campaign the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Special Constabulary establishments had to be increased to 3,000 and 11,000 respectively. The N Ireland government also continued to recruit volunteers for the Home Guard, Air Raid Precaution Officers and service in the British Forces. From the onset of recruiting in N. Ireland there was a negative mind set in the attitudes of all citizens. This was encouraged, not just by Nationalist leaders, but also by those who had lost relatives in the carnage of the First World War. The Battery personnel expected to be killed early in the war. That had been the fate of many of their relatives in the First World War. For example, at the Battle of the Somme on July 1st 1916, 5553 Ulster Division officers and men were either killed or injured in the first 48 hours. In 1939 there were thousands of young Irishmen living and working in England. These individuals had no intention of either serving or being conscripted into the British Forces. After the declaration of war in 1939 there was an exodus of these young Irishmen from Great Britain back to Ireland. The returning groups became known derisively as the ‘Suitcase Brigades’. Despite this negative mindset, 80,000 volunteers from Southern Ireland and 38,000 volunteers from Northern Ireland enrolled into the British Armed Forces. Over 4,500 of the Northern Ireland volunteers were killed in action during WWII. (Adamson, in Marrinan 1986) There were also many Irish civilians employed by the Armed Forces during WWII. For example, my mother served in the WAAF during WWII and both her driving instructors hailed from S Ireland. It is only within the past decade that the Irish government have paid tribute to the sacrifices made by their citizens who volunteered to serve in the British armed forces during WWII. The question on the neutrality of S Ireland has been discussed in great detail in many books. The answer is far from straightforward and warrants a more detailed response. (Extracted and expanded from my website and book, The Coleraine Battery)
The Irish Free State as it was then known repeatedly proclaimed its neutrality vowing to fight anybody who invaded its sovereign territory first. However, De Valera's government was not built on solid foundations, the civil war of 1922 was still fresh in the minds of many particularly the IRA who did not support the government in Dublin and had many contacts and sympathisers in high places in both the government and the Irish military (the main army arsenal in Dublin had been raided by the IRA before the war and a general of one of the Irish units was a known supporter). Furthermore, the IRA had contacts with the Germans who in turn had sent operatives out to link up with them. De Valera, therefore, refused all open approaches from Britain particularly in 1940 and again in December 1941 when Churchill offered to negotiate an end to partition in return for Irish help with the use of ports needed for the Battle of the Atlantic. Even after the Americans entered the war at the end of 1941 De Valera remained steadfast though the Allies did become more favoured than the Germans. Unfortunately, this attitude did not enamour Ireland to the Americans who, after the Hitler death fiasco - something that had not been offered when Roosevelt died, left the country isolated in the post war world.
Incidentally, the Germans were never impressed with the IRA describing it as shambolic and amateur. I believe the quote, 'You may know how to die for your country but you've no idea how to fight for it' was attributed to a German emissary to the IRA around 1940.
Please don't shoot me, but this is what i have heard. From my mum, so it must be the gosple truth... It has always been my understanding that Eire was neutral during the war, but there were still dozens of Brit and German agents floating around. At the start Eire was sympathetic to Germany as they were fighting Britain, and what better excuse for Ireland after a big fight with us a couple of decades earlier? However, after a certain German luftwaffe bombed Dublin the cordial relationship cooled somewhat. I can no let you all know that bombing of Dublin was a total cock-up instigated by the British Meacon systems. The Luftwaffe planes were tricked into thinking they hadn't yet crossed the channel and were sent up the entire length of britain and out over the Irish sea, therefore making them believe landfall at ireland was landfall here. hence bombsights over Dublin. All of this is probably wrong, but it sounds good.
