Irish neutrality during World War II
The policy of
This period is known to the Republic of Ireland as The Emergency, owing the title to the wording of the constitutional article employed to suspend normal government of the country.
Pursuing a policy of neutrality required maintaining a balance between the strict observance of
Despite the official position of neutrality, there were many unpublicised contraventions of this, such as permitting the use of the Donegal Corridor by Allied military aircraft, and extensive co-operation between Allied and Irish intelligence. The Irish supplied the Allies with detailed weather reports for the Atlantic Ocean, including a report from Blacksod Bay, County Mayo, which prompted the decision to go ahead with the Normandy landings.[1]
Prewar relationship with Britain
Ireland was in 1939 nominally a
Nevertheless,
Alongside George VI's few remaining powers, the 1937 Constitution had provided that the holder of the new office of President of Ireland was in "Supreme Command" of the Defence Forces".[4]
Internal affairs
Irish neutrality was supported by the population of Ireland.
A total of 4,983 members of the Defence Forces deserted to fight with the British and Allied armed forces. After the war they faced discrimination, lost their rights to pensions, and were barred from holding government jobs. They were finally formally pardoned by the Irish Government in 2013.[6]
Travel passes and identity cards were also issued to 245,000 people to enable them to travel to Britain to work.
In response to accusations that the state had failed to take up the moral fight against
… small nations like Ireland do not and cannot assume a role as defenders of just causes except [their] own ... Existence of our own people comes before all other considerations … no government has the right to court certain destruction for its people; they have to take the only chance of survival and stay out.
On 1 September 1939, in response to the
The government may, whenever and so often as they think fit, make by order (in this act referred to as an emergency order), such provisions as are, in the opinion of the government, necessary or expedient for securing the public safety, or the preservation of the state, or for the maintenance of public order, or the provision and control of supplies and services to the life of the community.
With such sweeping executive powers, de Valera's cabinet set out to tackle any problems that might arise and curb any inconsistencies with the nation's policy of neutrality. Censorship of radio newscasts meant newsreaders were confined to reading, without comment, the dispatches of each side, while weather forecasts were halted to preclude the inadvertent assistance of planes or ships involved in the war. Public expressions of opinion appearing to favour one side or the other were usually repressed. The word "war" itself was avoided, with the Government referring to the situation in Europe from 1939 to 1945 as "The Emergency".
However, on the British declaration of war, the teenaged George Cole watched as an effigy of Neville Chamberlain was publicly burnt in Dublin without any interference by the police. Cole sensed that there was:[10]
.. tremendous antipathy among the Irish towards the British at the time .. to say it was frightening would be an understatement.
Social and economic conditions in the state at this time were harsh. Wages stagnated, but prices rose. There were serious shortages of fuel and some foodstuffs. Meanwhile, cross-border smuggling and the black market underwent something of a boom.[11]
President Douglas Hyde was a member of the Church of Ireland, most of whose members were ex-unionists and pro-British. When he was invited to a 1943 wedding to be attended by many of the former Protestant Ascendancy, his secretary received assurances from the bride that there would be no "pro-belligerent demonstration either by toasting the King of England and/or the singing of the British National Anthem".[12]
Prelude to war
The Irish government had good reason to be concerned, lest the war in Europe re-open the wounds of the
Former
In the six months prior to the onset of war, there had been an escalation of Irish Republican Army violence and a bombing campaign in Britain under the new leadership of Seán Russell. De Valera, who had tolerated the IRA as recently as 1936, responded with the Offences against the State Act, 1939. Upon the outbreak of the main conflict in September, subversive activity was regarded as endangering the security of the state. There were fears that the United Kingdom, eager to secure Irish ports for their air and naval forces, might use the attacks as a pretext for an invasion of Ireland and a forcible seizure of the assets in question. Furthermore, the possibility that the IRA (in line with the Irish republican tradition of courting allies in Europe) might link up with German agents, thereby compromising Irish non-involvement, was considered.[16]
This threat was real: Russell, in May 1940, travelled to
Ports and trade
This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (April 2022) |
Ireland was isolated at the outbreak of the war.
"No country had ever been more effectively blockaded because of the activities of belligerents and our lack of ships, most of which had been sunk, which virtually cut all links with our normal sources of supply."[25]
The diminutive
In addition, some British ships were repaired in Irish shipyards.[30]
Despite being frequently encountered as
External affairs
Policy
For de Valera the emphasis of Irish neutrality was on preservation of Irish sovereignty, so committing to the policy accomplished both rational and ideological goals.[citation needed] While the revolutionaries of the Irish War of Independence were ready to enter into alliances with the enemies of Britain to secure Irish independence, they realised that continuing such a policy after achieving independence would be dangerously provocative, a point de Valera made as early as February 1920:[33]
An independent Ireland would see its own independence in jeopardy the moment it saw the independence of Britain seriously threatened. Mutual self-interest would make the people of these two islands, if both independent, the closest of allies in a moment of real national danger to either.
This statement reflected a point de Valera had made as early as 1918 (when writing to President of the United States Woodrow Wilson, seeking that the United States formally recognise the Irish Republic as an independent state):[33]
Ireland is quite ready by treaty to ensure England's safety against the danger of foreign powers seeking to use Ireland as a basis of attack against her.
After the
peace is dependent upon the will of the great States. All the small States can do, if the statesmen of the greater States fail in their duty, is resolutely to determine that they will not become the tools of any great Power and that they will resist with whatever strength they may possess every attempt to force them into a war against their will.
Months before the outbreak of war, de Valera gave a statement to the Associated Press which appeared in newspapers on 20 February 1939:[35]
The desire of the Irish people and the desire of the Irish Government is to keep our nation out of war. The aim of Government policy is to maintain and to preserve our neutrality in the event of war. The best way and the only way to secure our aim is to put ourselves in the best position possible to defend ourselves so that no one can hope to attack us or violate our territory with impunity. We know, of course, that should attack come from a power other than Great Britain, Great Britain in her own interest must help us to repel it.
Offer to end the partition of Ireland in 1940
At a series of meetings in 17–26 June 1940, during and after the
Mixed effects
In April 1941, the question of Ireland's entry into the war was again raised when the Australian Prime Minister Menzies paid a visit to Belfast and Dublin for private discussions with De Valera and John M. Andrews, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. Subsequently, Menzies reported to Churchill that the complexity of the questions of Irish unity and sovereignty meant that there was little possibility of Ireland's abandoning its policy of neutrality.[39]
Without the
In this regard
Before the war began, de Valera had held a meeting with career diplomat Dr. Eduard Hempel, the German Minister in Ireland since 1938. The meetings discussed Ireland's close trade links with the United Kingdom and the ease with which Britain could invade her if its interests were threatened. He, in turn, communicated to Berlin that such was the case that it 'rendered it inevitable for the Irish government to show a certain consideration for Britain' and urged war officials to avoid any action that would legitimise a British invasion of Ireland.[45] In mid-June 1940, Secretary of External Affairs Joe Walshe expressed his 'great admiration for the German achievements.' Hempel, for his part, wrote to Germany of 'the great and decisive importance, even to Ireland, of the changed situation in world affairs and of the obvious weakness of the democracies.' Hempel might well have known better of Irish intentions, having earlier described a native custom 'to say agreeable things without meaning everything that is said.'[45]
Other examples of Irish attitudes towards Nazi Germany found expression in mid-1940 in de Valera's Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin, William Warnock, 'whose "unquestionable" hostility to Britain could easily be interpreted as sympathetic for National Socialism.'[46] Academic J.J. Lee questioned just how much of Warnock's zeal towards Hitler's Reichstag speech on 19 July was genuine enthusiasm for the 'international justice' that could be expected after Germany's victory, as opposed to an adherence to the instructions of Dublin to please oneself to the potential victors. [citation needed] Three years later, by 1944, the orientation of the war and of Irish relations to Germany had turned about-face, with the likelihood of a German victory now remote. In that climate, the Irish Government, once so ready to 'say agreeable things', Hempel remarked, had become 'unhelpful and evasive'.[47]
The
Condolences on Hitler's death
Ireland maintained a public stance of neutrality to the end by refusing to close the German and Japanese Legations. The Taoiseach Éamon de Valera personally visited Ambassador Hempel at his home in Dún Laoghaire on 2 May 1945 to express official condolences on the death of German dictator Adolf Hitler, following the usual protocol on the death of a Head of State of a state with a legation in Ireland. President Hyde visited Hempel separately on 3 May.[49] Irish envoys in other nations did likewise, but no other Western European democracies followed Ireland's example.[50] The visits caused a storm of protest in the United States.[51]
De Valera denounced reports of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as "anti-national propaganda"; according to Paul Bew, this was not out of disbelief but rather because the Holocaust undermined the assumptions underlying Irish neutrality: moral equivalence between the Allies and the Axis, and the idea that the Irish were the most persecuted people in Europe.[52]
Position on Jewish refugees
Ireland's position on Jewish refugees fleeing Europe was one of scepticism. Irish authorities during the war generally gave two justifications for turning away prospective immigrants: that they would overcrowd the nation and take Irish jobs, and that a substantial increase in the Jewish population might give rise to an antisemitic problem.[53] There was some domestic anti-Jewish sentiment during World War II, most notably expressed in a notorious speech to the Dáil in 1943, when newly elected independent TD Oliver J. Flanagan advocated "routing the Jews out of the country".[54][55]
There was some official indifference from the political establishment to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust during and after the war. This indifference would later be described by Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform Michael McDowell as being "antipathetic, hostile and unfeeling".[56] Dr. Mervyn O'Driscoll of University College Cork reported on the unofficial and official barriers that prevented Jews from finding refuge in Ireland, although the barriers have been down ever since:
Although overt anti-Semitism was not typical, the Southern Irish were indifferent to the Nazi persecution of the Jews and those fleeing the [T]hird Reich….A successful applicant in 1938 was typically wealthy, middle-aged or elderly, single from Austria, Roman Catholic and desiring to retire in peace to Ireland and not engage in employment. Only a few Viennese bankers and industrialists met the strict criterion of being Catholic, although possibly of Jewish descent, capable of supporting themselves comfortably without involvement in the economic life of the country.[57]
Media
Irish neutrality was used by German propaganda to film an anti-British themed movie in 1941 named My Life for Ireland, which tells the story of an Irish nationalist family in their struggle against the British.[58]
Victory in Europe Day
In his speech celebrating the Allied victory in Europe (13 May 1945) Winston Churchill remarked that he had demonstrated restraint towards Ireland because
'we never laid a violent hand upon them, which at times would have been quite easy and quite natural.'
Britain had
…could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone, not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression…a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?
In addition, he put the following, that
I would like to put a hypothetical question— it is a question I have put to many Englishmen since the last war. Suppose Germany had won the war, had invaded and occupied England, and that after a long lapse of time and many bitter struggles, she was finally brought to acquiesce in admitting England's right to freedom, and let England go, but not the whole of England, all but, let us say, the six southern counties.
These six southern counties, those, let us suppose, commanding the entrance to the narrow seas, Germany had singled out and insisted on holding herself with a view to weakening England as a whole, and maintaining the securing of her own communications through the Straits of Dover.
Let us suppose further, that after all this had happened, Germany was engaged in a great war in which she could show that she was on the side of freedom of a number of small nations, would Mr. Churchill as an Englishman who believed that his own nation had as good a right to freedom as any other, not freedom for a part merely, but freedom for the whole-would he, whilst Germany still maintained the partition of his country and occupied six counties of it, would he lead this partitioned England to join with Germany in a crusade? I do not think Mr. Churchill would.
Would he think the people of partitioned England an object of shame if they stood neutral in such circumstances? I do not think Mr. Churchill would.
The implications on Victory in Europe Day and after, of having not been involved in the war and having suffered the devastation that defined the course of Europe afterwards, is the subject of historical debate. The devastation shared by most of Europe, and Ireland's avoidance of it, was described by F. S. L. Lyons as:
The tensions – and the liberations – of war, the shared experience, the comradeship in suffering, the new thinking about the future, all these things had passed her by. It was as if an entire people had been condemned to live in Plato's cave, with their backs to the fire of life and deriving their only knowledge of what went on outside from the flickering shadows thrown on the wall before their eyes by the men and women who passed to and fro behind them. When after six years they emerged, from the cave into the light of day, it was a new and vastly different world.[61]
In response to that, Ronan Fanning wrote: 'One might question [...] the liberating value of war for a people who has so recently emerged from revolution followed by a civil war and in whose midst the IRA still propounded the creed of violence ...'[62]
The Cranborne Report
- They agreed to our use of Lough Foyle for naval and air purposes. The ownership of the Lough is disputed, but the Southern Irish authorities are tacitly not pressing their claim in present conditions and are also ignoring any flying by our aircraft over the Donegal shore of the Lough, which is necessary in certain wind conditions to enable flying boats to take off from the Lough.
- They have agreed to use by our aircraft based on Lough Erne of a corridor over Southern Irish territory and territorial waters for the purpose of flying out to the Atlantic.
- They have arranged for the immediate transmission to the United Kingdom Representative's Office in Dublin of reports of submarine activity received from their coast watching service.
- They arranged for the broadening of reports by their Air observation Corps of aircraft sighted over or approaching Southern Irish territory. (This does not include our aircraft using the corridor referred to in (b) above.)
- They arranged for the extinction of trade and business lighting in coastal towns where such lighting was alleged to afford a useful landmark for German aircraft.
- They have continued to supply us with meteorological reports.
- They have agreed to the use by our ships and aircraft of two wireless direction-finding stations at Malin Head.
- They have supplied particulars of German crashed aircraft and personnel crashed or washed ashore or arrested on land.
- They arranged for staff talks on the question of co-operation against a possible German invasion of Southern Ireland, and close contact has since been maintained between the respective military authorities.
- They continue to intern all German fighting personnel reaching Southern Ireland. On the other hand, though after protracted negotiations, Allied service personnel are now allowed to depart freely and full assistance is given in recovering damaged aircraft.
- Recently, in connection with the establishment of prisoner of war camps in Northern Ireland, they have agreed to return or at least intern any German prisoners who may escape from Northern Ireland across the border to Southern Ireland.
- They have throughout offered no objection to the departure from Southern Ireland of persons wishing to serve in the United Kingdom Forces nor to the journey on leave of such persons to and from Southern Ireland (in plain clothes).
- They have continued to exchange information with our security authorities regarding all aliens (including Germans) in Southern Ireland.
- They have (within the last few days) agreed to our establishing a radar station in Southern Ireland for use against the latest form of submarine activity.
Effect on United Nations membership
The neutrality policy led to a considerable delay in Ireland's membership of the United Nations (UN). Ireland's applications for membership were
The original use of the term "United Nations" in 1942–45 always referred to the Allies of World War II. Ireland had applied to join the UN in 1946, following the demise of the League of Nations, whose final Secretary-General was Irish diplomat Seán Lester.[64]
By March 1955, the Minister for External Affairs, Liam Cosgrave, announced that: "Ireland's application for membership of the U.N.O. still stands although it remains blocked by an objection in the Security Council". For reasons of diplomacy the government would not state the reason for the objection, nor which country had made it. Seán MacBride considered that the UN boycott of Ireland was originally agreed at the 1945 Yalta Conference by Churchill and Stalin.[65] Ireland's acceptance into the UN was announced by John A. Costello on 15 December 1955.[66]
See also
- Caught in a Free State
- Irish Mercantile Marine during World War II
- Irish maritime events during World War II
- Irish neutrality
- List of World War II weapons used in Ireland
- List of aircraft of Ireland in World War II
- Neutral powers during World War II
- Military history of the British Commonwealth in the Second World War
References
- Catriona Crowe, Ronan Fanning, Michael Kennedy, Eunan O'Halpin and Dermot Keogh (eds), Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, Volume VI: 1939–1941 (ISBN 978-1-904890-51-5
- Catriona Crowe, Ronan Fanning, Michael Kennedy, Dermot Keogh and Eunan O'Halpin (eds), Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, Volume VII: 1941–1945 (RIA series, 2010) ISBN 978-1-904890-63-8
- Fanning, Ronan (1983). Independent Ireland. Dublin: Helicon, Ltd.
- ISBN 978-0-233975-14-6.
Citations
- OCLC 48570436.
- ^ Bromage, Mary (1964). Churchill and Ireland. Notre Dame, IL: University of Notre Dame Press. p. 125.
- ISBN 978-0-7146-1496-0.
- ^ Constitution of Ireland, Article 13.4 – "The supreme command of the Defence Forces is hereby vested in the President."
- ^ O'Halpin, Eunan, 1999, Defending Ireland: The Irish State and its enemies since 1922, Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 151.
- ^ "Pardon for WWII Allies deserters". The Irish Times. 12 June 2012. Retrieved 4 May 2023.
- ^ "History Ireland".
- ^ Collins, M.E., 1993, Ireland 1868-1966, Dublin: the Educational Company of Ireland. p. 371
- ^ Fanning 1983, p. 122.
- ^ Cole G. and Hawkins B; The world was my lobster, John Blake Publishing (2013) chapter 2.
- ^ Bryce Evans, Ireland during the Second World War: Farewell to Plato's Cave (Manchester University Press, 2014)
- ^ Horgan, John (21 February 1998). "An Irishman's Diary". The Irish Times. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- ^ IRISH SECRETS: GERMAN ESPIONAGE IN WARTIME IRELAND, 1939–1945 Archived 30 September 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "The Jews of Ireland". Archived from the original on 29 August 2005.
- ^ Tracy, Robert (1999). "The Jews of Ireland". bNet.com. p. 7. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
- ^ "The IRA's links with Nazi Germany | Frank Ryan". Queen's University Belfast. 3 May 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
- ^ Seán Cronin: Frank Ryan, The Search for the Republic, Repsol, 1980. pp. 188–190
- ^ Collins, M.E., 1993, Ireland 1868-1966, Dublin: the Educational Company of Ireland. p. 373
- ^ The Earl of Longford and Thomas P. O'Neill: Éamon de Valera. Gill and MacMillan, Dublin, 1970. pp. 347–355
- ISBN 978-0-7171-3990-3.
(Quoting Garvin) Irish isolationism was a very powerful cultural sentiment at that time
- ^ McIvor, page 16
- ISBN 0-7171-1578-X.
- ^ Spong, page 11. "in the period April 1941 and June 1942, only seven such ships visited the country"
- ISBN 978-0-415-93916-4.
- ^ "Saint Patrick's Day message". Library of Congress.
- ^ Fisk 1983, p. 273: "Up to four huge tricolours were painted on the sides of each ship together with the word EIRE in letters twenty feet high".
- ISBN 978-1-55750-420-3.
- ISBN 978-0-9540476-3-4.
... or we're sitting ducks. So we sail past all these drowning sailors, and they call up to us, and we must sail on. I remember one crying, 'Taxi! Taxi!'. We didn't stop.
- ^ Fisk 1983, p. 276.
- ISBN 978-1-85635-685-5.
- ^ a b "Kerryman 1999". u-35.com.
- ^ "War on U-Boats". Life Magazine. Time-Life: Cover and p. 79. 16 October 1939.
- ^ a b Fanning 1983, p. 121.
- ^ "Speech by Éamon de Valera at the League of Nations Assembly". Documents on Irish Foreign Policy. Royal Irish Academy. 2 July 1936. pp. No. 347 NAI DFA 26/94. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
- ^ Dáil Debates, 22 March 1939.
- ^ "News from a new republic Ireland in the 1950s". 1 March 2013.
- ISBN 0-09-909520-3
- ^ Bromage, pg 144.
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Australia). 10 April 1941. p. 1. Retrieved 27 December 2008.
- ^ Lee, J.J. (1989). Ireland 1912–1985. Cambridge: University of Cambridge. p. 244.
- ^ "Churchill had Plan to Invade 'Nazi' Ireland". Winstonchurchill.org. 21 March 2010. Archived from the original on 19 March 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ "Winston Churchill & Éamon de Valera: A Thirty Year "Relationship"". Winstonchurchill.org. Archived from the original on 3 July 2010. Retrieved 1 January 2012.
- ^ a b Fanning 1983, p. 124–125.
- ISBN 978-1-84682-097-7.
- ^ a b c Collins, M.E., 1993, Ireland 1868-1966, Dublin: the Educational Company of Ireland, pg. 374
- ^ Lee, J.J., 1989, Ireland 1912–1985, Cambridge: University of Cambridge, pg. 248
- ^ Lee, J.J., 1989, Ireland 1912–1985, Cambridge: University of Cambridge, pg. 253
- ISBN 978-0-19-820555-5.
Then he added:"Please don't mention that to anybody. It might get around"
- ^ "Hyde (and de Valera) offered condolences on Hitler's death". Irish Independent. 31 December 2005. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
- ^ "The Irish Nationalist and the Nazi: When Éamon de Valera Paid His Respects To Adolf Hitler". International Business Times. 10 September 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2015.
- ^ Dermot Keogh (1989). "Éamon de Valera and Hitler" (PDF). Irish Studies in International Affairs, Vol. 3, No 1, p. 84.
- ^ Bew 2007, p. 474.
- ^ Section on Clonyn Castle in Holocaust Memorial Day 2003 Program Booklet, January 2003, Holocaust Memorial Day. Dublin: The Holocaust Memorial Day Committee in association with the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform and Dublin City Council http://hetireland.org/app/uploads/2015/02/HMD2003.pdf Archived 28 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine accessed 2015-09-27
- ^ Dáil Éireann - Volume 91 - 9 July 1943 Archived 29 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine – antisemitic speech to the Dáil by Oliver J. Flanagan
- ^ "Horrid History: troubled past Irish-Jewish relations". Irish Independent. 3 August 2014.
- ^ Republic of Ireland Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine – Stephen Roth Institute
- ^ "Let's do better than the indifference we showed during the Holocaust – Irish Examiner, 20 March 2004
- ^ "My Life for Ireland (1941)".
- ^ Collins, M.E., 1993, Ireland 1868-1966, Dublin: the Educational Company of Ireland, pg. 383
- ^ Clair Wills, 2007, That Neutral Island: A Cultural History of Ireland During the Second World War
- ^ Fanning 1983, p. 226.
- ^ Fanning 1983, p. 127.
- ISBN 1-84511-125-7 "The Soviet Union vetoed the application's entry ostensibly on the grounds that Ireland had no diplomatic presence in the Soviet Union and that during the war, Ireland did not help the Allies, instead offering support to the Axis and Franco's Spain. Ireland's anti-communist stance was probably more responsible; the membership of the General Assembly was weighted towards the Western Bloc, and the Soviet Union did not want its position in the Assembly weakened." (page 150)
- ^ "Lester, Sean, 1929– (Sub-Fonds)". UNOG Library. Retrieved 6 November 2010.
- ^ "Yalta Conference". Houses of the Oireachtas. 29 March 1955. Retrieved 28 September 2018. This seems unlikely, given that Yalta was held a year before Ireland's application to join the UN, and was based on press speculation.
- ^ "Ireland's Membership of U.N.O." Houses of the Oireachtas. 15 December 1955. Retrieved 28 September 2018.