Deserters were not free agents
IT seems that William Cobain and I differ on the meaning of ethics, morals, honour and duty to one’s solemn Oath to State (Praise for courage of Irish ‘deserters’, February 8).
These deserters, and that’s what they were and remain, were not free agents to enlist in any foreign army regardless of the situation pertaining at the time. They had committed to serve in Ireland’s defence forces, not as conscripts, but by choice. They chose to desert in the full knowledge that such actions were not consequence free.
For the record and to enlighten Mr Cobain, Ireland’s policy of neutrality during the Second World War was not the product of Eamon de Valera or of his government, but of the collective vote of Dáil Éireann. As a sovereign State that was our decision to make. If desertion were to cease to be a crime, if done for the ‘right’ reason, anyone could desert and claim history will vindicate their actions.
Mr Cobain ignores the fact that almost every war-participating country, including the USA and the Soviet Union, only entered the war against Nazism having first been attacked. Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal, like Ireland, followed a policy of neutrality.
Regarding Mr Cobain’s reference to Eoin O’Duffy’s Blueshirts, perhaps Mr O’Duffy was influenced by British newspapers.
In 1933, Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail and close friend and supporter of both Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, wrote an editorial entitled ‘Youth Triumphant’, which was used as propaganda by the Nazis. Not to be outdone, in 1938, Lord Beaverbrook of the Daily Express, expressed open sympathy to both the Nazi regime and Mosley’s British Union of Fascists, writing to congratulate the Third Reich’s von Ribbentropp on his appointment as German foreign minister.
Whereas I acknowledge unambiguously the sacrifice and indeed bravery of those who opposed Nazism, I cannot agree with Mr Cobain’s statement that for these “so-called” 5,000 Irish deserters who joined the British army I would not be able to voice my argument in a free press today.
May I suggest it was the 28 million USSR soldiers who fell at Kursk, Stalingrad and Kiev who had some say in the matter.
Tom Cooper
Dublin
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