Praise for courage of Irish ‘deserters’
I must respond to the letter ‘A case for pardoning deserters’ from Tom Cooper, Dublin (News Letter, January 31).
How naive of him to state: “This pardon on Irish soldiers who deserted during World War Two renders the Irish as a joke.”
The Irish Free State hoped that by declaring itself neutral during the war the country would gain some form of favour from Hitler’s Nazi regime if he was the victor when the war ended in Europe.
Tom Cooper seems to have no knowledge about a General Eoin O’Duffy’s Blueshirts. This Irish army brigade had meetings in Berlin with Hitler and his generals.
May I remind Mr Cooper that at the time, the Irish Taoiseach Eamon de Valera ordered widespread destruction of all top secret files, as he expected an invasion into the South and Northern Ireland by German paratroops in late 1940.
Also I must remind him that at no time did Japan declare war on the British, but did cause deliberate attacks on Churchill’s Royal Navy and his Merchant Navy fleet, sinking many ships. The Japanese then invaded British territory alongside the bombing of Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.
This Far East war was still ongoing into 1945, and had many Irish nationals, brave men and women, serving alongside American marines and other Allied forces willing to defend against Japanese opponents.
It would take two bombs dropped on Japanese cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki – on August 6, 1945 before Japan was to surrender.
It seems a foolhardy statement to suggest that any serving military deserters in the face of this evil regime would bring more shame on a country that had declared as neutral and gave little credit to the Irish that fought against the might of Nazi Germany and Hitler.
May I state that but for these so-called deserters from the neutral Irish army, who were brave enough to join up and serve in an army fighting tyranny, he would not be able to have this space in the paper to voice his argument today.
William Cobain,
Ballyclare
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rthomas
Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 10:26 PMA token gesture only ,JPG, as Dev was only trying to suck up to Churchill as he was on the verge of invading the South to stop it being used as a springboard for the Nazis to invade GB. The IRA , which has been used by the Republic to do its dirty work, was already in discussions with Hitler's staff.
s magowan
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 10:03 PMDe Valera backed the Nazi regime it was a case of England's difficulty was Irelands opportunity.
JPGJOHNNYG
Friday, February 10, 2012 at 10:08 AMyes yes rthomas the same Devalera that sent the fire brigade to help with fires in Belfast during the blitz. The same Devalera that opened up airspace for the RAF to fly across Donegal for quick access to the Atlantic. With lookouts all along the coast tracking uboats and merchant ships and informing the Britsih of their movements not to forget the coast had big markers and numbers all along it that only the British and American pilots were told about and not the Germans. Ireland pushed their neutrality to the limit and beyond. As for refusing refuge - link please, maybe you are getting confused with the limerick pogrom which was a shamefull time some 35 years before the war but was condemened universally and is described by Joe Briscoe, “an aberration in an otherwise almost perfect history of Ireland and its treatment of the Jews'' Joe and his father robert both being Jewish mayors of Dublin!!
rthomas
Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 10:34 PMDevalera , also sent Eire's condolences to Berlin whenever Hitler took his own life. That country also refused refuge to many Jewish children, who were subsequently murdered by the Nazis. Yes , it is hard to imagine what more it could have done to bring shame on itself.
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