Britain Ireland And The Second World War

This volume of essays on the social, political and military history of Ireland during the Second World War explores the Irish contribution to the Allied cause, in particular the role and experience of Irish men and women who served in the British armed forces during the war. Also covered is the history of Northern Ireland during the war period, as are apsects of the post-war historiography of Irish involvement in the Allied struggle.

For Britain the Second World War exists in popularmemory as a time of heroic sacrifice, survival and ultimate victory overFascism. In the Irish state the years 1939-1945 are still remembered simplyas 'the Emergency'. Eire was one of many small states which in 1939 chosenot to stay out of the war but one of the few able to maintain itsnon-belligerency as a policy.How much this owed to Britain's militaryresolve or to the political skills of amon de Valera is a key questionwhich this new book will explore. It will also examine the tensions Eire'spolicy created in its relations with Winston Churchill and with the UnitedStates. The author also explores propaganda, censorship and Irish statesecurity and the degree to which it involves secret co-operation withBritain. Disturbing issues are also raised like the IRA's relationship toNazi Germany and ambivalent Irish attitudes to the Holocaust.Drawing uponboth published and unpublished sources, this book illustrates the war'simpact on people on both sides of the border and shows how it failed toresolve sectarian problems on Northern Ireland while raising higher thebarriers of misunderstanding between it and the Irish state across itsborder.

Behind the Green Curtain goes beyond any previous book in examining the myth of Irish wartime neutrality.

Of the countries that remained neutral during the Second World War, none was more controversial than Ireland, with accusations of betrayal and hypocrisy poisoning the media. Whereas previous histories of Ireland in the war years have focused on high politics, That Neutral Island brings to life the atmosphere of a country forced to live under rationing, heavy censorship and the threat of invasion. It unearths the motivations of those thousands who left Ireland to fight in the British forces and shows how ordinary people tried to make sense of the Nazi threat through the lens of antagonism towards Britain.

Irish neutrality during the Second World War presented Britain with significant challenges to its security. Exploring how British agencies identified and addressed these problems, this book reveals how Britain simultaneously planned sabotage in and spied on Ireland, and at times sought to damage the neutral state's reputation internationally through black propaganda operations. It analyses the extent of British knowledge of Axis and other diplomatic missions in Ireland, and shows the crucial role of diplomatic code-breaking in shaping British policy. The book also underlines just how much Ireland both interested and irritated Churchill throughout the war. Rather than viewing this as a uniquely Anglo-Irish experience, Eunan O'Halpin argues that British activities concerning Ireland should be placed in the wider context of intelligence and security problems that Britain faced in other neutral states, particularly Afghanistan and Persia. Taking a comparative approach, he illuminates how Britain dealt with challenges in these countries through a combination of diplomacy, covert gathering of intelligence, propaganda, and intimidation. The British perspective on issues in Ireland becomes far clearer when discussed in terms of similar problems Britain faced with neutral states worldwide. Drawing heavily on British and American intelligence records, many disclosed here for the first time, Eunan O'Halpin presents the first country study of British intelligence to describe and analyse the impact of all the secret agencies during the war. He casts fresh light on British activities in Ireland, and on the significance of both espionage and cooperation between intelligence agencies for developing wider relations between the two countries.

The story of two RAF fliers interned in Ireland during World War II.

Preparations for an official account of Northern Ireland's role in World War II began in early 1940 when the Stormont government instructed its departments to keep a record of their activities during the conflict. In 1945, John W. Blake was invited to undertake the daunting task of writing a comprehensive history of the period.

In Northern Ireland, The United States and the Second World War, Simon Topping analyses the American military presence in Northern Ireland during the war, examining the role of the government at Stormont in managing this 'friendly invasion', the diplomatic and military rationales for the deployment, the attitude of Americans to their posting, and the effect of the US presence on local sectarian dynamics. He explores US military planning, the hospitality and entertainment provided for American troops, the renewal and reimagining of historic links between Ulster and the United States, the importation of 'Jim Crow' racism, 'Johnny Doughboys' marrying 'Irish Roses', and how all of this impacted upon internal, transatlantic and cross-border politics. This study also draws attention to influential and understudied individuals such as Northern Ireland's Prime Minister Sir Basil Brooke and offers a reassessment of David Gray, America's minister to Dublin. As a result, it provides a comprehensive examination of largely overlooked aspects of the war and Northern Ireland more generally, and fills important gaps in the history of both. Northern Ireland, The United States and the Second World War is essential for students and scholars interested in the history of Northern Ireland, American-Irish relations, the Second World War on the UK home-front, and wartime transatlantic diplomacy.