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While the public level of isloation was later, the attempts to set the narrative came before during the war (which remember had the backdrop of extremely poor Irish-American diplomatic relations , again I've never seen sources suggesting the US made active plans for attacking the Ports, by the...

From what I've read that was never more than a diplomatic push in order to try and marginalise Dev post war, there was never any military intention or plan.

Never heard that one tbh.

It''s kind of hard to imagine, even with no World Wars I'm not sure the political will would be there for such a Union.

To me the difference is how "sustainable" the "ability for a power to project anywhere in the world at short notice, economically, politically or militarily", in that the UK can't sustain anything large scale independently.

The UK is a major power, but far from a Superpower these days.

That would be almost as much of a nightmare.

Jesus yeah that would be beyond a nightmare and with 1940's Ireland you couldn't blame even moderates freaking out about that. Though given historic actions the minute this was made public I could see even in WW2 H&W and Shorts having mass strikes and riots, hence why I've thought it was always...

Yep, though how sincere that offer was is open to debate given the consequences to the UK in the midst of the war if they had gone through with it, hence why Dev and the Cabinet didn't accept.

The number of butterflies you’d need to go from the introduction of FPTP to SF winning everything is fairly epic.

Technically it's not the ROI at this point, but given how much behind the scenes cooperation between Ireland and the Allies it's more likely than joining the Axis (which is truly ASB), though yes the UK had plans to invade, Churchill for example certainly wanted to look at invading and retaking...

Yeah as I've said even in the talks between Collins and Churchill, Collins made it clear that Ireland would seek to be neutral in any case of a future UK war. As I said in the other thread I think you'd need a series of pod's in order to get to a point where Ireland would be in a position to...

You need prewar PODs for that, no chance of a deployable force of any strength in 1940 without that.

Not sure I’d agree, operations during winter is going to be hell with wind and sea state conditions for plane/seaplane operations and no shelter/supplies for any convoys, I mean unless you pick it as the shit deployment for anyone that pissed you off. Cork meanwhile of all of the Treaty Ports...

As I said in the other thread, maybe with someone else and maybe Chamberlain still there instead of Churchill, the offer in 1940 might have been more well received? Either that or Hitler goes mad and either declares war on Ireland or tries Sealion. In terms of building up I'd argue it's not...

Cork harbour would be used, it's the largest port and if the Allies want to spend the money the one with at least some supporting infrastructure that can be put back into use, with everything from the old flying boat stations to the Naval Base still there but yeah as ever it's politically...

And could you imagine how much security would be needed depending on where it was... At most I'd imagine Foynes/Shannon would be the most likely given as you say it can be supplied by sea, and Cork as well, can't see them wanting to try and reinstate the other Treaty Ports. But yeah as you say...

Yeah that would be the main benefit but as @Rinasoir just pointed out to make full use of that the Allies have to divert resources that depending on when it is, could be "inconvenient" to the Allies. I mean sure airbases would be relatively easy to set up but supplying them with the limited...

It depends on when this happens, think a post war RN study suggested that Ireland having joined would have cut loses in the Battle of the Atlantic by cicra 10% for example (not an unimportant reduction), but given the size of the DF, it would be unlikely to have deployable forces till well into...

The other main hurdle would be simply building up the infrastructure needed to make Ireland of use in the war. Everything from Radar stations, to airbases, to supply chains, and the manpower to quickly ramp up the areas that have the massive gaps (ie Naval and air force first). It might improve...