Deserting the national army tends to result in you being considered a traitor, yes. Not sure many states feel that shouldn't be a fairly big deal.
Agreed - it doesn't mean blacklisting and treating as a pariah, especially when you have just helped defeat a monstrous tyrany, perhaps the most monstrous tyranny imaginable. A monstrous tyranny that their own nation didn't see fit to opose...............
Ah bit off there, many more than 5000 served in the British military during WW2, most suffered no such actions
i took my figures from the Irish Times and BBC. Apologies if they are off. They said 5000 serving soldiers joined the British Army.
As for the policy of Ireland during the War, given both the relationship with the UK and the damaged state the nation was still in post Civil War it shouldn't be surprising, however the reality is that the Allies received plenty of support from the state even then
oh good. Were there Irish fighter squadrons shooting down Nazi bombers during the battle of Britain? Did Irish naval units convoy all of their raw materials and oil supplies across the Atlantic and help keep that vital supply line open? Were there regiments from the Irish Republic on the beaches of Normandy fighting to throw the Nazi out? Did the Irish government evict Nazi intelligence from Dublin or let them run their embassy as normal? Lots of Irish men fought the Nazis, none of them under the Irish flag.
Ireland exported us lots of vital food. They did turn a blind eye to the Donegal corridor flights (one helping sink the Bismark) supporting the battle of the Atlantic and provided weather reports. However I suspect the same rights would have been granted to the Nazis. They allowed their men to serve and work abroad if they so wished but did not stop them from joining the Nazis. The small Irish merchant navy rescued shipwrecked sailors ( of both sides). They were happy to talk about how the British Army would come to their aid should the Nazis invade. Many politicians made statements supporting Hitler & the Taoiseach even signed a book of condolence on the death of Hitler.
I acknowledge that as the war went on the position of Ireland changed slightly ( as it had to when the Nazis were obviously losing) as is shown by he Cranborne report of 1945 but when times were hardest they turned their backs and chose neutrality.
Doesn't change the fact that those in power had little to no reason to have any faith in the UK Government of the day, nor does it change the fact that trying to "ally" with the UK before even the US had joined the war would have risked plunging the nation back into Civil War. Not too mention the fact that by 1940 the scale of what the NAZIS were wasn't known, you're using hindsight.
The evilitude of the Nazis was known - the Irish chose not to oppose it.
I don't think you get how badly England was regarded in much of Ireland. Yes, Nazis were bad, but England, oh, England....
erm: Henry VIII, Plantations, Confiscations, Cromwell, William of Orange, Potato famine, Easter rising, civil war. Bad. Terrible even. Not as bad as the Nazis.
Deserting the state during a national emergency is highly immoral.
But there wasn't an emergency facing Ireland. They chose not to take part in the hope Britain would fall and Ireland would be reunited. It might have been if the Nazis won, as a Quisling state at best. Those men chose fighting an evil tyranny over staying at home hoping it went away or left them alone. The men who left were the brave ones. They deserve our praise and thanks.
Irish prime minister De Valera did offend London by offering his condolences to the German ambassador in Dublin on the death of Hitler.
Madness.
If you were Irish in the Late 19th-Early 20th Century, England was basically Nazi Germany to you, unless you were from Ulster.
that isnt a given.