Paul V McNutt
Banned
One interesting butterfly is if the Western allies are helped so mucvh by Ireland's involvement, thenyhey get to Prague fist. The Czech Republic is a charter member of NAto and the home of large US military bases.
Effects on the actual war would be minimal, they were already doing a hell of a lot to help Britain on the sly.
Effects on Ireland and the post-war situation however....interesting...Could it push Ireland into NATO? Could it lead to more public hatred for the IRA- attacking our friends the Brits like that!-?
What cultural effects will massive amounts of foreign personnel and foreign money have on Ireland?
Pre-"Celtic Tiger," I was under the impression Ireland was very poor and culturally dominated by a particularly grim sort of Catholicism.
Indeed, up until the 1960's many Irish restaurants wouldn't serve meat on Fridays in compliance with Catholic doctrines. Having several thousand horny GI's running around 20 years earlier would certainly have caused earlier pressure for liberalisation!![]()
If Ireland fought for the Allies during the war, I think they'd end up joining NATO, presuming it's still formed. OTL they refused because it would have meant accepting the N. Irish border.
Thinking about Ireland joining NATO, what it really depends on is what the publics view on entering WW2 is. As Thande says, they enter due to the bombing of Leinster House and the killing of most of the government, so they're entering for vengence,
Irelands positon on the otherside of Britain means that they aren't under direct threat from the now Communist eastern Europe (at least untill ICBMs start getting pumped out), unlike say Belgium or the Netherlands who would get Blitzed through if the Cold War goes hot. So as an alliance against the Red Menace, that's out.
Joining NATO might even encourage the Soviets to support the rather Marxist branches of the IRA.
I think that once the war is over the Irish people may prefer to sink back into neutrality rather then continue
Canada was a charter member of NATO IIRC, and she certainly wasn't under threat of invasion directly. Nor, directly, was Britain. Any realistic threat to Britain in the modern era is a potential threat to Ireland as well. Again IIRC, Iceland's joining of NATO was highly unpopular at home but it happened anyway.
Ireland is going to have forged some strong ties with the US and UK during four years of warfare. The momentum is on the side of alliance.
I know that it is more likely, I'm just coming up with a reason why it wouldn't happen. As I said via edit before I saw your post, Ireland in NATO sounds kinda awesome![]()
I was thinking something a bit scarier, like the Magdalene Laundries.
(To be fair, they weren't all "teen girl gulags"--Sinead O'Connor was educated in one after her mom got busted for using her to steal from stores and even received a guitar as a gift from a nun.)
Horny GIs + teen girls + culture that would put girls in laundries for years for real or perceived sexual immorality = potential international incident.
"In other news today, a band of GIs invaded a convent in Dublin..."
"In other news today, a band of GIs invaded a convent in Dublin..."
Canada was a charter member of NATO IIRC, and she certainly wasn't under threat of invasion directly. Nor, directly, was Britain. Any realistic threat to Britain in the modern era is a potential threat to Ireland as well. Again IIRC, Iceland's joining of NATO was highly unpopular at home but it happened anyway.
Ireland is going to have forged some strong ties with the US and UK during four years of warfare. The momentum is on the side of alliance.
Would there really be so many Americans in Ireland? I doubt it.
Outside of a few naval bases and ports for the Atlantic War there's not much reason to have foreign troops in Ireland. And with the treaty ports being not too long in the past having foreigners around in some parts of Ireland was quite normal and expected.
Sure, the yanks would be a bit...larger...than the Brits but still, these would be small numbers of navy/air corps folk, not GIs en masse
Would there really be so many Americans in Ireland? I doubt it.
Outside of a few naval bases and ports for the Atlantic War there's not much reason to have foreign troops in Ireland. And with the treaty ports being not too long in the past having foreigners around in some parts of Ireland was quite normal and expected.
Sure, the yanks would be a bit...larger...than the Brits but still, these would be small numbers of navy/air corps folk, not GIs en masse.
There were GI's stationed in NI in the run up to D Day, my wife's grandmother lived just outside Gilford in County Down and there was a large contingent of American soldiers living in a tented camp beside her father's farm. There was another camp near Cranfield in Co Down and others elsewhere. Had the Republic been willing to accept them I suspect they would have received some.
This is incorrect. The Republic of Ireland came into being in 1937. 1949 was when the Republic of Ireland left the Commonwealth. If your note about the German ambassador is correct, this will simply have been a holdover understandable given the chaos in Europe around the time Ireland adopted its republican constitution in 1937.By the way, Ireland was a Dominion during World War Two. The Irish Ambassador in Berlin carried letters of introduction accredited from the Court of Saint James and signed by King George IV.
The Republic of Ireland came into being in 1949.