Sir, – The comments (May 14th) are all part of our muddled concept of our country’s neutrality or perceived non-alignment during the second World War.
These interesting comments were an obvious reaction to your heading on Diarmaid Ferriter’s article (“Denigrating neutrality during second World War has become fashionable”, Analysis, May 11th) which in my opinion did not reflect the reality of the time in poverty-stricken Ireland.
In a recent publication by this reader, 29 Main Street: Living with Partition the reflections of Sean Milroy (TD for Cavan) explain the fledgling Free State's neutral position from the Dáil debates on the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
Furthermore, the Irish Free State became aligned with Britain and Canada through the Irish Meteorological Service’s weather observances for the proposed development of transatlantic air routes from the late 1930s. This shared service maintained strict secrecy during the second World War to the benefit of the Allies and the D-Day landings in particular.
When the US entered the conflict via Northern Ireland, the Border regions boomed and nobody cared when the Yankees visited many towns in Co Cavan in their uniforms to spend very welcome dollars. The Allies were given permission to fly over Irish territory to assist their patrolling of the north Atlantic. There were many more instances of the Irish people co-operating with and assisting the Allied cause, both here and in industrial England. In summary, Ireland maintained its neutrality, with a small n, on the British side, and this was a bonus to Britain and the Allies. – Yours, etc,
DERMOT McMONAGLE,
Cootehill Road, Cavan.