Sir, – John Bellew ( May 26th) asks for a justification for Ireland remaining neutral during the second World War. Ireland's justification was the same as that of the United States, Norway, Denmark, Yugoslavia, Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland, and the Soviet Union; that is, a mix of self-preservation and an ignorance of the true nature of the Nazi threat. The difference between those neutral countries and neutral Ireland is only that they were attacked by the Axis and we were not.
A second reason for neutrality is that Ireland could not defend itself, with a small Army and no air defence – a fact lethally illustrated when a single German aircraft killed 28 people with four bombs during the North Strand bombing on May 31st, 1941.
If Ireland had joined the Allies, the immediate consequence would have been a daylight raid by hundreds of German bombers over a completely defenceless Cork.
As the British were unable to defend their own airspace, how many fighters could they spare for Ireland?
At the very least, Ireland joining the Allies would have meant that Eamon de Valera would have had to give the British complete military control over Ireland for its own defence.
Ireland could have waited until 1944 by which time the German’s offensive capability had been sufficiently degraded, but joining the winning side when the result was decided would have been a craven act.
Finally, the Nazis did kill millions of people, but we cannot condemn Ireland for not declaring war on Germany in 1939 because of a slaughter that was only officially and secretly sanctioned by the Nazis in 1942 at the Wannsee conference, and whose full extent was only discovered in 1945. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN KELLY,
Woodville Grange,
Athlone,
Co Westmeath.