One of the most interesting things about WW2 in my opinion is the fact that the Irish would not fight for England.

The Irish were neutral. People seem surprised when you tell them this fact. I was surprised when I found out. It is interesting that many people in Ireland admired the Germans or 'nazi'.

Instead of fighting for England, Ireland declared a State of Emergency and pretty much brought in Martial Law. The majority of the Irish public supported the actions of their Government.

    The Emergency (Irish: Ré na Práinne / An Éigeandáil) was an official euphemism used by the Irish Government during the 1940s to refer to its position during World War II. The state was neutral during World War II, but declared a state of emergency on 2 September 1939,[1] and enacted the Emergency Powers Act the following day.[2] This gave sweeping new powers to the government for the duration of the Emergency, such as internment, censorship of the press and correspondence, and the government control of the economy.

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Most people seem to have an infantile understanding of WW2 and no idea at all about the politics of the time. Fascism was a huge international movement and the Germans had supporters in every nation including like minded political parties. The pro-German feeling of Ireland may have been stronger than in most places but the idea of Fascism in various forms was competing with Communism, Capitalism and Socialism. The neutrality of Ireland is an unmistakable indicator of the fact that Germany was not hated by the entire world and actually had a great deal of International Supporters.

Most people seem to believe that all of a sudden the most evil man in history popped up out of nowhere, made everyone hate Jewish people and then had to be killed because he tried to kill all Jewish people as well as tried to take over the entire world. And then USA alone saved us from him so hail USA for all time.. (: ( And also hail capitalism for all time ) It wasnt really like that at all.

    On the other hand, in the first few years of the war, the government did not show any overt preference for either side. This is partly because de Valera had to keep national unity, which meant accommodating the large swathe of Irish society that rejected anything to do with the British, some of whom admired Germany to some extent. These attitudes were shared by Aiken,[10] and Walshe,.[11] The Fianna Fáil government, headed by Éamon De Valera ruled alone and did not accommodate any other party in decision-making.[12] Within both the British and Irish political sphere, there were pro-fascist political parties at the outbreak of the war, the centre-right Fine Gael party in Ireland, and the more extreme British union of fascists in Britain, with the latter party being completely outlawed in 1940.


"some of whom admired Germany to some extent."- wiki ..

    The IRA fostered links with German intelligence (the Abwehr) and Foreign Ministry, with men such as Francis Stuart traveling to Germany to talk, though these attempts were largely ineffectual due to a combination of Abwehr and Foreign Ministry incompetence and IRA weakness.[15] Germans also came to Ireland, the most notable of whom was Hermann Görtz, who was captured in possession of "Plan Kathleen"- an IRA plan that detailed a German supported invasion of Northern Ireland. (See also: Irish Republican Army – Abwehr collaboration in World War II).
    Relations with Germany

    In pursuit of its policy of neutrality, the Irish Government refused to close the German and Japanese embassies. In 1939, the German Government had very little intelligence on Ireland and Britain. This is because Hitler had hoped for a détente or alliance with Britain, whom he considered the "natural allies" of Nazi Germany.[51]

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    When concerted efforts to build a reliable picture of British military strength did begin around 1939–1940, efforts were first made to infiltrate spies to Britain via Ireland, but these attempts consistently failed (See Operation Lobster and Operation Seagull). The Abwehr also made attempts to foster intelligence gathering links with the IRA, but found that the IRA was in no condition to be of serious use — these attempts were to occur during the period 1939–1943. The German military also drew up plans detailing how an invasion of Ireland might take place. These plans were titled Plan Green and any invasion was to act as a diversionary attack in support of a main attack to conquer Britain titled Operation Sea Lion. Both of these plans were shelved by 1942. When U.S. Army troops began to be stationed in Northern Ireland in 1942, Plan Green was reprinted because there was a fear among the German High Command, (and the Irish Government), that the U.S. Army might attempt an invasion of Ireland, following its occupation of Iceland (after the British invasion) and Greenland in 1941. These fears led to another German intelligence plan – Operation Osprey – but it was abandoned when the feared American invasion failed to take place.

And how about how the Irish punished the deserters that left Ireland to fight for the English?

        Punishment of Irish Army deserters

        Unlike other neutral states, Ireland did not introduce a general prohibition on its citizens opting for foreign enlistment during the war. However, one serious concern of government in this regard was the relatively high number of Irish soldiers deserting and leaving the jurisdiction.[66] Estimates of between 4,000 and 7,000 members of the Irish armed forces deserted to join the armed forces of belligerent nations, the majority serving in the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.[67]
        On 17 May 1945, Minister for Defence Oscar Traynor stated that he proposed introducing legislation which would deprive deserters of any right "for a long time to come" to employment paid for from public funds.[68] The legislation in question was the Emergency Powers (No. 362) order which was passed on 8 August 1945. This punished those who had deserted during the Emergency in four ways:

        Deserters forfeited all pay and allowances for the period of their absence
        They lost any rights to pensions they might have earned due to their years of service
        They lost any entitlement to unemployment benefits normally available to former members of the Irish Army
        For a period of seven years they could not qualify for any employment remunerated from public funds

        The Order only applied to personnel who had been called to active duty during the Emergency or who had enlisted "for the duration" of the Emergency and affected 4,000 men.[69]
        The government's reasons for passing the order have been given as follows:[67]

        To ensure that those personnel who had faithfully served the country in the defence forces had first chance of obtaining jobs with state and local authorities following demobilization
        To deter future desertion
        To allow deserters to be dealt with in a cost-effective and expeditious way, rather than go the immense expense of court-martialling each man individually


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I admire the will of Ireland to remain neutral even though doing so would have been very difficult due to ties with England and also geography/ In my opinion Australia has no reason to take a side in any future conflict between the US side and China. I think that Australia can and should remain neutral if a future conflict between the US side and China did occur.

What is your opinion of Irish neutrality during WW2?