Ireland did not join the war, but declared neutrality. Indeed the world war, in Ireland, was not referred to as a war at all, but as 'The Emergency'. In staying neutral, despite British and latterly American pleas to join the war, Ireland, under
World War II. Ireland remained neutral during World War II. The Fianna Fáil government's position was flagged years in advance by Taoiseach Éamon de Valera and had broad support.
Scotland at War: A City Transformed
Prepared to defend their country to the last, Edinburgh and its patriotic citizens rallied to support the Allied efforts as the Scottish Command Headquarters during the war.
Elements of the Irish Republican movement sided with the Third Reich at the onset of the war with the United Kingdom in 1939, believing that a German victory might bring about a United Ireland.
During World War I (1914–1918), Ireland was part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, which entered the war in August 1914 as one of the Entente Powers, along with France and Russia.
Éire was not equipped to fight a war because its army was small and its weak economy meant money was too scarce to be spent on military action. De Valera feared supporting the war would split the government and country.
The Irish would remain neutral throughout the war but were universally viewed as far more sympathetic and helpful to the Allies than the Axis. Despite their formal neutrality, the Irish experienced a number of aerial bomb attacks from German planes in 1940 and 1941.
During World War II, Ireland was now officially neutral and independent from the UK. However, over 80,000 Irish-born men and women (north and south) joined the British armed forces, with between 5,000 and 10,000 being killed during the conflict.
Cause of the North Strand Raid
Irish airspace had been violated repeatedly, and both Allied and German airmen were being interned at the Curragh. A possible cause was a navigational error or a mistaken target, as one of the pathfinders on the raid later recounted.
Resistance to British rule in Ireland had existed for hundreds of years. Irish nationalists, the majority of them Catholic, resisted this rule in a number of peaceful or violent ways up until the start of the First World War. Irish nationalists wanted Ireland to be independent from British control.
Wales, as part of the United Kingdom, participated as part of the allies in World War I (1914–1918) and the allies in World War II (1939–1945).
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, “The only thing worse than having allies is not having them.” In World War II, the three great Allied powers—Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union—formed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory.
On the nights of 13-14 and 14-15 March 1941 Luftwaffe bombers raided Clydeside and inflicted casualties in several industrial centres. Glasgow suffered the highest number of fatalities (about 650), but in proportion to its population of about 50,000 the burgh of Clydebank suffered the worst.
The foreign relations of Ireland are substantially influenced by its membership of the European Union, although bilateral relations with the United States and United Kingdom are also important to the state. It is one of the group of smaller nations in the EU and has traditionally followed a non-aligned foreign policy.
Finland was aligned with the Germans but was not formally an Axis member. Yet the country was a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact. The German troops were primarily stationed in northern Finland. The Finnish Army advanced deep into the Soviet territory in the Continuation War (1941–1944).
De Valera maintained that he was merely observing the standard diplomatic protocols on the death of a foreign head of state. Ireland survived the war more or less unscathed. Strict rationing had to be applied and there were severe shortages of items such as coal and petrol during the war years.
Eighty years ago, four bombs were dropped on Dublin's North Strand by the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War.
The conflict began during a campaign by the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association to end discrimination against the Catholic/nationalist minority by the Protestant/unionist government and local authorities. The government attempted to suppress the protests.
It began because of the 1916 Easter Rising. The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) men fought the British soldiers because they wanted Ireland to be its own country and wanted Britain to move its army out of Ireland. 6 IRB members were killed including 3 who were executed.
Hugh O'Flaherty CBE (28 February 1898 – 30 October 1963) was an Irish Catholic priest, a senior official of the Roman Curia and a significant figure in the Catholic resistance to Nazism. During the Second World War, O'Flaherty was responsible for saving 6,500 Allied soldiers and Jews.
IRISH INFANTRY, THE SHARP POINT OF THE BAYONET
Built with fighting spirit, tradition, and Irish character, we are the only Irish Infantry Regiment of the line in the British Army. We recruit people of the right quality and calibre right across the island of Ireland, all parts of the UK, and beyond.
Only 14 countries remained officially neutral throughout the entire war. They included Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan as well as the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City.
Iceland cooperated with the British and then the Americans, but officially remained neutral throughout World War II.
Proposed accession of Ireland to NATO
While the Irish government expressed its support for the goals of NATO, it opposed joining as it did not wish to be in an alliance with the United Kingdom (who was a signatory to the agreement founding NATO) with which it disputed the sovereignty over Northern Ireland.
The U.S. firebombed Tokyo on the night of March 9–10, 1945, and killed more than 100,000 people in the deadliest conventional bombing in history, known as Operation Meetinghouse.