when the united kingdom declared war on germany on september 3rd 1939 ireland that part of the island excluding the six counties of northern ireland despite being technically a british dominion at the time elected to maintain a policy of neutrality they were the only member of the british commonwealth to do so eamon de valera the tisak meaning prime minister said in 1941 from the moment this war began there was for this state only one policy possible neutrality and unlike many other small states ireland managed to maintain that neutrality throughout the course of the war but it didn't come without difficulty or consequences the unique position that ireland had during the second world war is history that deserves to be remembered there are many reasons that southern ireland decided to remain neutral during the second world war the nation felt it had little to contribute militarily and little to gain from entering the war moreover the still new nation saw a need to use its military capability to defend itself in case any major power decided to invade to use the island for its own ends joe walsh the secretary of the department of external affairs said in 1941 that small nations like ireland do not and cannot assume a role as defenders of just causes except their own existence of our own people comes before all other considerations walsh privately argued that britain was likely to lose against the germans and ireland should not be allied to the losing side but perhaps the most significant reason that ireland chose to remain neutral had to do with the recent events for the still new independent nation during the great war ireland had been a part of the united kingdom and sent more than 200 000 troops to war but the great war had also inspired the growing movement for irish home rule the 1916 insurrection called the easter rising was an attempt to leverage the distraction of the great war to overthrow british rule and create an independent republic the rising had failed but draconian british response had caused a backlash and grew support for the cause of independence friction had increased when the british government attempted to implement conscription highly unpopular in ireland leading to a political crisis called the conscription crisis of 1918 for the galvanizing irish support for home rule the growing sentiment had resulted in the irish war for independence between january 1919 and july 1921 which resulted in de facto irish independence as a self-governing dominion under the 1921 anglo-irish treaty that had been followed by the irish civil war fought from june 1922 to may of 1923 between the pro-treaty government and the irish republican army a guerrilla faction that had fought in the war for independence who opposed the treaty since it did not create a fully autonomous irish republic while pro-treaty forces had ostensibly won the war the conflict resulted in only ac's fire and had left a better legacy then conflict over provision of the anglo-irish treaty had resulted in a retaliatory trade war between ireland or the united kingdom between 1932 to 1938 there was still a strong anti-british sentiment in ireland in 1939 an effigy of british prime minister neville chamberlain was burned in dublin that year ireland contained both anti-and pro-fascist sentiments brigades of irish volunteers had for example fought on both the nationalists and the republican sides during the spanish civil war between 1939 and 1940 the ira had been engaging in a bombing campaign called the s plan or sabotage campaign in the united kingdom with a goal of ending the partition of northern and southern ireland put simply irish entry into the war would have re-opened the conflict of the irish civil war de valera said at the time any policy other than neutrality would divide our people and for a divided nation to fling itself into this war would be to commit suicide de valero maintained that position even in the face of a british offer to end the partition and create a united ireland in exchange for ireland declaring war on germany neutrality was popular in ireland but it was largely seen as a betrayal in both the united kingdom and the united states and neutrality offered its own challenges for devalera and the irish government in 1939 the irish parliament enacted the emergency powers act which gave the government nearly dictatorial powers to enforce irish neutrality including censorship of the press and the mail and government control over swaths of the economy the war years in ireland are colloquially referred to as the emergency in reference to the act ireland's location made invasion a threat as de valera said we are fully aware that in a world of war each set of belligerents is over ready to regard those who are not with them as against them the threat was from both the allies as well as the axes the fear that ireland could not withstand a german invasion which would then give germany a base to attack britain led to consideration of a peremptory invasion as the uk had done in iceland in 1940. the prime minister of northern ireland james craig argued that devalera had fallen under the spell of the nazis and highland regiments of the british army should be used to overthrow the irish government and establish a military protectorate while churchill rejected craig's plan he asked field marshal bernard montgomery to develop a plan to invade and capture irish ports that might be needed for the war effort the plan was never enacted partly because of the concern that it would have emboldened pro-fascist elements in ireland but ireland was an obvious target for german invasion where it would serve as a base for attacking great britain connections between the german abver or military intelligence and the ira started as early as 1939 and in 1940 a police raid by ireland on an ira member's home found the plans for something called plan kathleen which was a planned german invasion and combined german ira offensive to take northern ireland although the plan was incomplete and seems never to have seriously been considered by the germans the germans did however create an invasion plan for ireland called operation green which was uncovered by british intelligence and passed to the irish the plan was to have occurred alongside operation sea lion the planned german invasion of britain it's unclear whether the plan was actually intended or proposed as a ruse to great british concern for its flag the plan was sidelined when operation sea lion was indefinitely postponed in september 1940 but briefly revisited in december 1940 when hitlerhood news reports that britain may be planning an invasion of ireland hitler envisioned an invasion in case ireland requested help offering to supply ireland with captured british equipment the german navy however was not enthusiastic feeling that an invasion force in ireland could not be reliably supported by sea the risk of german invasion did compel ireland cooperate with britain on plan w the joint defense of ireland in case of german invasion which included a british invasion of ireland that would occurred at the request of the irish government when u.s forces were sent to bases in northern ireland in 1942 germany became concerned that the americans might conduct a preemptive invasion of irish territory and in response germany planned operation osprey which would have inserted german ss troops into ireland to train irish partisans to combat the american invasion the plan was abandoned when the american invasion of ireland failed to materialize and despite all these plans island managed to avoid invasion throughout the war while ireland remained neutral as part of the commonwealth irishmen could enlist in the armed services of the united kingdom although numbers are unclear more than 50 000 men from southern ireland volunteered for service in the british army and more volunteer for the royal navy and royal air force in addition thousands relocated to the united kingdom to engage in labor supporting the war worked in allied merchant fleets the motivation for irish enlistment and the british armed forces varied but did represent a contradiction majority seemed to have supported irish neutrality and yet they chose to go to war for their own reasons some were following a family tradition others were motivated by anti-fascist sentiment while others were seeking adventure or avoiding troubles with police iris service represented difficulties for both the governments of the united kingdom and ireland ireland feared the participation of these irish troops could threaten their neutrality and so sought to keep the participation quiet churchill wanted to recognize the irish contribution and create irish regiments but secretary of state for war david marguson argued that recognizing irish volunteers might compel the government of ireland to restrict volunteers from leaving their country in the end british shows a halfway proposal that brigaded together several existing british army irish battalions the 38th irish brigades heard with distinction in the tunisian and italian campaigns but irishmen fought in british service did distinguish themselves brendan patty fanucan was an irish citizen whose family had relocated to england in 1936. fanucian enlisted in the royal air force in 1938 and despite low marks in pilot school was eventually posted to an raf squadron during the battle of britain over his career fanuc scored an astounding 28 and by some sources 32 aerial victories becoming the youngest wing commander in raf history temporary born lance corporal john keanely received the victoria cross britain's highest award for valor on the face of the enemy for single-handedly charging enemy positions with his bren machine gun in tunisia only when he wrote an autobiography after the war was it revealed that the member of the irish brigade was not actually irish he'd been born in birmingham with the name leslie jackson the outset of war had joined an anti-aircraft brigade but found the surface boring and deserted having fallen in with a group of itinerant irish laborers in scotland he obtained a false identification as an irishman from temporary in order to join the irish brigade but perhaps the oddest story of irish service in the british military in the second world war was that of irishman james brady and frank stringer brady and stringer enlisted with the royal irish fusiliers in 1938 and in 1940 were stationed at the channel island of guernsey at some point they got into a drunken brawl in a pub and were jailed for assaulting a policeman in 1940 britain concluded that the channel islands were not defensible when the british military evacuated the islands brady and stringer however were apparently forgotten and left behind in jail and when the germans took the islands without firing a shot in june the two became prisoners of war both were recruited from a pow camp by the adver who hoped to recruit irish republicans from among british pows to use them as spies but they were never sent to ireland as the germans doubted their loyalty they were sent as pow farm laborers to northern germany but both eventually volunteered to join the german army in the waffen-ss along with volunteers and conscripts from occupied lands they appear to have been the only known irish members of the ss it's not clear whether the two joined out of boredom or whether they had succumbed to nazi propaganda while there at one time apparently considered as part of the operation osprey plan both ended up serving as commandos on the eastern front serving under the infamous otto scorseni and then in the defense of berlin stringer was eventually captured by the us army and brady turned himself into the british in berlin in 1946 both were convicted in quartz martial but their sentences were reduced due to mitigating circumstances including the fact that they had been forgotten and left behind in guernsey and both men ended up living out their lives free men while ireland remained neutral throughout the war that did not free them completely from the war several german bombs fell in ireland over the course of the war most presumably due to navigational error however one particularly deadly raid on north dublin in may 1941 killed 28 people documents after the war suggested the raid may have been deliberate rather than accidental as hitler was angry over what he saw as irish violations of neutrality notably devaleras allowing fire brigades from the south to cross the border and help extinguish fires from a german air raid on northern ireland in april that have been called the belfast blitz these raids led to an oddity during the war prisoners in the neutral country by rule combatants found in ireland must be interned throughout the war these men essentially became prisoners although they were not prisoners of wars the nations were not at war but officially guests of the state initially british service members were quietly allowed to make their way back to britain but as germans were captured from crashed aircraft or sunken submarines the irish were forced to enforce the policy over the course of the war around 200 german and 40 british military personnel were held at a camp called kerrig camp while it had the appearance of a pow camp the guests had a relative freedom the british and german camps separated by a four foot tall fence ran their own pubs and guests could make visits in town so long as they signed a parole promising not to escape the two groups scheduled boxing and soccer matches against each other while the camp had guards they normally did not carry loaded weapons for fear that shooting a prisoner could threaten irish neutrality the odd rules of the camp are demonstrated by the experience of roland r bud wolff an american from nebraska wolf had chosen to enlist in the raf when the u.s was still neutral and so had been stripped of his u.s citizenship in november 1941 his supermarine spitfire returning from a mission guarding atlantic convoys overheated and he was forced to bail out over ireland he was captured and taken to the camp was a frustrating turn of events for a man who had left a neutral nation to join the war only now to be interned in a neutral nation for the duration of the war eager to fight wolf had tried several times to escape at one point he broke parole returned to his base in northern ireland only to be sent back by the raf for fear that his breaking parole could jeopardize the agreement where the irish held german prisoners in 1943's it became clear that the allies were going to win the war the british prisoners including wolf were moved to a different camp and then quietly allowed to go free wolfe returned and joined the us army air force and flew through the rest of the war and then in the korean and vietnam conflicts retiring a lieutenant colonel passed away in florida in 1994. the spitfire that he was forced to abandon over ireland in 1941 crashed into a peat bog and in 2011 the wreckage was recovered and parts of it are on display at a museum in the city of derry while there was no penalty applied to irish citizens who fought alongside the allies there were for the estimated 4 000 members of the irish armed forces who deserted in order to join the allies the penalties which included removal of pay loss of pension and banning them from employment renumerated from public funds were especially harsh the penalties were only removed in an amnesty passed in 2013. despite the challenges faced including significant shortages damage to its merchant fleet despite its neutral status and the constant threat of invasion ireland managed to maintain its policy of neutrality throughout the war a symbol of that was the choice by devalera to allow both german and japanese embassies to remain open in ireland throughout the war and in 1945 he extended official condolences to the german people over the death of adolf hitler while he received condemnation from many quarters he maintained the action was a matter of diplomatic protocol and the symbol of ireland's neutrality in the war in the end irish neutrality had a definite pro-ally undercurrent and a report in 1945 noted many ways that the irish government cooperated with and aided the allies from quietly allowing british planes to fly through southern irish waters on their atlantic patrols to sharing intelligence and sharing weather reports one of which was critical to determine the timing of the allied invasion of normandy on june 6 1944 the position of ireland maintaining neutrality is still controversial some see it as a practical position that maintained irish independence but others questioned whether it was correct for ireland to ignore the moral atrocities committed by the nazis and question policies such as for example censoring from the news the discovery of nazi extermination camps because it would threaten the irish idea of neutrality that maintained that the allies in the axis were moral equivalents but despite those questions ireland managing to maintain its neutrality among the conflicting politics and needs of the war is history that deserves to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets of forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram twitter and check out our merchandise on teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes on forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe