NEW YORK BOSTON |#Popular: Irish Celebrity Gossip Irish in US Politics Irish Festivals Irish Roots Irish Entertainment Offbeat Irish

Home Page > News > Irish Government apologizes for treatment of soldiers who returned from Second World War

Irish Government apologizes for treatment of soldiers who returned from Second World War

Government removes the stigma felt by soldiers and their families for decades

CATHY HAYES,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 7:22 AM

Updated Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 8:48 AM

Larger Text

E-mail

39 Comments

Irish members of the British army during the second world war

Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corb

It's taken almost seventy years but the Irish government has finally apologized for its treatment of Irish soldiers who deserted to fight for the Allied Forces against Hitler's Nazi Germany.

According to Journal.ie, Irish Defense Minister Alan Shatter will shortly introduce legislation that will formally provide an amnesty to the Irish citizens who absented themselves from duty from the Irish Defense Forces to fight for the Allies during World War II.

'The government apologizes for the manner in which those men of the Defense Forces were treated after the war by the state,' Minister Shatter told the Irish parliament on Monday.

Upon return to Ireland after the war Irish soldiers found themselves dismissed and persecuted for deserting the Irish Defense Forces to fight with the Allies. Emergency Power Order 32 introduced by Eamon de Valera’s Fianna Fail government led to their immediate dismissal, and thereafter they discovered they were also included in a blanket ban from state employment for seven years as well as blocked from their Defense Forces pay and pension rights.

'Individuals were not given a chance to explain their absence,' Shatter told his colleagues in the Irish parliament. 'No distinction was made between those who fought on the Allied side for freedom and democracy, and those who absented themselves for other reasons.'

'In the almost 73 years since the outbreak of World War II, our understanding of history has matured. We can reevaluate actions taken long ago free from the constraints that bounded those directly involved and without questioning or revisiting their motivations.

'It is time for understanding and forgiveness,' Shatter said, insisting that the contribution made by brave Irish soldiers to the Allied effort to be recognized and their rejection understood.

Minister Shatter clarified that the legislation will not undermine 'the general principle regarding desertion' and will not give rise 'to any liability of any nature on the part of the state.'

It is estimated that up to 4,500 soldiers left the Defense Forces during the Second World War without returning to their Irish units.

Many of them joined the British Army and it is estimated that about 100 of the deserters are still alive.

The governments pardon will come as a great relief to all who died and their families, since it removes the stigma that they have endured for nearly 70 years. The move has also been seen as another step in the improvement of relations between Ireland and Britain.

Nster.com

E-mail

39 Comments

15 - 39 | See all comments

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 17, 2012, 05:04 AM EDT

Of course it goes without saying that if the chums of Casement, and later Sean Russell, had succeeded, old Knee would need to be very, very careful before posting the kind of rubbish he does…a truth ignored by the parochial, narrow-minded, so-called ‘patriots’ who could not, and still cannot, see the bigger picture of 20th century world history…unlike Ireland’s gallant soldiers in both world wars…ps as the US was involved as well…aiding the enemy was acting against your countries interest…

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 17, 2012, 04:01 AM EDT

Those who say that Irish soldiers of WW1 died for nothing completely misread 20th century history. Both world wars were part of the same long-running conflict, fought to ‘tame’ the belligerency of the German Reich. All the allied soldiers, including the Irish, contributed to that final victory… others sat on the sidelines…or worse…happy to accept the hard won security and freedom…unable or unwilling to acknowledge the Irish contribution…they have their own parochial reasons for ignoring the obvious, and dishonouring their memory

Report abuse

Bythebay | Jun 16, 2012, 03:50 PM EDT

DeValera's refusal to join the Allies and stop Hitler's menace in WWII was not supported by many in Ireland including members of th Irish Defense Forces. Ireland was bombed in WWII. Northen Ireland was bombed in WWII. Many who were in the Irish Defense Forces were NOT about to stand by and watch he Axis Powers win and the Allies fall. They were heroes.

Report abuse

Bythebay | Jun 16, 2012, 03:47 PM EDT

Very obvious bias by those primarily in the US doesn't reflect the truth of those periods of Irish histoy. The Rebellion of 1916 was NOT suported by the Irish people. Support was for joining the British Army, supporting the Empire and stopping the threats to the world in WWI by supporting the Allies.

Report abuse

WoundedKnee | Jun 16, 2012, 03:03 PM EDT

The great patriot and humanitarian Roger Casement provides a link between the depravities of the Belgian colonialists and the misery of the Irish peasantry. According to an online article by a Peter Harris, of the University of Sao Paolo (that's in Brazil, TomSwinford) Casement ‘witnessed physical resemblances to the Putumayo in Connemara, where starvation and squalor caused an outbreak of typhus. The fate of the indigenous people that he had seen in Peru and that of the Irish peasants seemed to him to be so similar that he described the region as the ‘Irish Putumayo’ and wrote that ‘The “white Indians” of Ireland are heavier on my heart than all the Indians of the rest of the earth.’ Of course TomSwinford has probably never heard of Casement and OLoingsigh undoubtedly thinks that Casement was a traitor to His Majesty the King of England and Ireland. One Casement was worth ten thousand reactionary old pharts such as Swinford and Lynch.

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 16, 2012, 01:06 PM EDT

Woundedknee berates Belgium, while conveniently ignoring the Genocide inflicted on the Herero and Namaqua peoples in German South West Africa…and the allied soldiers of WW1 DID NOT die for nothing, if they had not fought, old Knee would be posting his rubbish in German…

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 16, 2012, 01:03 PM EDT

To say the allied soldiers of WW1, including many Irishmen, died for nothing is to misread history. Both World wars were part of the same long-running conflict, fought to ‘tame’ the belligerency of the German Reichs, and the democracies ultimately triumphed…in each war Germany invaded France, and began the killing of ‘people who never did harm to them’. So all the allied soldiers in each war contributed to the final victory, while others sat on the sidelines, or worse, happy to accept the hard won security and freedom, but unable or unwilling to acknowledge the Irish contribution, for their own pathetic, parochial reasons…

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 16, 2012, 11:47 AM EDT

WoundedKnee aka GeorgeDillon, you display an astonishing inability to understand plain English - or perhaps you interpret the written word to suit your purpose. I did not say or imply that Ireland in 1916 was a land of milk and honey. I was speaking in relative terms and stand by my statement that it was arguably more prosperous than it had ever been, in part prospering because of the war in Europe. Your ludicrous comment that there was some support for the rebellion - from the rebels themselves - speaks for itself.

Report abuse

WoundedKnee | Jun 16, 2012, 02:44 AM EDT

"The Irish who died in WW1 died for nothing, and went off to kill people who never did harm to them or to Ireland". That's well put, ancavker. And remember that one of the big propaganda points put forward by the British and their Irish stooges, lay and clerical, was the need to defend "plucky little Belgium", This was the same Belgium that just a decade previously had been found guilty of unspeakable cruelties and horrors in its colonialist administration of the Congo! Any Irishman who sought to defend Belgium was complicit in its crimes against humanity.

Report abuse

WoundedKnee | Jun 16, 2012, 02:36 AM EDT

"a return to the kind of poverty not seen in generations" This guy TomSwinford really knows no Irish history. His invocation of a Golden Age of prosperity in pre-1916 Ireland is ignorant bunk. Two examples: The slightest effort at research will show what terrible conditions the Dublin working-class were living in in 1913, the time of the Lock-Out (I guess this guy would have been a big supporter of William Martin Murphy). Out in the country, things were so bad with starvation in Connemara that around 1910 there was an international collection taken to feed the hungry there. There were even contributions made as far as away as Argentina and Australia. Some Golden Age!

Report abuse

WoundedKnee | Jun 16, 2012, 02:30 AM EDT

TomSwinford;;;"no one wanted a rebellion". Not even the people who organized a Rebellion? That's a senseless claim on your part.

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 15, 2012, 06:32 PM EDT

ancavker – You dispute Tom’s plausible motivation for some WW2 fighters, yet claim to know the motivation for some others in WW1…how so?

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 15, 2012, 06:10 PM EDT

ancavker, I believe I have addressed your comment in my response to IrelandNorth. As for our psuedo heroes of 1916, they were, in the words of one Irish historian," a clique within a clique, within a clique." They had little support within the other two cliques and none at all within the country at large. Their doomed uprising killed hundreds of innocent civilians and destroyed central Dublin. In 1916 Ireland was arguably more prosperous than it had ever been in its long history, the economy was booming. For the first time everyone was benefitting and no one wanted a rebellion. Yes, the Uprising eventually led to independence for most of the country but the price was horrendous, a downward spiraling economy, a return to the kind of poverty not seen in generations, a long succession of corrupt and incompetent governments. Following the illusion of the Celtic Tiger, Ireland is again on the ropes. And in Ireland there is talk of rejoining the British Commonwealth and establishing closer-still economic relations with this, our nearest neighbor and, by far, our most important trading partner.

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 15, 2012, 05:38 PM EDT

Clevelander – Even Dev drew the line at executing his fellow countrymen for ‘the crime’ of fighting Hitler. Men who fought shoulder to shoulder with the allies in defeating the monstrous Nazi regime. You seem to be a little short on Christian mercy, so it’s a little trite to call on God’s blessing and the killing of Irish freedom fighters at the same time…

Report abuse

DanOLoingsigh | Jun 15, 2012, 05:34 PM EDT

IrelandNorth, with respect, I believe most of us are aware of the gravity of desertion, especially in wartime - but Ireland was not at war. For better or worse, Dev chose to sit out the greatest 'good fight' in human history. And the "deserters" were not running from the battlefield, they were running to it, in large measure, consciously or not, to redeem the honor of their country. This is akin to the patient saying to the doctor, I know that you helped save my life but you violated the rules of medical practice in doing so, so I must punish you, I must blame you and shame you, marginalize you and ostracize you. Why? Because you had the courage to break the rules and do the right thing. To say that these brave men had other motives is both small and ungenerous. I look to their actions which I can see, not what was in their hearts and minds - which I cannot see. I have served in the armies of two countries. I know what it is like to make choices between life and death at the ripe old age of 20 and 21. Be generous.

Report abuse