Guarding Neutral Ireland
Guarding Neutral Ireland

Author: Michael J. Kennedy

Publisher:

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13:

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Ireland's Second World War frontline troops were the men of the Coast Watching Service. From 1939-45 they maintained a continuous watch along the Irish shoreline, reporting all incidents in the seas and skies to Military Intelligence (G2). They had a vital influence on the development of Ireland's pro-Allied neutrality and on the defence of Ireland during 'The Emergency', as through their reports G2 assessed the direction of the Battle of the Atlantic off Ireland and reported belligerent threats to the state upwards to the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, to the Cabinet and Taoiseach and Minister for External Affairs Eamon de Valera. Using unique Irish military sources and newly available British and American material, the history of the coastwatchers and G2 combines to tell the history of the Second World War as it happened locally along the coast of Ireland and at national and international levels in Dublin, London, Berlin and Washington. Of particular importance, the study reveals in the greatest detail yet available the secret relationship between Irish military and diplomats and British Admiralty Intelligence, showing how coast watching service reports were passed on to the RAF and Royal Navy Britain in the hunt for German u-boats and aircraft in the Atlantic.

That Neutral Island
That Neutral Island

Author: Clair Wills

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 9780674026827

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Where previous histories of Ireland in the war years have focused on high politics, That Neutral Island mines deeper layers of experience. Stories, letters, and diaries illuminate this small country as it suffered rationing, censorship, the threat of invasion, and a strange detachment from the war.

Irish Secrets
Irish Secrets

Author: Mark M. Hull

Publisher:

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13:

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Irish Secrets graphically tells the little-known history of German military espionage activity in Ireland - despite Ireland's neutral stance - before and during the Second World War. It details illicit contacts between officers of the Abwehr (German military intelligence) and leaders of the Irish Republican Army with the intent of co-ordinating actions against British targets and the Irish state. Irish Secrets also examines the extent of pro-German support in Ireland, the fledgling Nazi party in Ireland, and the activities of Irish civilians and diplomats abroad who offered to serve Hitler's Germany. It scrutinises the personalities and mission profiles of the eleven German agents (from both the Abwehr and the SD (the SS intelligence service), who operated with widely varying degrees of success on Irish soil, and unearths the stories of previously unknown German operatives and Irish supporters. Many of the most compelling scenarios revolve around the use of recruited Irish nationals for espionage work, some details of which are still classified by the British and Irish governments. This book explores why German intelligence ultimately failed, and proposes that the German effort represented a genuine threat to the Irish state and the Allies alike, which seriously threatened the official position of Irish neutrality. It makes for a gripping account of the intelligence war and highlights the brilliant, creative success of Irish military intelligence in waging a counter-espionage campaign that effectively neutralized the German threat. Drawing from newly released intelligence files in several countries, in-depth interviews conducted with the participants, and on other previously unpublished primary sources, Mark Hull conclusively rewrites what is presently known about a fascinating aspect of the Second World War.

Censorship in Ireland, 1939-1945
Censorship in Ireland, 1939-1945

Author: Donal Ó Drisceoil

Publisher:

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13:

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"This is the first major study of Ireland's Emergency censorship which was in place for the duration of the Second World War. Drawing largely on primary source material which has only recently come into the public domain. Donal O Drisceoil provides a comprehensive account and analysis of this hitherto unexplored episode of Irish history." "This political/security censorship covered all media and communications and was one of the harshest regimes of its kind, particularly in comparison to other neutrals. Its purpose was to contribute to the preservation of the state and its neutrality, to 'keep the temperature down' both within the state and between Ireland and the belligerents. To this end, war news was 'neutralised', including the suppression of reports of the Holocaust; newspapers were seized; newsreels and films such as Chaplin's The Great Dictator were banned; coverage of social, economic and political issues was severely restricted; and the expression of opinions on the war, neutrality and much else of importance was curtailed. Few escaped its net, including bishops and government ministers." "This book examines all aspects of the censorship and explains its relative extremism by placing it in the context of Irish political culture and the particular nature of the state's wartime neutrality. In the process it adds to our understanding of these subjects, while the story of the censorship provides a window of enquiry into the politics and society of wartime Ireland. This book is a valuable contribution to contemporary Irish history, but also has topical relevance to present-day debates concerning censorship, democracy and neutrality."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Ireland, Germany, and the Nazis
Ireland, Germany, and the Nazis

Author: Mervyn O'Driscoll

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13:

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In the 1920s Germany and Ireland were new European democracies operating in adverse international, political and economic conditions. This book places the bilateral Irish-German relationship in the context of the professionalization of the Irish Foreign Service and the Irish Free State's progressive carving out of an independent foreign policy. It assesses the key Irish personalities involved in Irish-German relations. These include the successive Irish representatives in Berlin, the eminent scholar Dr Daniel A. Binchy, Leo T. McCauley, and the contentious Charles Bewley. Eamon de Valera and Joseph Walshe (Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs) also played a crucial role. Irish responses to the Wall Street Crash, the rise of the Nazis, and Hitler's policies (domestic and foreign) are all analysed. Did Irish officials foresee the fall of Weimar and the rise of Nazism? How did they view the unfolding nature of the Nazi regime? The clashes between Bewley's apologetic justifications of Nazism after 1935 and de Valera's critical attitudes towards domestic Nazi policies are examined. The ineffective efforts to expand Irish-German trade during the Anglo-Irish Economic War shed light on Irish attempts at export market diversification in the emerging protectionist world economic environment. The analysis places Irish-German relations within the maturation of events in Europe in the 1930s, taking account of the League of Nations' failure, the popularity of Fascism, the Blueshirts, the fraught international atmosphere, and Hitler's revisionist foreign policy. De Valera's support of Chamberlain's 'appeasement' of Hitler before March 1939 is located in the framework of de Valera's attitudes towards collective security, neutrality and Hibernia Irredenta.

Irish Secrets
Irish Secrets

Author: Mark M. Hull

Publisher:

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780716528074

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Irish Secrets graphically tells the little-known history of German military espionage activity in Ireland - despite Ireland's neutral stance - before and during the Second World War. It details illicit contacts between officers of the Abwehr (German military intelligence) and leaders of the Irish Republican Army with the intent of coordinating actions against British targets and the Irish state. Irish Secrets also examines the extent of pro-German support in Ireland, the fledgling Nazi party in Ireland, and the activities of Irish civilians and diplomats abroad who offered to serve Hitler's Germany. It scrutinizes the personalities and mission profiles of the eleven German agents (from both the Abwehr and the SD (the SS intelligence service), who operated with widely varying degrees of success on Irish soil, and unearths the stories of previously unknown German operatives and Irish supporters. Many of the most compelling scenarios revolve around the use of recruited Irish nationals for espionage work, some details of which are still classified by the British and Irish governments. This book explores why German intelligence ultimately failed, and proposes that the German effort represented a genuine threat to the Irish state and the Allies alike, which seriously threatened the official position of Irish neutrality. It makes for a gripping account of the intelligence war and highlights the brilliant, creative success of Irish military intelligence in waging a counter-espionage campaign that effectively neutralized the German threat. Drawing from newly released intelligence files in several countries, in-depth interviews conducted with the participants, and on other previously unpublished primary sources, Mark Hull conclusively rewrites what is presently known about a fascinating aspect of the Second World War.

Churchill and Ireland
Churchill and Ireland

Author: Paul Bew

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 230

ISBN-13: 019875521X

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The full story of Winston Churchill's lifelong engagement with Ireland and the Irish. A long overdue book which at last addresses the most neglected part of Churchill's legacy, on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Friends and Enemies
Friends and Enemies

Author: Karen Garner

Publisher:

Published: 2023-08-29

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781526172037

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This history examines the fraternal friendships and embittered masculine conflicts among British, American, and Irish national leaders and their Dublin-based advisers during the Second World War.

The Emergency
The Emergency

Author: Brian Girvin

Publisher: MacMillan

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 438

ISBN-13:

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Brian Girvin has written a fresh and original history of Ireland between 1939 and 1945. Drawing on new sources and recent scholarship, he tells the story of what is known as ‘The Emergency’ in Ireland, but elsewhere as the Second World War. Despite Ireland still being a member of the Commonwealth, Eamon de Valera refused to join the war against Nazi Germany and declared his country neutral. To the endless frustration and anger of Churchill – and later Roosevelt – de Valera pursued an isolationist policy that changed the course of Irish domestic and foreign politics. In this brilliantly argued account, Girvin shows how this policy went against the national interest, and far from being the only option for the Government, was simply the only one they would consider. This decision, Girvin concludes, cost de Valera his ultimate prize: a united Ireland. Woven into this political maelstrom are the stories of the people who lived through those difficult years. Bold, fearless and compelling, The Emergency is a unique and important addition to any understanding of Ireland and the Second World War.