Operation Shamrock
Operation Shamrock was the name of a plan to bring German children to Ireland from post World War II Germany.[1]
Operation Shamrock was also the name of a sweeping 2007 drug sting done in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was called this as the operation started around St. Patrick's Day.[2]
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Between 1945 and 1946, the Irish Red Cross' Operation Shamrock resettled over a thousand children from war-torn Germany, Austria, France, and England. Most of these children were later repatriated to their homelands, but some were adopted by their Irish host families.
On 27 July 1946 a group of 88 exhausted and bewildered German children arrived by boat at Dún Laoghaire,County Dublin. Within months hundreds of German children had arrived in Ireland some as young as 3 years old. Some had lost their parents in the war others had their homes destroyed. The children were kept in foster families then returned to Germany. But some stayed and were adopted by new Irish parents.
About 50 German children stayed in Ireland and married Irish partners. You will find a fountain at St. Stephens green in Dublin, marking Germany's thanks to the Irish for operation shamrock.
