Talk:The Emergency (Ireland)

Irish neutrality

In 1939, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. The countries of their respective Empires supported them. So far as I am aware, every other country in the world was either neutral or allied to the Germans. The vast majority of countries which ended up at war with with Germany did so after either having being attacked by her, or through a last minute desire to be on the winning side. No country cited Germany's treatment of the Jews as a causus belli, nor was this argument urged on Ireland. Ireland's position was only unique in that while officially a British Dominion, she did not support the "mother" country. This is what enraged Churchill; by his reasoning, he may have had a arguable point, but I fail to see the logic of American, Dutch, Belgian, Norwegian, Danish, Russian, etc. critics. Perhaps they should read a litle history. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.203.136.80 (talk • contribs) 12:00, 21 September 2006

IIRC, Churchill was pissed-off with the Irish Government because they wouldn't allow Britain the use of Irish ports such as Cobh (formerly Queenstown) to base RN ships in order to combat the U-Boat menace. Also, use of airfields inside Eire would have reduced the size of the North Atlantic that RAF Coastal Command's aircraft could not cover, due to limited range. Within this area the U-Boats were having a field day sinking ships without any air cover.

From the Irish POV this was entirely unreasonable as it would have violated their neutrality in a way that would have been un-ignorable by Germany.

Unfortunately, it is arguable that Churchill never really progressed far beyond around 1918 in his world-view. If he had, he might have realised that for a newly-independent country such as Eire then was, he was probably asking way too much. And for any Irish Government to have acquiesced to this would have almost certainly have been political suicide, possibly leading to a resumption of Civil War.

Moved from article space

This commentary was in the article proper rather than the talk page. I have cut and pasted it here.

(Correction)The Second World War appertaining to Ireland was not called The Emergency. It was called the Second World War. Look up the Irish newspapers during WW2. Ireland did not take part in WW2. It took certain measures to ensure that it not forced to take part. Those measures were known as The Emergency. Read Elizabeth Bowen: "Notes on Eire" by Jack Lane and Brendan Clifford, published by Aubane Historical Society, Mill Street, Co.Cork, Ireland (ISBN 9781-903497-42-5) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Rubbish6 (talk • contribs) 08:45, 11 September 2008

Pro Allied bias/nonsense

Clearly an article written by a West-brit, an attempt to side the Country with the Allies more than justified. Allied relations are positive, German relations are negative. How selective and convenient. Meanwhile, as is typical of a Westbrit, the role of the IRA is turned into that of cartoon villainry. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.167.56.183 (talk) 23:05, 25 December 2009 (UTC)

Subhas Chandra Bose and other un-referenced material

There is a strange mention of an alledged messgae from DeValera to Bose but no reference is given. This is the same for other allegations concerning German agents not being sent back to Germany etc, yet again no referencing.

We are not here to make up history as we go along. This article is of great importance since it concerns a very important period in the development of the modern Irish state and Ireland (Eire)'s unique experience. Some people have been very decent in adding to this article and removing spurious and questionable material.

Can people please, please, please stop adding their own material without referencing. I am going to remove un-referenced matertial in a few days and I am also going to contact a moderator to help resolve the problem with people trying to re-write history..............it needs to be objective as possible with referenced sourced material.

There is a lot of work to be done to help bring this article up to a state that would be expected considering the availability of very good books on Ireland and World War Two etc —Preceding unsigned comment added by ConsulHibernia (talk • contribs) 01:43, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

NO EUPHEMISM

The Emergency in Ireland was no euphemism. It referred to the emergency declared by the government, giving them powers which otherwise would have been unconstitutional. People in Ireland did not refer to the war as "the emergency", they referred to it as "the war". The war caused the Irish government to declare a state of emergency; this does not mean there is anything euphemistic about the word. In fact, it is entirely accurate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.97.254.54 (talk) 21:45, 5 October 2010 (UTC)

Current list-based sections "The Allies and neutrality" and "The Axis and neutrality"

These sections are rather better referenced than much of the rest of the article. However, they would be better presented in prose rather than list form. Some of their content could also be merged into the preceding and following sections.

--Demiurge1000 (talk) 05:57, 12 October 2010 (UTC)