Many years ago a crawling letter in THE IRISH POST in London sneered at the Irish soldiers who faithfully served Ireland during 1939 -1945, comparing them unfavourably with those Irish who joined the British Forces.
WHY HITLER DECIDED TO MARCH ON MOSCOW?I wrote to the paper recalling that in 1940 the veteran Dan Breen had joined the part-time Local Defence Force in Howth and was elected its platoon commander, and I suggested that Churchill may have been thus persuaded not to try tangling with him again, and that when word reached Berlin, Hitler reckoned it would be a less hazardous venture to march on Moscow than on Dublin.
Some years later Robert Fisk’s study of Irish neutrality – “IN TIME OF WAR” recorded that Breen’s return to the Colours had indeed been noted in Whitehall.
I did not agree with the decision a while back to pardon the deserters that joined the British army during WW2.
They went awol at a time when the south of Ireland faced invasion from both Germany and England. No pardon was warranted, it’s hard to see a man like Dan Breen going along with it.
‘Twas in the year of ‘thirty-nine
When the sky was full of lead
Hitler was heading for Poland
And Paddy, for Holyhead
Come all you pincher laddies
And you long-distance men
Don’t ever work for McAlpine
For Wimpey, or John Laing
You’ll stand behind a mixer
Till your skin is burned to tan
And they’ll say, Good on you, Paddy
With your boat-fare in your hand
The crack was good in Cricklewood
They wouldn’t leave the Crown
With glasses flying and Biddy’s crying
Paddy was going to town
Oh mother dear, I’m over here
And I’m never coming back
What keeps me here is the rake o’ beer
The ladies and the crack
I come from county Kerry
The land of eggs and bacon
And if you think I’ll eat your fish ‘n’ chips
Bejausus you’re mistaken.
McAlpine said on his deathbed in 1934: “If the men wish to honour my death, allow them two minutes’ silence; but keep the big mixer going, and keep Paddy behind it.”