The greatest dividend of the 1916 Rising for Ireland was peace. Nobody living in Ireland was conscripted in the 101 years since. Irish recruitment for the British forces dropped off dramatically after the Rising. Irish soldiers – I.e. soldiers in Ireland’s service, bombed no Arabs, starved no Indians, tortured no Kenyans, oppressed no Egyptians, hanged no Burmese, nor got up the noses of half of mankind. The loss of Irish blood resulting from Britain’s failure to respect Irish election results in 1918, 1920 and 1921, though regrettable, was but a spoonful compared with the ocean saved by neutrality between 1939 and 1941. The 1918 election, according to THE TIMES “was regarded on all sides as a plebiscite.”. It was the original BREXIT but it didn’t move the Brits – except to more savage repression.
It must be stressed that Ireland was not isolationist, but sought international action in 1932 when Japan annexed Manchuria and later when Italy attacked Abyssinia. Eamon de Valera, at the League of Nations urged sanctions on the aggressors, but in vain. Since. the 1950s Irish Defence Force personnel have served the world community with distinction, wearing the Blue Beret of the United Nations. ( I can recall when one British Regiment, serving in Cyprus, was ordered by the British Government to serve the UN. Led by its officers the Regiment burned the UN’s Blue Berets on its barrack square.)
The presence of foreign troops on Irish soil never brought Ireland any advantage.
Apart from English and other British troops whose purpose was always malign, those landed in Ireland supposedly to help us brought more harm than good.
The mercenaries sent by the Pope to assist the Desmond Rebellion in 1580 got themselves and their local friends mercilessly murdered by Raleigh, Spenser and other English gentlemen (after their surrender). The Irish who sheltered survivors of the Spanish Armada in 1588 fared no better. And, by landing in Kinsale in 1603, rather than in Ulster where it would be of some use Philip lII’s men put the Caip Bais on the hopes of Gaelic Ireland. In 1796 and twice in 1798 Republican France with a little luck would have had Cornwallis suffer a Groundhog Day (a repeat of Yorktown) but the Irish again got it in the neck from her merciless neighbours. In the long history of Irish armed resistance to British rule Colonel Gaddaffi proved its best friend.
THE IRISH TIMES today has an article advocating the sacrificing of “Sacred Cows” such as Ireland’s neutrality, in the post- Brexit era.
The article is by Brigid Laffan, not just an Irish woman-in-the street, but a paid-up Europhile.
It was by luck of geography that Ireland was able to remain neutral during the second world war and avoid the horrors of that conflict. Tucked neatly behind the UK it was sheer good fortune that it could allow British, American, Canadian, French and Russian soldiers to do the fighting that stopped Panzer divisions and SS troops from parading down Grafton Street.
In WW 1, to Britain, Ireland was nothing more than a prospective source of conscripts and cannon fodder. Britain didn’t fight for Ireland or any other ‘small nation’, nor would it ever
What about WW2 Paul?
Sorry Scott.
The British CIVILIAN and Military dead in ww2 was less than 500,000
The Soviet Union and China lost 20 Million.
4 out of every 5 German soldiers who died in combat.
Died on the Eastern Front.
Sorry, you are under the “education” of Pro British propaganda.
British involvement in WW2 is well overstated.
Your quite right oz the soviets certainly took the worst of the casualties but without the British, American, French and Canadians there would have been an extra 8 million Germans fighting on the Eastern front.
Would the soviets still have pushed the Germans back? Who knows.
In the meantime without Britain I wonder how many Irish Jews, Travellers, Socialists, handicapped and general unwanteds would have been marched of to the gas chambers.
“In the meantime without Britain I wonder how many Irish Jews, Travellers, Socialists, handicapped and general unwanteds would have been marched of to the gas chambers.”
Keep taking the tablets Scott.
Yes, something like Switzerland.
Scott are you suggesting that England were our protectors, did the Germans not bomb Belfast.
What I’m suggesting is that without the UK and the other allies there would be a swastika flying over the GPO in Dublin.
Irelands ability to remain neutral is only possible due to a geographic advantage not because of a moral principle.
Ireland weathered several hundred years of various English and British flags flying over the GPO in Dublin. I doubt anything the Nazis would have thrown at us could have been any worse than what we’d already suffered. And sure wouldn’t we just send them packing the very same way we sent the British empire packing in 1922?
The UK and the western powers had plenty of opportunities in the 30s to avoid WWII but they loved the idea of Hitler taking on the socialists, the communists, the trades unions. Any expectation of former colonies to bail out their former imperial overlord from a fate of their own making is ridiculous on its face. Titanic arrogance in fact.
Gendjinn
Frankly anything the English done in Ireland would have been a tea party compared to the Nazis.
Check out the Nazi reprisals after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague for a taste of what might have occurred.
“Frankly anything the English done in Ireland would have been a tea party compared to the Nazis.”
Really? Starving families to death is a ‘tea party’? As Billy would say- you.have.not.a clue.
In comparison to the Nazis Wolfie yep it would have been.
Think you’ll find the Nazis mimicked and indeed adopted, the English ways in brutality in genocide,concentration camps etc. But.as.i.say.you.have.not.a.clue.
Scott,
Irish history not your strong suit it appears.
As I said, we weathered worse under the British and sent them packing at the height of their empire. Not too worried about the Nazis. We’d have dealt with them likewise.
Far from it gendjinn my man (or woman?) and I’ve got the grades to prove it.
I’m just thankful that no one had to try with the Nazis on Ireland at least. As I have said above you know who you can thank for that.
“Far from it gendjinn my man (or woman?) and I’ve got the grades to prove it.”
Lmfao!
“What I’m suggesting is that without the UK and the other allies there would be a swastika flying over the GPO in Dublin.”
Up the dosage Scott.
It certainly helps get through the day Wolfie 🙂
under the control of germany they may as well fly it.
hope they wont be found wanting in the upcoming riots sweeping europe at the minute.
The Western Front in the Second World War was a side show. The Eastern front determined the outcome.
The battle of Stalingrad ended in February 1943. When the allies landed on D-Day in June 1944 they were fighting boys and old men in many places, not all, but many. Historians would write these facts, the dead, the captured, the material and yet never put 2 & 2 together. Nor would they talk about the August 1945 Manchurian campaign.
Cognitive dissonance how are ye?
A side show that involved 3-4 million casualties. Some side show and one that wouldn’t have existed if Britain hadn’t have stood alone between the fall of France and the USA entering the war.
You.have.not.a.clue.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/05/04/deep-history-us-britain-never-ending-cold-war-russia.html
Of course I don’t.have.a.clue. Wolfie my lad. Only you know the truth of course after you inherited the title of conspiracy theorist in chief from truthrevisionist.
I do miss that guy I have to say alas he has disappeared like MT, Jessica, Ryan and many other fine people.
“Of course I don’t.have.a.clue.”
That’s better, now we are getting somewhere. Btw,’conspiracy theorist’? Did you learn that one at university? Dear oh dear, what a waste of money. Please try harder……you can do it. #sincereface
“one that wouldn’t have existed if Britain hadn’t have stood alone between the fall of France and the USA entering the war.”
The USA entered the war in December 1941, almost 6 months after the USSR. How did Britain stand alone until the USA entered?
And how alone were they when they were receiving assistance from the USA? And, of course, Canada were involved from the start.
Stood alone for 1 year (winning the Battle of Britain in that time) until the soviets entered the war. As I’ve stated above failure to take that stand would have meant no western front and an extra 8 million Germans available to use in Russia.
Could the Russians have survived if Britain hadn’t held out and eventually (with US, Canadian, etc forces) opened that Western front? Who knows but there’s certainly a fair chance they couldn’t have.
I take your point about the Canadians they were certainly with Britain once they managed to cross the Atlantic of course. US certainly provided material but the blood being spilled on the Western front from June 1940- June 1941 would have been mainly British.
The point of the article of course is a debate about Ireland’s neutrality stance in the past and today. I’m merely pointing out that geography allows them to take that stance. The Baltic states have no such luxury these days.
I really think you need to get out more Scott….your comic book version of history has long been dismissed. Who funded BOTH sides in the “Second World War “…..yes the Rothchild and the Rockefeller families ,,,,international bankers .Why were American companies making tanks and armaments for the Germans during this so called war ? What about Pearl Harbour ….staged to entice the American public to support the war ?The Yankee Government knew well in advance about it’s happening ! Why were the Vatican and Switzerland never attacked during that “war” etc, etc
Eolach you may be a worthy challenger to Wolfie for that conspiracy theorist in chief title I mentioned. Good showing 🙂
‘Why were the Vatican and Switzerland never attacked during that “war” etc, etc’?
Because the Pope was giving out free communion wine to both sides!
Scott , the education I received including university , made me realize that paper will take anything…it’s unable to distinguish fact from fiction ,if you want truth you have to search for it. History as told in books and having been narrated by the victor , is usually no more than a mittyesque rambling . I’m surprised that you use the label “conspiracy theorist ” …the terminology invented by the infamous CIA , to pour scorn on people who dared question the official account of anything…..they prefer one to believe their Orwellian doublespeak. I have an inquiring mind and an inquisitive nature and everything I’ve written about previously can ,with a little research , be proven….unlike the exact casualties of war or suppositions about ifs and what might have been.
No point sending the children to school then is there Eolach if we are just feeding them the narrative of the victors eh.
Just stick them in front of a computer and let them believe whatever they can dig up.
Your reply raises another important question…when children attend school ,are they being taught ,instructed or indoctrinated ? Recently a nine year old grandson of mine was pondering how we humans may evolve….taking part in fun he had with his imagination , I discovered that they were being taught Darwin’s Theory of Evolution….It’s an totally unproven and very controversial theory , yet it’s being taught as hard fact…..that’s indoctrination
Yea, get that creationism into the schools science curriculum to even things up a bit, that’s what I say. That evolution theory’s hocus pocus anyway.