1942: Ireland (Eire)

The efforts of the De Valera government to preserve neutrality in a war that has engulfed practically every neutral nation in the world continued to be the chief issue before the Irish people in 1942. Although no further air attack occurred and the threat of a German invasion receded as the might of the United Nations rose during the year, Eire's neutral position was made peculiarly difficult during the early part of the year by the arrival, on Jan. 26, of tens of thousands of American troops — many of them of Irish descent — in Northern Ireland. Prior to the arrival of the American troops, the British government informally reopened the question of leasing Irish bases for the protection of Allied convoys. Arrangements were worked out for providing Eire with some of the arms and ammunition it so badly needed. Both the British and American governments hoped that the arrival of Americans in Northern Ireland would bring about a change in De Valera's policies. The Prime Minister had always been extremely friendly to the United States. He was born in America and has never surrendered his American citizenship. He had declared once that 'if there had been no United States, there would never have been an Irish Republic.' On another occasion he said that Ireland would go to any lengths to repay its debt to the United States.

All hope for a shift in Irish policy vanished, however, on the day following the landing of American troops. Prime Minister De Valera vigorously protested their arrival in a bitter statement in which he reiterated his contention that the six counties of Northern Ireland were integral parts of Eire. A protest was dispatched to Washington charging that the dispatch of troops constituted an 'aggression' against Irish sovereignty. While this view doubtless reflected the attitude of most of the Irish nationalists, it was not shared by all of the Irish people. Speaking before the annual convention of Cosgrave's opposition party on Feb. 10, James Dillon, deputy leader of the party declared that 'whoever attacks America is my enemy, without reservation or qualification, and I say that the United States has been treacherously and feloniously attacked by Germany, Italy, and Japan.' Many Irish citizens went out of their way to demonstrate their friendship to the American soldiers stationed on the other side of the Ulster border.

But the official policy of the De Valera government showed no sign of change during the year, and the revolutionary Irish Republican Army agitated constantly against the American soldiers. The most serious point of friction arose out of the fact that pro-Axis sympathizers among the Irish were known to be engaged in espionage activities for Germany and that the De Valera government refused to do anything to check these activities. It was a comparatively easy thing for these Axis agents to witness American maneuvers and troop movements in Northern Ireland, then to slip across the unguarded Eire-Ulster border and dispatch the information directly to Berlin in a German diplomatic pouch. It is probable that Germany was kept fully informed of the departure of American troops for North Africa although the Axis agents may not have obtained accurate information regarding their destination.

Prime Minister De Valera's position has undoubtedly been made more difficult by the irresponsible and illegal activities of the Irish Republican Army. In a Dail debate late in January, the Prime Minister admitted that the I.R.A. was anything but neutral in the war. There were, he said, two belligerent parties in the war, and 'this organization has declared war on one of them (Britain). Presumably this means that they are willing to help the other,' he concluded. The I.R.A. used Eire as a base for repeated attacks and bombing outrages in Northern Ireland. Efforts by the De Valera government to hold the I.R.A. in check were only partially successful. On June 19, Stephen Hayes, chief of staff of the I.R.A., was sentenced to five years in prison. But outrages continued. Speaking before the British House of Commons on Sept. 11, Paul V. Embrys Evans, Under-Secretary for the Dominions, declared that Great Britain had made no protest to the Eire government in connection with allegations that members of certain Irish elements, believed to be the Irish Republican Army, had been using Eire territory as a base of operations against Britain. He said that the Eire government 'clearly had its own difficulties.'

The most serious I.R.A. agitation during the year occurred in connection with the execution by Belfast authorities of Thomas J. Williams, 19, an I.R.A. member, for the murder of a policeman on Easter morning. Mass meetings were held throughout Eire to protest the execution, some of them drawing as many as 10,000 persons. Despite tremendous pressure, neither the Ulster government nor the British government intervened to save Williams' life, although the sentence of five of his companions was commuted.

Mr. De Valera's neutrality policy has unquestionably served to accentuate the serious economic dislocations which have occurred in Ireland as a result of the war. Because of shipping difficulties, lack of fuel, and the shortages of raw materials, trade with Europe has been cut off, while that with Britain, being in the nonessential category, has been greatly reduced. Irish industry has been stagnant. Unemployment has presented a serious and continuing problem. With wheat imports virtually cut off and the home grain crop cut down by the difficulty in obtaining fertilizer, bread supplies have been drastically reduced. White bread disappeared in 1941, and in February 1942 rationing was introduced for such bread as was available. Bread rationing was discontinued in June, however, when the government found it necessary to institute a drastic system of clothes rationing. Under the scheme adopted, each person, irrespective of age, receives fifty-two coupons a year. A suit requires forty coupons and a woman's full outfit, excluding shoes and hats, requires thirty coupons. To make matters worse, the scheme had been set up in such a way that the coupons for the second half of the year would not become valid until Oct. 1, thus virtually cutting off all major clothing purchases until the second half of the year. In protest against what was felt to be an unduly severe system, Dublin's drapers held an anti-rationing parade and one-day strike on Monday, June 15. As a result of pressure, Minister of Supplies Sean Lemass relaxed the terms of the original order, giving the public the right to use seventy-eight instead of fifty-two coupons and removing the time limit.