Irish Republic Mourned the Death of Hitler
It's been known for years--well, actually, now that I think about it--it's been known since 1945: the government of the Irish Republic officially mourned the death of Adolph Hitler.
That's right. You read that right. Remember that the next St. Patrick's Day when some Irish-American gets all weepy about Ireland.
While our allies in Northern Ireland, good Ulstermen, both Protestant and Catholic (like my own grandfather), were volunteering to fight side-by-side with us Americans in WWII, the leaders of "Eire" were officially neutral, hiding behind John Bull and Uncle Sam while biting at both their ankles and secretly rooting for the Germans. Remember that the next time you read that the Irish don't much care for the U.S. Government, our foreign policy or President Bush; nothing new there. Remember that the next time former Irish President Mary Robinson lectures you.
Over the years, good (that is to say, liberal) Irishmen and women have denied that this ever took place. Their story usually is something like: "okay, we were neutral, but it's more complicated than that and, in reality, we actually aided the U.K. and the U.S. by providing intelligence and holding any Germans that we got hold of, but this 'condolences on the death of Hitler' thing is just Unionist propaganda, making a mountain out of a simple diplomatic protocol molehill."
Like most liberal history re-writing, it simply isn't true. Contemporary reports are beginning to butress the truth of the matter, as illustrated by this report from this morning by the AP:
I'm sure it's also news to American "progressives" that the IRA allied itself to the Nazi cause, just as its allied itself to radical Islam today.
Remember all this the next time some smug Irish person lords it all over you as an unwashed American. You might say something like, "Yes, we do have the death penalty in the U.S., but you'll excuse me if I don't take moral lessons from a citizen of a country that regretted the passing of Hitler while mine was fighting tooth and nail for the free Europe you enjoy today and somehow think that you built."
Or something like that.
That's right. You read that right. Remember that the next St. Patrick's Day when some Irish-American gets all weepy about Ireland.
While our allies in Northern Ireland, good Ulstermen, both Protestant and Catholic (like my own grandfather), were volunteering to fight side-by-side with us Americans in WWII, the leaders of "Eire" were officially neutral, hiding behind John Bull and Uncle Sam while biting at both their ankles and secretly rooting for the Germans. Remember that the next time you read that the Irish don't much care for the U.S. Government, our foreign policy or President Bush; nothing new there. Remember that the next time former Irish President Mary Robinson lectures you.
Over the years, good (that is to say, liberal) Irishmen and women have denied that this ever took place. Their story usually is something like: "okay, we were neutral, but it's more complicated than that and, in reality, we actually aided the U.K. and the U.S. by providing intelligence and holding any Germans that we got hold of, but this 'condolences on the death of Hitler' thing is just Unionist propaganda, making a mountain out of a simple diplomatic protocol molehill."
Like most liberal history re-writing, it simply isn't true. Contemporary reports are beginning to butress the truth of the matter, as illustrated by this report from this morning by the AP:
Irish President Offered Nazis Condolences
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK, Associated Press Writer
Ireland's president during World War II offered condolences to Nazi Germany's representative in Dublin over the death of Adolf Hitler, newly declassified government records show.
Until now, historians had believed that Ireland's prime minister at the time, Eamon de Valera, was the only government leader to convey official condolences to Eduard Hempel, director of the German diplomatic corps in Ireland. De Valera's gesture — unique among leaders of neutral nations in the final weeks of World War II — was criticized worldwide.
The presidential protocol record for 1938-1957, made public this week within a trove of previously secret government documents, shed new light on one of the most embarrassing chapters in the history of independent Ireland — its decision to maintain cordial relations with the Nazis even after news of the Holocaust emerged.
The new document confirmed that President Douglas Hyde visited Hempel on May 3, 1945, a day after Ireland received reports of Hitler's death.
The newly released document says Hyde — who served as Ireland's symbolic head of state from 1938 to 1945 and died in 1949 — visited Hempel at the diplomat's home in Dun Laoghaire, a Dublin suburb. It says the president did not send an official letter of condolence to German government headquarters because "the capital of Germany, Berlin, was under siege and no successor had been appointed."
The Republic of Ireland, then called Eire, remained neutral throughout World War II, which in local parlance was called "The Emergency."
Tens of thousands of Irishmen volunteered to serve in British military units, but many others rooted for Germany against their old imperial master Britain. The outlawed Irish Republican Army built contacts with the Nazis in an ultimately fruitless effort to receive weapons and money for insurrection in neighboring Northern Ireland, a British territory.
De Valera's government brutally suppressed the IRA but also rebuffed requests to allow Jews fleeing Nazi persecution to receive asylum in Ireland. De Valera also refused to allow Britain or the United States to use strategic Irish ports for protecting Atlantic convoys from attacks by German U-boat submarines, a policy that cost thousands of Allied seamen's lives.
In his May 1945 victory speech, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill condemned de Valera's neutrality. Churchill said Britain had considered laying "a violent hand" on neutral Ireland to seize its ports, but avoided this thanks to the crucial support of Northern Ireland, which remained part of the United Kingdom when the island was partitioned in 1921.
But de Valera argued that to refuse condolences "would have been an act of unpardonable discourtesy to the German nation and to Dr. Hempel himself. During the whole of the war, Dr. Hempel's conduct was irreproachable. ... I certainly was not going to add to his humiliation in the hour of defeat."
I'm sure it's also news to American "progressives" that the IRA allied itself to the Nazi cause, just as its allied itself to radical Islam today.
Remember all this the next time some smug Irish person lords it all over you as an unwashed American. You might say something like, "Yes, we do have the death penalty in the U.S., but you'll excuse me if I don't take moral lessons from a citizen of a country that regretted the passing of Hitler while mine was fighting tooth and nail for the free Europe you enjoy today and somehow think that you built."
Or something like that.
