Sir, – I’m scratching my head at the word “desertion” being used to describe people who went to fight one of the worst manifestations of human barbarism ever experienced on this earth.
I would have thought Éamon de Valera would have been waiting at the dockside or airport with medals to welcome back the soldiers from doing what he should have sent our troops to do. Instead he comes up with a term “The Emergency” to describe the horrific carnage of the second World War.
The idea of neutrality in a war like that is absurd, and I applaud the soldiers who went to fight the Nazis. They were not deserters, they were doing their job and their conscience justice.
Don’t look for a pardon, look for an apology. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – I must take issue with Alan Shatter’s support for pardoning those who deserted Ireland’s defence forces during the Emergency (Front page, January 25th).
More than 40,000 men served with the Irish Defence Forces during the Emergency, giving up their jobs and normal life on Civvy Street to defend their country. It is a historical fact that both the British and the Germans drew up plans to invade Ireland, Churchill infamously telling the world on VE day that he had no compunction about invading neutral Ireland if necessary.
According to Mr Shatter, it was the 5,000 who deserted and “left this island during that time to fight for freedom” were the heroic ones in the Irish story who were “preserving European and Irish democracy”. That is a gross insult and dishonour to the men who swore allegiance to the Irish State and stood by that allegiance to protect their country and made sacrifices to that end.
As a Government Minister, and a justice minister at that, Mr Shatter’s agenda is deeply troubling. Ireland still has defence forces and laws against desertion, and the British army is still fighting wars: here is the Minister of Defence claiming that – in spite of the law – it is morally acceptable to desert the Irish defence forces if you are going to join the British army to fight in a war!
Many young men at the time joined neither the Irish Defence Forces nor the British army, believing the IRA (then engaged in attacks against Britain and even had some contact with German military intelligence) were the best army to soldier with. Under the law then (and now), both membership of the IRA and desertion from the Defence Forces is illegal. Between 1939 and 1945 six IRA men were executed by the State: Charlie Kerins, Maurice O’Neill, Thomas Harte, George Plant, Paddy McGrath, and Richard Goss. Additionally, Tony D’Arcy and Sean McNeela died on hunger strike during their imprisonment, and John Kavanagh was shot while trying to escape from prison. I suggest that if justice is to be applied equitably, then Mr Shatter has no choice but to also pardon those nine men and the hundreds of others who were interned without trial by the State during the war. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Each day seems to bring a new low in our self esteem. The country is knee-deep in the mire and as an aside Minister for Justice Alan Shatter frets about how to pardon brave and honourable Irishmen
who left the cushy Curragh to fight in a war for mankind.
They were labelled “deserters” and then further punished with the loss of pensions and entitlements. So the Minister should keep it simple and say “sorry” to any of their relatives who are still alive. Pay them the money robbed from them.
However, if Mr Shatter makes political capital out of those brave men, let him go the whole hog and name who in the Irish government was behind this reprehensible act. Furthermore he should then name the Army brass who feared a drain on their resources as they played soldiers back then while real lives were lost across Europe.
My grandfather returned from the trenches after the first World War and was condemned to a life in a kitchen because Saorstát Éireann wanted its pound of flesh. I suppose he can count himself lucky; he owned no land so there was no need to shoot him dead in the dark of night pretending he was a collaborator.
So say “sorry”, pay up and get on with this life, not some events 60 years ago. And if Mr Shatter wants to big it up then he should condemn the people who perpetrated this calumny on good men. Saying sorry matters only when we know who and what we are sorry about and all the perpetrators are outed. – Yours, etc,