OPINION:IN THE debate on granting pardons to second World War deserters from the Defence Forces, the question of where the men on de Valera's deserters' blacklist actually deserted to might seem an odd one to pose.
Perhaps this is because the answer has already been assumed: all those on the blacklist joined the Allied forces. Although the blacklist underpins the entire debate, little thought has been given to what the document itself tells us on this point.
The blacklist of 4,983 deserters has been called “Ireland’s list of shame”. It is seen as the nationally damning roll-call of those who deserted the Defence Forces, fought with the Allies to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny and were subsequently disowned by de Valera, the man who signed Hitler’s book of condolences.
Could the Irish authorities compile such a list? They could not. They compiled a blacklist of personnel dismissed for desertion, being absent without leave from the Defence Forces for more than 180 days. The list gives Army number, name, last recorded address, date of birth, occupation and date of desertion.
The Irish authorities could not accurately say where these deserters had gone.
A 1945 Department of Defence cabinet memorandum suggested “that the majority of them are or have been serving in the British Forces or are in civilian employment in Great Britain and Northern Ireland”. It did not speculate further. It did not provide figures. It did not ask where the minority might have gone.
Many of the deserters were later decorated for valour by the Allies. One cannot ignore their sacrifice and achievement. That is not at issue here. Rather it is to suggest that 2012 interpretations of the deserters blacklist misread the evidence.
A similar situation existed almost 70 years ago. Then, as now, many claimed – as a 1945 department of external affairs memo noted – that the de Valera government aimed solely “to penalise men, not for desertion from the Irish Army, but for joining the British Forces”. In the view of external affairs, this attitude did not accept the seriousness of the offence of desertion.
Under Emergency Powers Order 362, returning deserters were subject to swingeing penalties, including being denied State jobs for seven years. It was attacked in the Dáil in 1945, but deputies agreed that desertion warranted harsh measures.
Fianna Fáil’s Harry Colley explained that the order showed deserters “that their duty was first to their own”. Labour Party deputy Jim Larkin jnr amplified the point: “Our own country claims our first duty.”
Today’s pro-pardon campaigners do not contest that the deserters committed a military crime. They argue instead that they were deprived of their right to due legal process.
This argument has elicited considerable sympathy. However, many expressions of sympathy are confusingly conflated with wider issues. It is not clear whether public distaste for the emergency powers order and the blacklist is based largely on the belief that the punishment for desertion was too harsh; or because of a belated desire to honour Allied veterans; or because of some national sense of shame over wartime neutrality.
All of these are legitimate subjects for debate. But the desertion debate should centre around the core issue: these men deserted the Irish Defence Forces. It should also centre around accurate facts.
It is clear that the belief, expressed both in 1945 and today, that many enlisted in the British forces, is correct. Yet all we have is a list of deserters and the knowledge that 100 or so of those named on that list definitely joined the Allied forces and are still alive. The remainder have not been accounted for.
Belligerent forces service and pension records and family histories can fill in some further details. But it is an error to transform an entire blacklist of Defence Forces deserters into an entire blacklist of Allied war veterans. We simply do not know why the men on this list deserted, where they deserted to or what they did subsequently.
Should those who deserted to take up civilian war work in Britain and Northern Ireland be seen as war heroes or economic migrants? Surprises of ultimate allegiance and intention may lie within the blacklist.
What hostages to fortune lie ahead if a universal pardon is given? Perhaps an opt-in approach to pardons, with the sole issue facing each applicant being their desertion from the Irish Defence Forces, would be a way forward.
Dr Michael Kennedy is executive editor of the Royal Irish Academy’s Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series.
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