Record numbers of free staters flock to join British Army

[Nally Stand]

READ IT AGAIN! I said that Irish Republicans  (you know, Sinn Fein and the like) are incorrigible Mopes. However I will never accept their claim that theirs is the only type of Irishness, not least since I am proudly Irish myself.

That's exactly why you're not worth the debating effort: casually and casuistically dropping a whopper of a lie into your response.

Post one, just one, example of Sinn Féin asserting that 'theirs is the only type of Irishness'. Just one.

We're waiting EG...This should be good!!!

[saffron sam2]

These men who deserted the Free State army to join the british one, did they not have the option (like so many of their fellow countrymen) of emigrating to Britain? There, given their undoubted heroism in the fight against Nazism, they would have been able to secure gainful employment and live out their lives comfortably. Free from any sort of bigotry.

Or they could have moved north to, for example, Belfast where their background in the British army would have assured them of jobs in any of the heavy industries that dominated the city then. They would have been folk heroes to all, just like VC winner James McGinnes was.

[Main Street]

Shatter's argument justifying why those deserters were not guilty of desertion, by accusing Dev's government of moral bankruptcy by declaring neutrality in 1939, in the context of the holocaust which was not generally known until mid 1944, has to be one of the most patently stupid arguments I have ever read from a government minister.

The Holocaust was not a reason to wage war against Germany. The Holocaust, as in the extermination of Jews etc, began in 1941.
Most of the common people in the world did not know of the Holocaust until the Nuremberg trials.
The war was waged against fascist nazi Germany and its aggressive military expansion.

[Hardy]

The hypocrisy of the term "moral bankruptcy" from an apologist for Israeli war crimes in Palestine is breathtaking. As is the sanctimony of the implication by him and by contributors here that the powers went to war in 1939 on a moral agenda.

[saffron sam2]

I agree 100% with hardy. Shatter hadn't many morals when he was inviting his Zionist mates into our country when they were using illegal weapons against civilians and indeed against the UN in Gaza, which was headed by an irishman at the time. The Irish people don't need a lecture on morals from that little p***k.

Then they shouldn't have elected him...

7,716 Irish people gave him their first preference at the last election, rising to 10,661 by the 8th count, wherupon he was deemed elected still 1,500 odd votes short of the quota.

Hardly a ringing endorsement.

[Evil Genius]

Finally...


12 June 2012 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18414191

Irish Republic pardons wartime deserters

The Irish government is to pardon more than 4,500 former soldiers who deserted the Defence Forces during World War II to fight with the Allied Forces.


Defence Minister Alan Shatter made the apology during a speech in the Dail

Irish Defence Minister Alan Shatter said the government apologised for the manner in which the deserters were treated by the state after the war.

Mr Shatter said the government recognised the importance of their contribution to the Allied victory.

He said the war gave rise to grave and exceptional circumstances.

Mr Shatter said the government would introduce legislation "to grant a pardon and amnesty to those who absented themselves from the Defence Forces without leave or permission to fight on the Allied side".

In his statement to Dail Eireann, he said that in August 1945, the government of the day summarily dismissed soldiers who had absented themselves during the war and disqualified them for seven years from holding employment or office remunerated from the state's central fund.

Individuals were not given a chance to explain their absence.

'Grave and exceptional circumstances'

No distinction was made between those who fought on the Allied side for freedom and democracy and those who absented themselves for other reasons.

"In addressing the question of desertion during World War II, the government acknowledges that the war gave rise to circumstances that were grave and exceptional," Mr Shatter said.

"Members of the Defence Forces left their posts at that time to fight on the Allied side against tyranny and, together with many thousands of other Irish men and women, played an important role in defending freedom and democracy.

"On behalf of the state, the government apologises for the manner in which those members of the Defence Forces... were treated after the war by the state."

During World War II the Irish Defence Forces had approximately 42,000 serving personnel.

Over the course of the war, it was estimated that more than 7,000 members deserted.

Of these, about 2,500 personnel returned to their units or were apprehended and were tried by military tribunal.

More than 4,500 deserters were the subject of dismissal under the Emergency Powers (No. 362) Order, 1945.

[Evil Genius]

Commendable

7 July 2012 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-18754678

Belfast and Dublin Lord Mayors join in war remembrance

The unionist Lord Mayor of Belfast has joined his Dublin counterpart at a wreath-laying ceremony to commemorate Ireland's war dead.


Ex-Gunner Alan O'Farrell brought the 2nd Artillery regimental mascot

The Royal British Legion Ireland event in Dublin remembered in particular the 49,000 Irish soldiers who gave their lives in World War One.

The DUP's Gavin Robinson said: "It is important that we remember and reflect the shared sacrifice."

He laid a wreath along with Dublin Lord Mayor Naoise Ó Muirí.

About 300 people attended the ceremony at the National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge on Saturday.

There was an ecumenical service, prayers and music.

Last year, the Queen took part in a similar ceremony during her state visit to the Republic of Ireland.

[Rossfan]

Commendable

About 300 people attended the ceremony at the National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge on Saturday.

Not exactly  major event then 
No doubt the Belfast Mayor will attend the next commemoration in Cork for the 2 lord Mayors who gave their lives for Freedom and the right of the democratic will of the people to be respected.

This respect and mutual niceness could never be simply a one way street now could it.

[Evil Genius]

Commendable

About 300 people attended the ceremony at the National War Memorial Gardens at Islandbridge on Saturday.

Not exactly  major event then 

Regardless of whether there were 300 present or 3 million, don't you think it commendable that the civic leaders of Ireland's two largest cities came together to commemorate 49,000 war dead, drawn as they were from all classes and creeds, and from all over the island?

I personally am gratified and encouraged that this terrible sacrifice may now be viewed* in strictly non-partisan terms.



* - Even if some other gombeens still cannot... 

No doubt the Belfast Mayor will attend the next commemoration in Cork for the 2 lord Mayors who gave their lives for Freedom and the right of the democratic will of the people to be respected.

Seeing as the events you refer to are/were both local and partisan, I don't see why he should.

This respect and mutual niceness could never be simply a one way street now could it.

You seem confused.

In attending this ceremony, Robinson was not making any sort of concession or concilation towards a political rival etc in another juridiction.

Rather he and O'Muire were too Irishmen who had come together on behalf of the people they represent, to commemorate all of Ireland's dead from that War.

[Rossfan]

No doubt the Belfast Mayor will attend the next commemoration in Cork for the 2 lord Mayors who gave their lives for Freedom and the right of the democratic will of the people to be respected.

Seeing as the events you refer to are/were both local and partisan, I don't see why he should.

Well Irishmen fighting for the British army is partisan , especially as that army killed one of Cork's Lord Mayors and the other died on hunger strike while imprisoned by the British government.
Yet  years later we're now being told that  fighting for the British Army was "non partisan" but getting killed by them is "partisan".
I think a lot of the "non nationalist" population needs to "move on" too ... like their Queen did in May 2011