Irish Free State Quotes
This quotation shows the unique relationship that the Irish Republic has had with the Catholic Church. There was probably no other non Muslim country in the world where a political leaders could get elected avowing this kind of loyalty and control by a religious heirerchy. See {639726} for an even more Irish, drastic departure from the concept of separation of church and state.
Under the treaty between Ireland and England that created the Irish free state, in case of war or other contingency, the Irish Free State was required to allow Great Britain to use specific seaports. However, De Valera hated the English, originally opposed the treaty, and was adamant that the Irish Free State be neutural in WWII. He therefore refused to fulfill the Irish obligation. For Churchill this was the last chance for De Valera to show that the Irish Free State was a real nation with rights and obligations. Interestingly, although De Valera did not want to assist the British fighting the Germans, over 70,000 Irishmen went to England and Volunteered to fight on the British side. There were Irish batallions fighting on the allied side but the Irish Free State was neutural. De Valera made matters worse when he allowed German agents into the Irish Free State to try and go from there to England as well as set up observation posts to guide German bombers attacking the populated city of Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland. See {639724} for Chirchill’s later reflective commentary on the situation.
The Irish had been concentrating so long on fighting for independence that when they got it, they were not prepared to operate a government and different jurisdictions scrambled for power, most not wanting the control government to have much if any.
Orangemen were the ulta Protestant Nationalists of Northern Ireland. Both Protetants and Catholics had their extremists who publicly spewed their hate, desire for exclusivity, and insults with little moderation from moderates who always risked retaliation from the extremists even of their own religion, not unlike the situation of the beginning of the 21st century, where Muslim moderates were cowed and intimidated by the religious Islamic extremists.
At this point, the horrors of the German concentration death camps were generally known by the world press. This quotation shows the denial that the Irish Free State was in about the German Nazi atrocities. The 6-county Nationalsits were the Irish counties in Northern Ireland that did not join the Irish Free State and so far as the Catholic Irish were concerned, the Catholics of Northern Ireland were a persecuted minority undergoing oppression and that was not they believed morally different from the murders of millions of Jews, Gypsies and handicapped people in Europe. If the Free State Irish publicly admitted the difference, they would morally have had to join the allies and De Valera was totally opposed to that. Over 70,000 Irishmen and women rejected the moral stand of their government, and volunteered for the British Army to the great distress of the Free State leaders like De Valera. See {639722} for his personal denial of reality.
The telegram was sent in the name of the Irish Cabinet of the new government. This quotation shows the unique relationship that the Irish Republic has had with the Catholic Church. There was probably no other non Muslim country in the world where a political leaders could get elected avowing this kind of loyalty and control by a religious hierarchy. See {639725} for the Irish leader’s drastic departure from the concept of separation of church and state.
Under the treaty between Ireland and England that created the Irish free state, in case of war or other contingency, the Irish Free State was required to allow Great Britain to use specific seaports. However, De Valera hated the English, originally opposed the treaty, and was adamant that the Irish Free State be neutural in WWII. He therefore refused to fulfill the Irish obligation. Interestingly, although De Valera did not want to assist the British fighting the Germans, over 70,000 Irishmen went to England and Volunteered to fight on the British side. There were Irish batallions fighting on the allied side but the Irish Free State was neutural. De Valera made matters worse when he allowed German agents into the Irish Free State to try and go from there to England as well as set up observation posts to guide German bombers attacking the populated city of Belfast and other parts of Northern Ireland. The Allies were able to use the Northern Irish Ports but had the Germans blocked those, the British would have invaded the Port Areas of the Irish Free State to obtain what Ireland was required to supply.
At the time a Boundary Commission was meeting to decide on the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in the South pursuant to The Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. There was fear that territory near the general border that had been in the Northern provinces might be given to the Free State because there were pockets of Catholics living there. To put pressure on the Commission, the PM called a Snap Election and made this slogan the center of the campaign.
The red scare in America and much of Europe was not taken very seriously in Ireland where the internal conflicts over Northern Ireland and trying to build the Irish Free State took most attention of the radicals like Sinn Fein. The most conservative group however ran against the Communists of whom there were just a few in Ireland and they had no organization or program.
Because of that conservatism he was murdered by the radical IRA in the internecine Irish revolutionist conflicts that followed the Irish Free State winning its independence.
Long before the spate of Post WWII newly independent states that could not deliver a reasonable increase in standard of living, the Irish Free State had a similar problem in its early years.
The Irish Dail (Parliament) had ratified a treaty with England, but President Eamon de Valera and his supporters walked out in protest leaving the “ship” without a “captain.”
This quotation shows the level of denial that De Valera and other Irish leaders were in over Nazi Germany. See {639721} for other Irish Free State denial. Over 70,000 Irishmen and women rejected the moral stand of their government, and volunteered for the British Army to the great distress of the Free State leaders like De Valera.
