Comments by "Taint ABird" (@taintabird23) on "Knowledgia" channel.

  1.  @cratarata2278  If the Nazi's had declared war on Ireland or had attacked, the Irish would have obviously joined with the British. This was normal in Europe in 1939, only the UK, France, Germany and Poland went to war and all the other nations declared neutrality. While many of the other neutrals were invaded, the Irish were not. Ireland and the UK had a plan, Plan W, which would see British troops move from Northern Ireland in the even of a Nazi invasion.
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  2.  @cratarata2278  Yes, Ireland was prepared to defend itself and it would have taken any assistance available.
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  3. No, it was because the population was divided over the British and because it was Ireland's first free assertion of its independence.
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  4. Spot on Vanessa. You know your stuff.
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  5. Would love to see the source for these claims. This is new historical information.
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  6. Jesus Christ. You are the living embodiment of a little knowledge being dangerous. I wouldn't even know where to start with you...
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  7. It is one of the many myths about alleged Irish treachery during WW2 that remains to this day. The Admiralty wasted time and resources debunking this myth, begun by Churchill in September 1939, by the end of 1940.
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  8. Ireland was publicly neutral in WW2, though secretly it assisted the Allies where it could. General election of 1918 tells us most Irishmen supported nationalist parties and that Sinn Féin won most seats, commanding a mandate to seek independence.
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  9. In WW2 the Irish were neither socialist nor cowards.
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  10.  @georgfriedrichhandel4390  Didn't need any help in the end.
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  11.  @georgfriedrichhandel4390  Sorry. What are you on about? The US and France were on the same side as Britain in WW2.
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  12.  @georgfriedrichhandel4390  What's that got to do with Ireland?
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  13. In 23/10/1940 Lord Strabolgi stated in a speech in the House of Lords that refuelling of uboats in Eire was ‘physically impossible because submarines did not use gasoline but heavy fuel oil...such supplies could only be carried in a surface ship which could not fail to be observed and reported’. Stabolgi demanded to know the UK Gov. had allowed such false rumors to circulate. Lord Snell, replied saying that the Gov. had no evidence that enemy submarines were supplied from Irish territory.
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  14. This is new historical information. Please provide supporting evidence that the Irish government colluded with Hitler.
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  15. But for how much longer?
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  16.  @joecook5689  'Ireland as a country wanted Britain to defeat the axis or not?' Yes, the Irish government did not want Germany to win. Most Irish people were ambivalent about the war and just wanted Ireland to be left alone. They had little interest in Germany and did not trust the British. 'And what percent of Ireland fought for the allies out of the number of possible soldiers that would've been enlisted British soldiers if they were, for the sake of argument, part of Britain, say. You know, like what percent would not bother or oppose?' No idea. According to British figure in 1945, there were 50,000 Irishmen and women in British uniform, though this did not count volunteers from the south who enlisted in NI. The correct figure may have been 70,000 with up to 10,000 fatalities. There was a long tradition of service in the British army in Ireland, a tradition that often ran in families. Research has shown that many who volunteered for the British armed forces had no difficulty with Irish neutrality, and joined for reasons of tradition, anti-fascist ideology or for adventure. Elizabeth Bowen, the Anglo-Irish writer, lived in neutral ireland throughout the war. A supporter of Churchill, she wrote fortnightly in secret to the British Ministry of Information on the Irish attitude to neutrality – she was a spy. She discouraged any invasion by the British as she was convinced it would be fiercely resisted and counter-productive. The Irish government would have welcomed such an observation, but she was not acting in Eire’s interests, but in the interests of Britain and was opposed to Irish neutrality. Nonetheless, she stated that 'it may be felt in England that Eire is making a fetish of her neutrality. But this assertion of her neutrality is Eire’s first free self-assertion; as such alone it would mean a great deal to her. Eire (and I think rightly) sees her neutrality as positive, not merely negative’. Hope that helps.
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  17. Nonsense. We had courageous leaders who were not afraid to represent the will of the Irish people.
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  18. @Strve Sit The same as Churchill thought of the will of the Irish people when he was losing the war - no respect for democracy.
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  19. FFs, what is there not to understand? Half of the population was pro-British and the other half of was ambivalent to the UK, holding a suspicion of the British because of a memory of British atrocities in Ireland in the 1920s. The compromise was neutrality. Even the pro-British former unionist population of the Irish Free State, which flocked to the British Army in 1940 still supported Irish neutrality and saw the wisdom of it. Ireland would need to be attacked by one side or the other before it would join the war - just like the United States and most other neutral nations in WW2.
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  20. The Irish lack the British fetish for war . In the final analysis, it was a great achievement that the Irish stayed out of it.
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  21. The British don't know about their ancestors behaviour in Ireland, it is not taught in British schools.
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  22.  @marks_sparks1  The American's don't know anything about Ireland and are taught in school that WW2 was fought to save the Jews. Its a mess.
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  23. The Americans must have been cowards until Pearl Harbor then, eh? I mean they only joined the war because they were attacked. Ireland was never attacked, but said it would resist if it were. You need to blame the Germans.
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  24. Who did Ireland betray?
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  25. Because Ireland wanted to be neutral. The Irish people wanted nothing to do with the war.
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  26.  @RomanHistoryFan476AD  Exactly. And how many populations were asked about their position on an up coming war? None I can think of. In Ireland though, the consensus on neutrality was clear long before the war broke out.
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  27.  @RomanHistoryFan476AD  The difference is, the Irish government and opposition listened to the Irish people and did not encourage the militarism that is part of the cultures of England, France and Germany.
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  28.  @RomanHistoryFan476AD  Not all cultures are adopt militarism as part of their national identity. The Americans, British, French, Russians certainly do, but not all nations. Ireland removed the gun from its politics in the 1920s. Irish national identity and soft power is expressed exclusively through cultural expressions and an independent foreign policy.
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  29. Play a game of hurling.
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  30. So, the UK went to war to stop the holocaust?
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  31. Some did. The majority did not. Thank you for your sweeping statement.
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  32. A remarkably stupid and ignorant post.
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