Dear Sir,

I read in one of our national papers that a memorial is to be erected to the Second World War Irish campaigners. A spokesman for the campaign wants the memorial to be erected in Trinity College, Dublin where hundreds from the college joined the British Army. I wonder are these people aware that while these volunteers were joining the British Army, Prime Minister Churchill was demanding that the Irish Government hand over its ports to the British Navy?

Even though the Irish Free State Government voted unanimously to stay neutral in the conflict 1939-1945, he went so far as to say he would send over a large contingent to take them by force. The Irish Government were well aware Churchill was quite capable of doing so. It was only twenty years before, he and PM Lloyd George sent over the Black & Tans and a new force call ‘The Auxiliaries’ (all ex British officers with war experience). They were dressed in a way to intimidate their opponents. Each of them carried a rifle, with a leather bandolier over their shoulder; two revolvers, one strapped to each thigh and two Mills hand grenades tied to a Sam Brown belt. They were in fact not subject to any normal discipline – just like the Gestapo secret police of Nazi Germany.

Only recently the Minister for Defence granted amnesty to the five thousand Irish soldiers who deserted the Irish Army to serve with the British Army during that period. When ‘the emergency’ was declared in 1940, a call went out by the Irish Dept of Defence to all Irish men working overseas, to return home to defend their country. Many young men did return home to serve until the end of ‘the emergency’. To my knowledge I don’t remember anyone paying tribute to them. Obviously no one knew what the outcome of the war would be, but these men were willing to stand by the country of their birth. Also the many thousands of men who joined the regular army and the men who gave up their time to serve in the reserve force. Maybe a monument to their sacrifice should be thought about?

After the battle of Kilmichael when 17 auxiliaries were killed in an ambush by the 3^rd Cork Brigade, the British Press suddenly called them ‘young inexperienced cadets’.

Yours sincerely,

Liam Nolan,

Sunville,

Duntaheen Rd,

Fermoy.