Essential contribution to honouring Ireland’s World War II volunteers

Justice Minister Alan Shatter’s recent decision to pardon Irish army deserters who fought for the allies during World War II has once again highlighted the contribution to the allied cause of citizens from neutral Ireland.

During the war some 60,000-70,000 Irish citizens served in the British armed forces, considerably more than the number of volunteers from loyalist Northern Ireland.

Among them were several thousand deserters from the Irish army, about 10% of its wartime strength. After the war de Valera used the Emergency Powers Act to summarily dismiss them from service, which meant they were ineligible for public employment for seven years.