Wait continues for wartime pardons

It could be months before the Government decides whether to pardon 5,000 soldiers branded deserters and blacklisted for fighting for Britain against Nazi Germany, it has emerged.

The troops, regarded as idealists by Justice and Defence Minister Alan Shatter, were dismissed en masse under special powers introduced during the Second World War.

But officials are concerned a blanket pardon for desertion between 1939-45 would cause major issues for other soldiers court martialled for going Awol.

Mr Shatter, who has been pressed on the issue in the Dáil, is awaiting the advice of the Attorney General Maire Whelan.

“This is a very complicated issue and covers a wider range of individuals than those who deserted to join the British Army during World War II,” the Department of Defence said.

The 4,983 deserters were dismissed under the Emergency Powers (No 362) Order 194, as the wartime was known as the Emergency in neutral Ireland.

The Department added: “Having regard to the wider dimensions of the issue, including for those who were actually tried by Court Martial for desertion during the Emergency and thereafter, the matter has been referred to the Attorney General’s Office for advice.

“The matter will require some further research by that office and detailed consideration of the wider implications of any proposed course of action.”

Sinn Féin is expected to support calls for the pardons, which has already been backed by members of the junior coalition Labour Party. The IRA in the 1940s publicly declared they would welcome a Nazi invasion as liberation.

Deserters were blacklisted through the order – what became known as the starvation order – were barred from state jobs, refused military pensions and faced widespread discrimination.

It is understood it could take weeks or months for advice on laws regarding pardons and posthumous pardons and any subsequent granting.

Mr Shatter revealed last July that he was actively considering the plight of the deserters. Mr Shatter praised the idealism of soldiers with a “commitment to protect democracies from tyranny and totalitarianism”.

Another consideration may also be whether some soldiers deserted but returned and handed themselves in for court martial or whether some soldiers left for Britain but did not enlist.

The vindictive response to Irish soldiers who left to fight fascists from Nazi Germany contrasts hugely with the hero-like status granted to civilians who went to fight for the International Brigade in the Spanish civil war.

Paddy Reid signed up under age to fight for Britain and was one of the first to desert. He fought the Japanese in 1944 at Kohima ridge as they tried to invade India.

His son Paddy said: “He was blacklisted – what started out as a seven year blacklisting but ended up as longer.”

Mr Reid added: “We simply couldn’t afford to live in anything that was half decent – we ended up just moving from one slum area to another.

“Even now when I think about it’s just too painful.”

Meanwhile, as new Military Archives opened to the public to help them trace the involvement of family war dead an historian has appealed for the families of almost 100 soldiers who died serving with the British Army to come forward.

Memorial plaques will be placed on graves in honour of the Irish servicemen and women who lost their lives in the First World War and Second World War.

Shane MacThomais said headstones have already been erected on 85 unmarked plots in Dublin’s Glasnevin Cemetery by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC).