Ghosts and fascists ran amok during the strange days of our neutrality

ONE of the first books on Irish neutrality was a 1969 collection of essays in RTÉ’s Thomas Davis lecture series. It was published in time to exploit the 25th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Now with the 60th anniversary only months away, Mercier Press has brought out a similar book packed with new information that is as ground-breaking as the first book.

Ireland in World War Two: Neutrality and Survival (Dermot Keogh and Mervyn O’Driscoll eds, Mercier Press, €16.95) is the product of an historical conference at University College Cork in 2001. In the introduction, professor Dermot Keogh provides an insight into the frustrations faced by Irish historians for many years.