Deserters should pay the price for leaving down their country

THE statement by Gary W Adams of Dallas, USA (Irish heroes of WW II deserve to be pardoned, July 2) that soldiers who had deserted the Irish Army had been “court-martialled” for fighting against the Nazis and Japan during WW II, is incorrect.

These men were in fact court-martialled for the offence of deserting their national army, which is a crime under military law and standard practice in every army in the world.

May I draw Mr Adams’ attention to the penalty for army desertion in the United States from where he writes, Article 85 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ); Desertion; Any member of the armed forces found guilty of desertion or attempt to desert shall be punished, if the offence is committed in time of war, by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

Those who joined the Irish Army did so voluntarily, there was no compulsory induction of men into the Irish Forces. They swore an Oath of Allegiance to Ireland and betrayed that Oath. The fact that they fought against Nazism did not confer legitimacy on their actions.

Most of the Irish deserters joined the British Army, which itself had executed in excess of 300 deserters following the Great War, and pursued relentlessly for decades those who had deserted during the Second World War. There was no British pardon for those who betrayed their parliament, their people and themselves.

The actions of these deserters imperilled our sovereignty and safety. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had threatened to “come to close quarters with Mr de Valera” over the Treaty Ports and the Irish Army was duty bound to uphold and defend the neutrality of this State, a neutrality endorsed by Dáil Éireann.

The British War Cabinet had considered violating Ireland’s neutrality and seizing, by force, Irish ports if it suited Britain’s interests.

With a threat of British invasion looming, for Irish soldiers to usurp the authority of the State by deciding unilaterally to enlist in that belligerent British army while still a member of the Irish Defence Forces is unpardonable and unforgivable.

It begs the question, if the British had re-invaded Ireland would those Irish deserters who joined the British Army be part of that invading force or would they have deserted instead, again?

Tom Cooper

Knocklyon

Dublin 16