Unsung heroes of war

JOHN Stout doesn’t see himself as a hero but if courage, determination, and fortitude are the right ingredients then he is one of Ireland’s finest.

Yet he and 4,000 other brave Irishmen have not only been unsung but have suffered hostility, vilification, and official scorn for decades because of their decision to leave a war-time post in the neutral Irish military and join the British armed forces in the struggle against Nazi Germany.

Some risked their lives on battlefields from Dunkirk to El Alamein and D-Day to Arnhem. Others faced death on bomber missions over Germany or suffered the unspeakable hell of Japanese concentration camps.