Ireland during world war 2 / the emergency

Can anyone recommend a good book on the above ? Thanks .

chasmcb

I read Robert Fisk's In Time of War, Ireland, Ulster and the price of Neutrality some years ago and that was good, might be difficult to find a copy now, I'm not sure if it's still in print.

John P. Duggan has a couple of books on that era also, amasses plenty of detail but I find his writing style unengaging.

I've seen good reviews of Joseph T. Carroll's Ireland in the War Years whereas Brian Girvin's The Emergency is seemingly a biased hatchet-job on Ireland's neutral stance.

There is a good selection out there, with books on specific aspects of the war, such as espionage, the treatment of downed airmen from both sides, diplomatic relations between Ireland and the competing powers and multi-author collections of essays on the conflict.

chasmcb

chasmcb wrote: »

I read Robert Fisk's In Time of War, Ireland, Ulster and the price of Neutrality some years ago and that was good, might be difficult to find a copy now, I'm not sure if it's still in print.

John P. Duggan has a couple of books on that era also, amasses plenty of detail but I find his writing style unengaging.

I've seen good reviews of Joseph T. Carroll's Ireland in the War Years whereas Brian Girvin's The Emergency is seemingly a biased hatchet-job on Ireland's neutral stance.

There is a good selection out there, with books on specific aspects of the war, such as espionage, the treatment of downed airmen from both sides, diplomatic relations between Ireland and the competing powers and multi-author collections of essays on the conflict.

great,thank you.

barhoula

Clair Will's "That Neutral Island" is one of the best histories of that time I have come across. Really do recommend it.

Lector

I'd recommend both of the books mentioned above. The Fisk book should be easily available, as it is practically the definitive word on the subject. Try a library if you can't find it in a bookshop.

tomasocarthaigh

"Hitlers Irishmen" gives a good take on the Irish on the other side, though I suspect it only scrapes the surface of the Irish under the Reich.

One chap was from Roscommon, another from Laois.

My favourite anecdote from it is how there was a dozen or so of them in a barracks of 3,500 Wehrmacht soldiers... and they caused the MP more trouble from boozing and brawling than the rest of the baracks combined.

Sure gives credence to the Irish sterotype!!!

strandsman

Are there any books on the volunteers in the LDF etc , I've often heard stories about the volunteers and what they did etc , sounded very much like dads army stuff. I assume someone wrote a first hand account of the time in the LDF and such like

ivytwine

A good read (although less about Ireland's neutrality than the others) is Ireland's No 1 Nazi by Gerry Mullins. All about Adolf Mahr, who was the head of the Irish Nazi Party. Mahr was an interesting and complex character, and Mullins writes clearly and concisely and mostly reserves judgement.

strandsman

ivytwine wrote: »

A good read (although less about Ireland's neutrality than the others) is Ireland's No 1 Nazi by Gerry Mullins. All about Adolf Mahr, who was the head of the Irish Nazi Party. Mahr was an interesting and complex character, and Mullins writes clearly and concisely and mostly reserves judgement.

thanks but I'm not interested in Irish nazi's etc, but more the ordinary people who volunteered to defend Ireland if we were invaded during the emergency, surely someone wrote about their experience of those times