If Germany had of won the war, what would Ireland look like now infrastructure wise?

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Would all the Irish gingers not be locked up?

I'm sure that due to their more Nordic/Aryan appearance your assumption would be wrong.

badabing106 wrote: »

I think Ireland is quite a strategic land mass maybe? And quite an important one too!, seeing as it is the gateway to the whole of Europe and beyond !

So they put a couple of air bases and missile systems on it?

It’s not the gateway to anywhere, as it’s hundreds of miles from continental Europe and only connected by maritime or air links.

From a military point of view, it might be a bit of a staging post but that’s about it.

If you look at Iceland, Keflavik NATO airbase was there for years and it really didn’t create much economic activity. Everything was flown in/out and the locals had little interaction, other than with drunk and disorderly military personnel causing issues in Reykjavik. The relationship wasn’t great.

If we’d been invaded by Germany, it would have been a few very hostile airbases staffed entirely by Germans. Then we would have been the location for a major conflict as the allies tried to liberate us again.

It really wouldn’t have been a very pleasant existence. Have a look at how Belgium was impacted by being the stage for major conflicts and that was a country with a major industrial base and a minor (and not very pleasant) imperial power in its own right.

I was in Keflavik bass in Iceland a few years ago at a music festival and it’s a very strange place that would give you an idea of just how disconnected the base was from the country.

If you could imagine a site that’s a bit like Shannon airport but place it on the edge of the Burren. Then scatter bland, 1950s style utility buildings and housing blocks around it all about half a kilometer apart from each other and link it up by wind swept roads. It’s a bit like an old Irish industrial estate that has seen better days way out on the wilds of Donegal.

The buildings were entirely American fit out. Every detail was American right down to the appliances, taps, electrics, windows. All of the street details were American too. It looks like the Burren with NYC style fire hydrants installed along the roads. It was a weird looking juxtaposition. The landscape is remarkably similar to the West of Ireland and, at least in summer, the weather in western Iceland isn’t very different to Ireland.

They’re in the process of converting the disused buildings to Icelandic civilian use but there’s no real purpose they can find for most of them. They’re being used for bits of the equivalent of rural institutes of technology and hosting startup businesses, social housing, budget tourist accommodation (as its near the airport) and so on.

Even reclaiming them involves replacing all the fittings, fixtures, appliances, wiring, plumbing, making sure they’re asbestos free and bringing them up to Icelandic building regulations.

What’s weird it also shows how European Ireland is in some ways as the relics of American stuff seemed very “alien” whereas the refitted units with the Icelandic materials felt very much like what you’d expect in modern buildings here.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, a build up of military bases in Ireland from foreign powers including NATO would really see almost no economic advantages, if the Icelandic experience were anything to go by. Militaries are self sufficient by design and just operate to their own systems and agendas. If we had had NATO bases, I’m sure it would have been very similar.

An invasion by a hostile and oppressive power like 1930s Germany would have been a complete disaster.

Etc wrote: »

Britain didn't engage in fighting in Europe after the Dunkirk disaster until 44 as they didn't have strength, they were limited to a bombing campaign. The African campaign was the only location they put soldiers on the ground.

Russia fought the European war until 1944.

Was Italy in Europe at that time?

Honestly, we don’t know how lucky we were not to have been dragged into that conflict. Any country that was badly touched by WWII suffered horribly as a result.

We had very minor taste of it with the nazi air raids they were probably a message to Ireland to butt out after we helped with the aftermath of the raids on Belfast and so on.

I’ve a lot of family connections in France and WWII was an an absolutlyawful period that still scars the country today both physically and psychologically. The generations who experienced it directly are only starting to fade now really. When people born in the 1940 who experienced the 50s still felt the aftermath in terms of physical damage to places, initial food shortages and so on.

Rural western France is extremely like rural Ireland and I can assure you, life under the nazi invasion was brutal, totally oppressive and very unpleasant and there would have been no choice but to use the full infrastructure of Irish resistance against them and you probably would have seen thousands of Irish people systematically killed.

It’s also likely, I suspect that Ireland would have lost its then only recently gained independence as the new state wouldn’t have had time to form properly.

Etc wrote: »

Many Irishmen did and died doing it.

And were treated like dirt back here because they did. The men who went away were great men. The RoI should be really proud of them.

The Oktoberfest would have been brought to Ireland....


Oh wait.....