Is Irelands neutrality stance in WW2 unfairly criticized? (see Mod note 217)

Nobody in war trusted other countries. DeGaulle was not even informed about the D-Day landings until two days before they happened.

Have you found any link yet to back up your claim "Roosevelt thought Gray was an extremist and ignored a lot of his opinions."

An extremist would be someone like Dev who would go out of his way to sympathise with the Germans on the death of Hitler, weeks after the Extermination camps were uncovered, when even many Germans were embarassed about Hitler.

Roosevelt did not sack Grey and Grey did not come in for the amount of criticism that Dev did. Our Dev and our President Hyde were the outliers in the whole world.

Gray was the ambassador, nothing more. He was nowhere as extreme as Dev, who as noted already went out of his way to sympathise with the Germans on the death of Hitler, weeks after the Extermination camps were uncovered, when even many Germans were embarassed about Hitler.

The British did trust the Americans and vice versa, as well as the Canadians etc. They did not trust Dev or indeed the leader of France De Gaulle, who was only told about D day a few days before it happened, when some troops were already on the ships. At least De Gaulle did not go to the Germans and express condolences on the death of Hitler.

Grey has been thoroughly discredited on his views on Ireland during the war. Unless you have some other sources you. Look up the British relationship with ireland and the exchanges between the two governments. Neither gave any regard to Grey.

Incidentally , Grey was not an ambassador.

The world knew about the Nazi extermination camps by the time Dev and President Hyde went out of their way to express their condolences to the Germans, on the death of Hitler.

As noted already, the first major concentration camp liberated by British forces in World War II was Bergen-Belsen on April 15, 1945. They discovered approx. 60,000 starving and sick prisoners, in atrocious conditions, along with thousands of unburied bodies. There were actually a few soldiers from this island in the British army force first in to the camp.

It was in May 1945 when our Taoiseach Dev and President Hyde then let Ireland down in the eyes of the world by being the only country to express condolences on the death of Hitler.

According the the Irish Times, he was ambassador.

He, along with most people in the USA and UK, were critical of Irelands neutrality during the war, because it cost allied lives in the battle of the Atlantic etc.

However Dev and President Hyde going out of their way to express condolences on the death of Hitler when most Germans had become aware of the extermination camps etc was simply extraordinary, and what other leaders of countries in the world dreamt of doing that?

He was often referred to as ambassador, even in the headline of the Irish Times article I linked.

Ambassadors and envoys are both representatives. However an envoy does not have reside in a foreign country for the period of time that an ambassador does. Gray did live here for periods of time.

According to wiki, Envoys are mostly sent on brief missions (attending a Royal wedding, representing the country in the UN etc) while Ambassadors live in host countries and their mission is longer than that of an envoy. Gray's mission here was longer than that of an envoy.

You are splitting hairs as usual anyway. Point was, Dev was the outlier in the world.

"Dev and President Hyde going out of their way to express condolences on the death of Hitler when most Germans had become aware of the extermination camps etc was simply extraordinary, and what other leaders of countries in the world dreamt of doing that?"

Re taking in Jewish refugees: ever heard of the SS St Louis? The US AND Cuba AND Canada all refused to take a shipload of Jewish refugees and they were eventually forced to go back to Europe. This was when it was well known Jews were being discriminated against and persecuted by Nazi Germany.

He wasn't an ambassador = fact.

A fair few European countries were "neutral" until overrun by Nazi Germany, if the same happened to us we would have had as much say in the matter as they did.

Anyone who digs a little deeper than anti Irish propaganda would know what we had was a sham neutrality, as in "neutral on the side of the Allies".

One excuse that used to be put forward was that it was protocol. With all that had happened since the start of the war, would anyone have cared if de Valera had decided not to visit Herr Hempel?

and the world got over it.

If we were outcasts after I must have missed that.

The only person who seems to still think it anything of importance is somebody legendary here for talking down all things Ireland to bolster an image of Britain few have.