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

whataboutery at its finest.

Different times indeed.

There were quite a few British elites enamoured with the Nazis as they rearmed and broke the ToV.

Churchill himself repeatedly warned about it but did nothing as did FDR and other prominent politicians. There were even warnings from within Germany itself.

These people were in no position to lecture on responsibilities.
It wasn't Ireland's fault there was a war, Those tasked by the ToV to take preventative measures and more to the point, given the powers to take those measures, reneged on their responsibilities. If the victims of that terrible war are gonna look at anyone to blame they can look there before they look at Dev and Ireland.

Not just the British, Charles Lindbergh was prevented from re-enlisting with the Army Air Forces due to his Nazi links.

The government of Adolf Hitler declared all further payments cancelled in 1933, and no further reparations payments were made until after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Germany finally paid off its debts under the Versailles treaty, which had been reduced by 50% at the 1953 London Debt Conference, in 2010

Britain - No bother

The government sought to go further and end the repayment to Britain of land annuities. These originated from the government loans granted to Irish tenant farmers by the Land Commission from the 1880s, which had enabled them to purchase lands from their former landlords, under the Irish Land Acts. In 1923, the previous W. T. Cosgrave government had assured Britain that the Free State would honour its debts and hand over the land annuities and other financial liabilities. Under the 1925 London Agreement,[3] the Free State was relieved from its treaty obligation to pay its share towards the public debt of the United Kingdom.[4] The Free State's liability to supervise and pass on land annuities payments led to controversy and debate on whether they were private or public debts.[5][6] In 1932, de Valera interpreted that the annuities were part of the public debt from which the Free State had been exempted, and decided that the Free State would no longer pay them to Britain. His government passed the Land Act 1933 that allowed the money to be spent on local government projects.[7]

Britain - TRADE WAR!!!!!!!

Dont get how all this Dev/Hempel stuff happening at the END of the war influenced a neutrality position adopted by the Irish government BEFORE the war.

Ireland fought hard for its newly found independence. Any attempt by the Nazis to invade would have been heavily resisted by the government and population.

"heavily resisted by the government and population" says you. Indeed, they would not have stood a chance against out army and airforce.

What did we do against the Nazis when they bombed Dublin, killing 28 and injuring many more? Is it not true a German plane was shot down by the RAF (ironically piloted by an Irishman) over the Irish sea on it way back to Germany, and they did not return again?

What did we do when the Germans sunk the 2 ships we leased from the Americans, in the Atlantic?

Apologies, was multi-tasking, and my mind somewhere else.

Meant to say Eisenhower of course.

Same end result in notifying the public. Quote "

General Dwight D. Eisenhower's visit to the Ohrdruf concentration camp in April of 1945 drew great interest from the American public. His tour of the camp helped generate a massive publicity campaign to expose the crimes of the Nazi regime to the world. The flood of reports that filled Western newspapers and magazines following Eisenhower's visit shocked Americans with grisly details about the Nazi death system."

Where was Dev, head in the sand?

What a load of codswallop , to eventually arrive at your conclusion , everything bad that happened in the world was because of Britain, and Britain caused ww2. We get it.

You even say "Germany was economically vulnerable and weak militarily in the early to mid 30's. I think you will find it was not the only country "economically vulnerable and weak militarily" in the early to mid 1030s, after the great depression etc.

Your own "smattering of knowledge" is quite laughable.

Nice attempt at diversion though. At least you do not deny:

General Dwight D. Eisenhower's visit to the Ohrdruf concentration camp in April of 1945 drew great interest from the American public. His tour of the camp helped generate a massive publicity campaign to expose the crimes of the Nazi regime to the world. The flood of reports that filled Western newspapers and magazines following Eisenhower's visit shocked Americans with grisly details about the Nazi death system."

Where was Dev, head in the sand?

everything bad that happened in the world was because of Britain, and Britain caused ww2.

No, that is another false quote.

Britain had responsibilities as a signatory of the ToV to halt the actions of the 'bad guys', they reneged on that responsibility.

The combined forces of the those who signed the ToV could quite easily have put Germany out of business had they wanted to.
They didn't.

If the victims want to blame somebody they should look to Germany first then those responsible for not allowing Germany to rebuild to the armed state it did. Not intervening as they should have cost an inordinately higher amount in lives and money than it would have had they taken responsibility.

Read FDR and Churchill's and others warnings. But you won't, you'll just pivot to a mistake by the leader of a small newly independent state you are bitter about.

Many people

No links again.

Who were these 'many'? Ladies you had tea with? A chat in the pub? A soldier you talked to at a checkpoint?

Probably heard it when after a Vera Lynn recital!

Have you a link to this RAF pilots name? There is no record in the Dublin City archives and the German pilot that dropped the bombs later apologised and admitted it was an accident.

Now an elderly German - living in Canada and calling himself only Heinrich, but insisting he was one of the Luftwaffe pathfinder pilots on the night of the Dublin bombing - has broadcast an appeal for forgiveness over RTE, Irish state radio. He was asked to bomb Belfast, he said, but his two squadrons of 30 aircraft approached Dublin by mistake. "Please forgive me for this mistake which was beyond our control," Heinrich told reporter Micheal Holmes. "There was no wrongdoing on our side. Everybody was upset, not only the members of the [German] air force, but politically as well."

And how did they get lost?

Histories of the Luftwaffe's Blitz on Britain later suggested that in their efforts to deflect the bombers, British scientists had "bent" the German radio direction beams - the Knickebein or "crooked leg" system of navigation - and sent German aircraft in the direction of neutral Ireland. In fact, the British could not "bend" the beams, which were sent out from occupied France and Norway. But they could interfere with the radio signals and force aircraft to lose their way.

And Churchill's view on it?

After the war Winston Churchill said that "the bombing of Dublin on the night of 30 May 1941, may well have been an unforeseen and unintended result of our interference with 'Y'". He was speaking of the Battle of the Beams, wherein "Y" referred to the direction finding radio signals that the Luftwaffe used to guide their bombers to their targets

Edit: to add link

Ireland and Switzerland were the only European countries not physically devastated by the war, so Ireland made the right decision. Neutrality was right for us. If either Germany or Britain wanted to invade us, they would have depending on which side we chose.

If Germany invaded us, whole towns would have been lined up and shot by the Nazi's for not giving them tons of butter or something stupid like that.

When you are having to make up so much stuff, depend so heavily on unverified rumours and anecdotes and do not question anything or the motives behind actions you approve of, the motion is proved - Ireland's decision to remain neutral is unfairly criticised by the few left who are bothered by it and obviously very bitter.