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

So in other words Roosevelt did not say Poland and other small nation’s freedom could swing on Nazi gallows. You made that up.

In 1940, while USA was still neutral, Roosevelt did say "No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb. We know now that a nation can have peace with the Nazis only at the price of total surrender."

He also said in 1940 ""Some of our people like to believe that wars in Europe and in Asia are of no concern to us. But it is a matter of most vital concern to us that European and Asiatic war-makers should not gain control of the oceans which lead to this hemisphere."

A few months in to the war he said "We know now that if we lose this war it will be generations or even centuries before our conception of democracy can live again."

Nah, you would've never shut up about it!

So Roosevelt never said Poland or other small nation's freedom could swing on a Nazi gallows. Roosevelt never wanted anyone to swing on a Nazi gallows. Could the same be said for Dev if Irishmen, from neutral Ireland, swung on Nazi gallows in a slave labour Nazi concentration camp? Dev knew about their plight but I cannot see any record of him bringing it up with his friend Hempel the Nazi diplomat / party member?

Roosevelt knew America would take time to prepare for war, as it was a country recovering from the horrors of World War I, deep economic struggles caused by the Great Depression, and a military that was both underfunded and unprepared for a global conflict.

He did not used the phase about Poland swinging on Nazi Gallows, you made that up.

By 1941, Roosevelt argued that the conflict was no longer a distant "foreign war" but an existential threat to American security.

German troops were unlikely to ever have arrived on U.S. soil but Roosevelt helped liberate Europe from Nazism. Without an awful lot of help from us, we would not even help their lads be protected in the Atlantic.

Roosevelts opinion was at odds with American public opinion which was against entering the war. That only changed once they were attacked at Pearl Harbour followed by Hitler's declaration of war against the USA. We would have entered the war had we experienced the same.

There was nothing Ireland could have done to help "protect their lads" given the route USA ships used, up along the coast of USA, Canada, south of Greenland and using the air cover from Iceland then in via the north western approaches. The air cover from Northern Ireland and Scotland would not have been improved by anything we could offer.

I never said America was perfect but at least they came to help liberate western Europe eventually.

As noted already, German troops were unlikely to ever have arrived on U.S. soil but Roosevelt helped liberate Europe from Nazism - without much help from us.  

Back on 27th May on this very thread, post no 1351, I wrote:

"America was late to both World Wars, and that is not to its credit. Think of all those deported to Nazi death camps, people enslaved by the Nazis etc.

By November 1941, 68% of Americans said that aid to Britain was more important than staying out of the war. The American public understood by late 1941 that it would have to go to war to help defend Britain and the west against Nazi Germany and the other axis at the time."

The mid Atlantic gap was an area that could not be covered by land based aircraft operating in an anti-submarine role. The Treaty Ports would have been used for ships rather than aircraft. Sunderlands and Catalinas might have been options but there still would have been a gap. Your knowledge of events seems to be based entirely on your Google searches to support your anti-Irish neutrality and anti-de Valera agenda rather than on knowledge.

The British invaded Iceland (which was neutral) in 1940 as they considered it an important base in the Battle Of The Atlantic. It had a major effect in reducing the mid Atlantic gap. From your anti-Irish neutrality and anti-de Valera posting history, perhaps you wish that the British had invaded Ireland too.

@Francis McM for a nation fearing a German or British invasion would Britain invading Iceland have strengthened or weakened those fears?

In addition to the scaling up of U-boat production, the addition of the fourth rotor to the Enigma machines used by the U-boats had a major effect in that it locked the Allies out of U-boat communications for some time and shipping losses rose. At that stage, having access to the Treaty Ports would have made little difference because the more fundamental problem of being able to detect U-boats in the mid Atlantic gap, divert convoys and destroy the U-boats existed. When BP was reading U-boat message traffic, it could take some measures to reroute convoys. Without those decrypts, it had to largely wait until a U-boat found a convoy and hope that some radio direction finding and radar could help.

The Donegal corridor did not come in to existence until 1941, and then only for air sea rescue missions. 1100 ships were sunk by the Germans in the Atlantic in 1940 alone. Learn some history.

You ignore the point and did not answer the question.

"Because the Nazis proved, despite Dev's friendship, that they would and did put neutral Irish in slave labour Concentration camps at their own will.

Did you read any of the books recommended for you?"

Also, because Dev was leader of the country during WW2, and was the only PM in the world to express condolences for Hitler, soon after Hitler's death camps were exposed to most of the world ( except heavily censored Ireland), he is hard to ignore given the threads title.

They were for defence - the US President's own words.

@Francis McM persisting with completely demolished arguments is not an obsession, it's an illness.

The point re the corridor has been answered already.

The RAF base at Lough Erne which necessitates the use of the Donegal corridor was built in December 1940 and permission to use the corridor was given in January 1941. The corridor joined the base at Lough Erne to the Atlantic Ocean via air space.

It actually was not in use until Feb. 1941. The Germans sunk 1100 ships in the Atlantic, along with their contents and much loss of life,in 1940 alone. The base at Lough Erne was for flying boats only, and was initially supposed to be for air sea rescue.