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The Emergency is a euphemism which was first used officially in Ireland by the Irish Government during the 1940s to refer to World War II. In government media, direct references to the war were avoided and Ireland publicly maintained a strictly neutral position (which prompted some to ask the question, "Who are we neutral against?"). This was partly due to the political and nationalist tensions in Ireland at the time which resulted from the Anglo–Irish War and the Irish Civil War. The term has remained in use in, for example, school text books.
The official state of emergency commenced on September 1 1939 and was finally ended on September 2 1946.
The Emergency
During this time the Nazis made contact with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) men who were regularly interned at the Curragh. Eamon de Valera was the Taoiseach during this period and introduced the Emergency Powers Acts and the Offences Against the State Acts to combat the Irish Republican Army and other dangers. The handful of German spies in Ireland were not greatly impressed with the IRA, many said that Ireland was "neutral on the side of Britain".
In Belfast, some 1,100 died during Luftwaffe bombing between April and May 1941. Some 53% of the city's housing stock (some 56,000 houses) were damaged and around 100,000 became temporarily homeless.
On the night of 30th-31st of May 1941, Dublin's Northside was the target of a Luftwaffe air raid. 38 people were killed and 70 houses were destroyed, on Summerhill Parade, North Strand and the North Circular Road. The German government claimed the raid was an error and paid compensation after the war. However, it has been claimed that this was actually a deliberate warning by Germany, after the Dublin fire brigade helped put out fires in Belfast. (It is difficult to see how the Luftwaffe could have bombed Dublin by mistake, since presumably it did not have a blackout.)
In Retrospect
Contrary to popular opinion at the time and for decades since, the neutrality was biased towards the Allied Powers (some of this only came out in the 1990s). British servicemen who crashed over what is now known as the Republic of Ireland were allowed unofficially to escape to the United Kingdom through Northern Ireland, while downed Germans were interned. Detailed weather reports of conditions in the Atlantic Ocean were broadcast on Irish radio, benefiting the Allies, and the chief German diplomat in Ireland had his radio confiscated in 1943 to prevent him passing information. There was a corridor near Donegal which British aircraft could use when flying from bases in Northern Ireland out over the Atlantic, which was used e.g. by the reconnaissance aircraft which spotted the German battleship Bismarck heading for France in 1941. However in 1945 de Valera shocked many people by going to the German embassy to express his formal condolences to the German ambassador on the death of Hitler.
Some 70,000 citizens from the Republic and around 80,000 from the North served with British forces during World War II. It was many years until this was recognised by an Irish government. However, in April 1995 Taoiseach John Bruton paid tribute to those who "volunteered to fight against Nazi tyranny in Europe, at least 10,000 of whom were killed while serving in British uniforms. In recalling their bravery, we are recalling a shared experience of Irish and British people. We remember a British part of the inheritance of all who live in Ireland." In the Republic opinions on this matter are (as of 2005) somewhat divided and the issue of the Irish volunteers remains sensitive for many.
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