My friends grandfather was a prison guard were downed German pilots were held. None of the Germans tried to escape, they were safe in Ireland, treated well and even let out of prison to go to dances on Saturday. When a German officer asked him why they let them out he said "sure it's an island, where are you gonna go?" One German officer tried to encourage the others to make a break for it but the rest refused and reported him, saying they would rather stay prisoners in Ireland than return home and be sent to fight in Russia.
@@imperialrebel1256 I believe they were repatriated to Germany but some returned to Ireland to live when they could. I think it was a legal issue thing.
Some of the shots are so well set up and dripping with irony or humor that I have to pause the video. I think everyone wishes there could be more 10 minute videos but it’s great to see that you’re developing the shorter snappier format as best you can.
If I was a history teacher, I would try to begin each subject that I taught with one of these videos. They're short, they outline exactly the correct talking points of each subject, and they contain most of the facts that the majority of history exams would be asking the kids, anyway, so the videos are actually great study material.
@@nadarfa9413 He said it was due to youtube's seemingly random demonetisation. 10-minute videos are a lot of work, so if they get demonetised, he loses out financially quite a bit. If the shorter videos get demonetised, it's easier to take the hit since there are more of them.
I was thinking that when i heard it, as it wouldnt really make sense for germans to bomb Dublin with everything said before. aircraft navigation was so primitive at the time, they used maps and compass to get around and easily got lost at night or when weather was bad. Must be a crazy feeling to have bombed a city that you werent even supposed to bomb.
@@Diamond-bd5oxThats not true, there was an accidental bombing of Dublin due to lack of navigation. Additionally Germany apologised profusely, fearing Irelands entry into the war as it would strengthen Britain.
For some added context, De Valera heavily disagreed with the partition of Ireland and outright rebelled against the fledgling government over the issue, believing it was either all Ireland independence or nothing. So turning down the offer says a lot about how shrewd a politician he was (as does the mere fact that he came to rule a country after previously playing a role as a failed insurgent against it, in addition to somehow getting Ireland out of the war when a condition for their independence was to assist Britain in just such a scenario). Check out the speech he made just after the war in response to Churchill insulting him for being neutral.
@freneticness _ Anything but- you need to do a little more reading up on De Valera , the Troubles of 1914-16, read up on Churchill's long running knee jerk refusal to any proposal of an any sort of Independent Ireland, going back to before WW1. FR
real bad governing with China advisors, economy is suck, war with khmer rouge and china border conflict,…. things spiraling down until the “Renovate” policy start, accepting capitalism and foreign invests along with many government reform, currently, they’re doing fine
@@icecoldpolitics8890 shot all wealthy people, political opponent, intellectuals. Economy collapse, sides with USSR in the Sino-Soviet split, now enemy with China. Goes to war with Cambodia, which sided with China, the Kharm Rouge tried exporting their genocide to Vietnam and Vietnam wanted to created a "Indochina Union" led by themselves. Gets invaded by China for daring to topple the Khamr Rouge. Hyper-inflation, finds out socialism doesn't work, goes to capitalism. USSR collapse, becomes sort of friends with the US. Edit for Grammer
@UCcbVdLgz6uK_KLeAUiNLyhg Churchill is also the person who regularly go to ww2 front line just for the hell of it, so it is definitely not for the lack of guts.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 Can't say I blame him. De Valera was an asshole who seemed to go out of his way to piss off the British during a time of war when the freedom of both of their nations were at stake.
Fun fact, the Irish Govt also established the Donegal Corridor, which allowed British planes to fly between N Ireland and the Atlantic by overflying a bit of Irish territory, thus avoiding a long journey around the north of the island. One plane that made use of this corridor was a Catalina seaplane that pinpointed the location of the Bismarck, causing the series of events that led to her destruction.
It's rather strange that the Soviet Union were so opposed to Ireland joining the UN when they didn't object to Sweden joining - a country that had sold Germany most of the steel and ball bearings they needed to invade the Soviet Union.
my though, though with no research: The USSR probably believed they could influence Sweden since it was close to their new boarders and would be a important trade partner to the USSR, Ireland on the other hand was surrounded by "Allied" nations, and would be influenced by them. So Sweden would be an "unofficial" extra vote in the USSRs interests while Ireland would be an extra vote in 'Allies" interest. Therefor keeping Ireland out would indirectly strengthen the USSRs power projection.
Because Sweden was the only country who told them(through the britts) about operation Barbarosa which Sweden had managed to intercept plans for. Which of course Stalin didnt believe because of the Molotov pact with the germans.
Probably because the Soviets feared Sweden joining NATO and siding with the west. Ireland on the other hand wouldnt really matter if it did. It gave little strategic value to the Soviets
Another possible reason is that the Soviets may not have been sure whether to recognize the Irish government. The Irish Republican Army in the post-war era were the remnants of the original IRA that rejected a treaty with Britain to accept a partial Irish republic with limited freedom until long after the war, with the IRA groups that accepted the treaty becoming the army of the Irish republic. As the IRA did espionage for the Soviets (and indeed the Nazis at one shameful moment), it's possible the Soviets didn't want to damage relations with a potential revolutionary movement down the line. Sure enough, a great deal of weapons were obtained from the KGB by the Marxist 'Official Irish Republican Army' (which formed the main body of the IRA after the 'Provisional IRA' split in 1969, soon overtaking the Officials) in the early 70s before they went on ceasefire. It never came to anything, but there was a real chance of a Marxist armed revolt in Ireland in parts of the 20th century, even beating the Bolsheviks to the punch with James Connolly's openly socialist Irish Citizens Army taking part in the 1916 easter rising, which then prompted the war for independence.
Did Sweden harbour Nazi terrorists like Otto Skorzeny post war? Realistically it could just be a vote counting exercise. Maybe they just figured that the Irish would always back the British, as they would expect their satellites to do. Another possibility is they were screwing with whomever was for it.
*Churchill:* "Join the war & we will give you Northern Ireland." *Ireland watches episodes of History Matters on UA-cam:* "... and so the British came up with an ingenious plan - they lied."
Naw, I feel Churchill was probably sincere with the offer. Truth is, Churchill didn't give a whit about the Irish one way or the other. But as the video pointed out, transferring Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic wasn't something Churchill had the power to unilaterally do; it was a certainty there would be strong opposition in Parliament and Northern Ireland. Also, lip service to the contrary, I suspect the Irish government wasn't all that enthused at the prospect of having a bunch of malcontents suddenly incorporated into the country.
@@alabamaal225 Churchill was seldom sincere about anything or anyone. He was Machiavellian in the extreme. He deliberately failed to pass on information regarding the presence of U boats and so the Lusitania was sacrificed so America would join the war . Horrible little alcoholic.
@@CubeInspector that makes every Irish Catholic redundant, they’re just Norman pretenders stemming from Henry II of England In fact by your criteria the only true Irishmen are severely inbred
I always wondered why the mustache fool began to fight russia when uk was not defeated yet. Maybe some of the stories are true, he either wanted victories or he was cocaine addict. Im not absolving him of the horrible camps, just wandering of his strategic fails.
A few things omitted here. Ireland had a civil war following the war of independence from British rule. Both of these were fresh in peoples' minds, meaning neutrality had cross party support and wasn't only the preserve of de Valera.
It wasn't just the fact of the Civil War being fresh in people's minds, it was the damage to infrastructure, too, which was in a lot of cases conspicuous enough to give people flashbacks To that Civil War and the war against the British that preceded it.
Treaty Ports weren't handed back until 1938 ...Churchill railed against the handover of same in his broadcasted interviews, calling Dev in same Mr...DEVIL...era
And more importantly, the IRA were deeply antisemitic and ideological allies of Hitler, who wanted him to kill the British and published poems saying so in their newsletters. The IRA gave aid to terrorist groups around the world such as Hezbollah, and are one of the most antisemitic and anti-west countries in Europe. If Americans only knew how much the Irish hate them, they would not HQ all their companies there.
And the fact that Britain still had control of the 6 Counties. Germany never invaded or stole anything from Ireland. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. German submariners came up on the west coast to get water and other supplies too. Churchill's talk about returning the 6 Counties was empty promises. He sent the Black and Tans in.
Shame there wasn't time in the video to talk about the hilarious joint Allied-Axis internment camp in the Curragh (yes as in one and only one camp) , which was were active combatants (fighter pilots, U-boat crews etc) from either side that ended up in Ireland were kept, would have been a fun animation for the video =D For reference by mid war Allied service personnel that landed in Ireland that were non active combatants were taken to the border and told walk across. There were 3 very VERY senior US generals that were traveling to Britain as passenger on a US Army Air Corp plane that force landed in the west of Ireland, there were considered non active combatants and so allowed to travel to Northern Ireland. The incidence was only declassified by the US in the mid 90s I believe.
Class! Just Googled it! For anyone that is interested: In Ireland, the Second World War was euphemistically called “The Emergency”; the country was neutral, prisoners of war were “guests of the state”, and they were interned in very comfortable camp: the Curragh. When the Second World War broke out, Éamon de Valera, then taoiseach (prime minister) and later president of Ireland, reaffirmed the country’s neutrality. Irish ports and airspace were off limits to Axis and Allied forces. The government built No. 2 Internment Camp, also known as K-Lines Camp, on the east side of the Curragh army base in County Kildare, west of Dublin. Any Axis or Allied soldiers who landed in Ireland were interned there. Some of them were bomber pilots who mistook Ireland for Britain; some had to make emergency landings; and some were German aircraft or U-boat crews who landed in Ireland to escape the horrors of war. Around 2,000 Irish Republican Army members were also interned during the war, in No. 1 Internment Camp on the west side of the Curragh base. K-Lines was divided into two compounds separated by a fence topped with barbed wire. The 200 or so Germans were in G camp; the 40 British and Allied internees in B camp. Security was very tight to begin with, but procedures were gradually relaxed after a visit by German ambassador Eduard Hempel in 1940. Later, prisoners on both sides were allowed leave the camp if they gave their word, in writing, to return by an agreed time and not to take part in any activity connected with the war. Initially, parole was for three hours in the afternoons, but this was gradually extended to include two nights a week so that they could go to the races at the nearby Curragh racecourse, or to one of the three cinemas in the area. The prisoners were given a weekly allowance, which was billed to their respective governments. Some of them met local Irish women when they were on parole, married and settled in Ireland. Towards the end of 1943 most of the Allied prisoners were secretly released, and 20 German prisoners were allowed move to Dublin to enrol at university. The Curragh Camp now serves as a training centre for the Irish Defence Forces. The camp’s story during the Second World War was dramatised in the 1998 film The Brylcreem Boys, with Gabriel Byrne as camp commander. Ralf Sotschek (of goethe.de)
The sad thing for a lot of the Irish soldiers who fought in WW2 for Britain was that when they came home they weren't seen as heroes by most as they fought for Britain and they weren't praised or thanked by the British as they were part of the "cowardly Irish". Their heroes who fought for a war that wasn't theirs to fight and fought for no glory or fame but because they deemed it the morally correct thing to do. Just another reason I'm proud to be Irish and despite the shit DeValera gets he kept true to his word and deserves praise for how he managed Ireland throughout the war.
They were pretty cowardly for not declaring war on Germany after sinking their ships though. That to me is just ludicrous. Can't really imagine any other country allowing someone to just sink their ships and then send the perpetrators a letter of condolence after the dictator who started the whole war and killed millions of innocent people decided to shoot himself. Sounds pretty shameful to me.🤔
@@winnienguyen4420 not really. That entire body of water was infested with submarines enforcing blockades on Britain. It was inevitable that Irish ships trading with Britain would be sunk. That's what happens when you ignore a blockage
@@finnl6887 sorry but I just can't get over the whole sending a letter of condolence to the Nazis after Hitler and his wife committed suicide. I just find that to be very odd. It would be like my country of Vietnam sending a letter of condolence to Japan after they executed Hideki Tojo or another Japanese war criminal.
@@winnienguyen4420 I mean, if you consider Tojo himself a war criminal despite all evidence to the contrary simply because he was a Japanese figurehead I really doubt it's possible to make any headway clarifying something like why the Irish would've bothered with the letter
@@winnienguyen4420 It was a condolences to the people of Germany for the hurt they were feeling at the time and as well as sympathy for the inevitable gang rape spree the Allies went on afterwards. If it puts it into context for you then your government sent condolences to Russia on the death of Stalin, despite his killing millions of people too.
I doubt Churchill was really planning on letting Ireland keep the north. Especially since he had a plan to invade if needed. The man probably anticipated some civil war to excuse Ulster's restoration. Even De Valera saw through that deal
If you understand ANYTHING of the ABSOLUTE BS Ireland had got from England for the last few hundred years... they're VERY lucky the Irish didn't side with Germany!!
@@OffGridInvestor They practically did, they even sent their condolences after Hitler's death. Only reason they worked with the Allies at all was because if they allied the Nazis they'd get nearly instantly invaded
@@mumflrpumble9107 The Irish Free State NEVER sided with Hitler's Germany. The reality is that Ireland was neutral, and most of its actions benefitted the British, and more especially the USA, after the Americans entered the war.
1:31 Should be pointed out that German attacks against Ireland were cases of accidental mistaken identity. The aerial bombing was an incident where a German pilot made a navigational error and bombed Ireland, thinking he was over England. For that reason a giant sky facing IRL was placed along the coast to avoid later mishaps.
Germany used the same "zee whoops!" excuse when bombing London for the first time too. The key difference if the UK had a modern airforce... and S-Ireland... didn't. (I'm sure the Dubliners would have *loved* to have flattened a German city or two after being bombed... but cursing was all they could do)
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 "it's a phonetic language" I would like to nitpick that the *orthography* is phonemic. Calling the whole language that doesn't make sense.
My grandad was Irish and fought in WWII because he felt he should. I think he really took to heart the "All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing" quote. I have the utmost respect for any man that takes a stand against evil. Far too many people today look the other way rather than help others.
The black and tans shot at my grandfather who was just ploughing his fields so maybe there was a lot of evil happening and a lot of people ignoring it for hundreds of years !
"All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing" Too bad the genocidal raping pillaging Brits won't ever get a taste of the karma they so richly deserve.
I suddenly remember that one Archer episode where he thought the Irish were part of the Axis powers cause he misunderstood what his mother said about her hating the Irish for not joining the Allies, and everyone repeatedly pointing out the Irish were neutral.
A Side note: De Valera responded to Churchill's complaint about Ireland's neutrality after the war and said "Britain had fought Germany on its "own" as did Ireland fight britain"
or ww1 arabs. even later brits lied to india independance and got closer to war but gandhi called the bluff. trusting an anglo-saxon descendant is a fools erand.
An American plane 'Taint a Bird landed in a small town in Cork on APRIL 7th, 1943. The crew was ‘detained' in the local hotel. Much partying and drinking took place. But their pet monkey which they brought with them died from alcohol poisoning. He was buried in the back garden of the hotel and their is a plaque to him. Guy Tice, the youngest of the crew members, made a return trip to the town in the mid-1990s.
Another point to make was that Ireland was a relatively new country that just got it's independence and came out of a bloody civil war, so I believe Eamon did not want to jeopardize our freedom by joining any side in the event we lose the political gains we've made in the last 20 or so years leading up to WW2
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. At the time Ireland was not in a state where it could handle a full-scale war even with allies, and since it was not in immediate danger itself, it didn't really need to, either. I find it reminiscent of position the U.S. had when the French revolution occurred.
Honestly it was the best decision you made to stay out of the war, as a Scotsman I am massively jealous you managed to secure your independence from the crown and in the same life time stuck your finger up at a pointless world war where countless people died for no reason, whoever was running Ireland in the early 1920s and in the 40s you should be proud of their decision making, they certainly knew what they were doing and Ireland is still benefiting today from their decisions, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh economies are all lower in GDP in comparison to Ireland.
@@WilliamWallace42 you talk as if Scotland was in the same position as Ireland before it got independence, as an oppressed people, and not the actual integral part of the kingdom willing and disproportionate participant of the empire that it actually was. The Ulster plantations were started by Scots, and like already mentioned, they made up a disproportionate amount of colonisers and colonial authorities in the empire compared to their actual population. It’s dishonest and pathetic after all of that to turn around with some “England bad” rhetoric.
@@Tom-2142 At the time of 1920 and 1940 Scotland was no longer on equal footing with England and were long away from the glory days of the empire, by that point how much respect do you think people like Churchill had for countries like Scotland, he was racist and looked down on everybody especially us, a small country of 5 million now has to bolster the weight of the debt sustained by world war 2 created by the UK government mismanagement of the empire, all the colonies were lost and the amount of debt a nation of over 60 million can generate is huge and now small Scotland has to bear the brunt of it, Margaret Thatcher also stole the oil from the North Sea and sold it from underneath Scotland and used the money to give herself and all her friends in parliament tax reductions, at the very same time Norway had access to very similar amounts of oil and created a private trust fund that is now the richest in the world of it's kind worth billions and it's enriched the economy of the country, Norway is still profiting from it's oil today and Scotland doesn't. The industry in Scotland is worthless to most of the local population. Ireland now has one of the best gdp per capita in the world alongside all the other small European countries, guess what Scotland has in common with them? We are also small and European with a lot of sparsely populated land, we have a country much bigger than the population and it's filled with natural resources, Scotland has one of the best renewable energy potential in Europe, we have all the factors of being a small successful rich European country and the only reason we are behind all of our neighbour's is because we are locked into a union that hasn't been good for the economy of the country in over 100 years.
Many Irishmen fought in WW2, My Grandad and his brothers who were living in London all joined up. After the war there were mixed opinions of this when they went home to visit. I asked my Grandad why he joined up rather than go back to Ireland, he simply said it was the right thing to do.
While theres many pointless wars in history, ww2 was different due to hitlers ethnic cleansing/genocide. If Hitler won ww2, he wouldn't have stopped and most likely would have invaded Ireland and sent many minority to 'camps'
The state didn't formally recognise or apologise for shunning Irish combatants in the British army in WW2 until fairly recently. Hopefully the recent downturn with Brexit is just a blip in the generally improving state of relations amongst these islands.
Many Irishmen joined the Royal Navy and were very valued. Naval ratings at that time were still considered to be pressed men, so Irishmen who joined did not have to swear allegiance to the Crown, as they did with the other services ( It was hidden in the papers they signed). The largest Royal Naval Veterans Association outside if the UK was in Cork, in the Republic.
The tricky situation Ireland was in so carefully and briefly explained. The humour sharp as always. This has been one of your best vids, and that is saying a lot.
Don't forget that during the Home Rule crisis decades before, Churchill and Lloyd George tried to screw Dev so badly that he sent Michael Collins to sign the treaty to avoid the blame. Churchill would, and often did, say anything to get his way and everyone knew it
Churchill’s politics towards Ireland were a major factor in him losing his seat in the 1922 general election, something my home city of Dundee is quite proud of.
I don't have a whole lot of time for De Valera but: “the approaches which the Southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by hostile aircraft and U-boats. This was a deadly moment in our life…However with a restraint and poise with which history will find few parallels His Majesty’s government never laid a violent hand upon them...and we left the de Valera government to frolic with the Germans and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart’s content.” -- Winston Churchill May 13th 1945 “Mr Churchill makes it clear that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated our neutrality and that he would justify his action by Britain’s necessity,” “It seems strange to me that Mr Churchill does not see that this, if accepted, would mean that Britain’s necessity would become a moral code and that, when this necessity was sufficiently great, other people’s rights were not to count. “It is quite true that other great powers believe in this same code - in their own regard - and have behaved in accordance with it. That is precisely why we have the disastrous successions of wars - World War Number One and World War Number Two - and shall there be World War Number Three?” “It is, indeed, hard for the strong to be just to the weak. But acting justly always has its rewards. By resisting his temptation in this instance, Mr Churchill, instead of adding another horrid chapter to the already bloodstained record of relations between England and this country, has advanced the cause of international morality an important step.” "'Mr Churchill is proud of Britain's stand alone after France had fallen and before America entered the war. Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone, not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoilations, famine, massacres, in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but that each time on returning to consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul." -- Eamon De Valera May 16th 1945
He starved 2million people in Indonesia to feed British troops that the moral code he had the same one Britain had for centuries lucky for them uncle Sam won the war for them. Plus dev wasn't long making short work of that speech of Mr Churchill's
The only reason they could stay neutral was their geographical position. Belgium and The Netherlands tried to stay neutral too and it didn't work out because their position was too strategic and easy to invade.
Ireland was an incredibly strategic point, its the furthest west point of Europe and could seriously threaten an invasion of the UK from german soldiers entering the republic
"Are you insane?! If we reincorporated Northern Ireland into greater Ireland now, especially without consulting them, it would lead to widespread civil conflict!" "What makes you say that?" *points to the last century and a half of British/Irish history* "Besides that."
I once read that the Republic is wary of Northern Ireland being reincorporated as both the Protestant and Catholic populations are so highly politicisised and militant.
@@hokutoulrik7345 the issues are primarily between different communities in the North though, the rest of UK and Ireland don't have such a big problem with it. It would logistically be a nightmare but not impossible
I love the little visual jokes you build into your animations, like at 2:12 where you have not one, but two RMS Aquitanias (the only big four-stacker ocean liner to see service in WWII) sailing across the Atlantic.
If I had to guess. They don’t recognize the PRC because they control Tibet and have disputed claims against the Bhutan border. They don’t recognize the ROC because doing so would provoke the anger of the PRC. My guess
My grandparents on my father's side were Irish and emigrated to London after the war where my father was born. My Irish grandfather served in the RAF in Asia during the war but unfortunately I know little about that at the moment. A lot of Irish fought for Britain throughout both wars despite the government's neutrality
Ireland: *Doesn't join the war so didn't get to be in the UN because they didn't help. Turkey, who joined last minute and got credit despite not doing anything: *Pathetic*
@Beakew - In the fifth century CE the Scots from northern Ireland invaded what is now western Scotland and established a kingdom in the highlands...... and stayed there.
@Beakew - It's just amazing the British didn't try to pull an Iceland with Ireland. They probably tried to and didn't realize they went to the wrong island until it was too late.
As an Irishman who has studied Irish history quite in depth of just like to say I’m impressed by your level of knowledge on this subject. Even your use of the word Taioseach rather than Prime Minister (as a lot of English people do) really shows the depth with which you’ve researched.
@@iggyzeta9755 Because that is the actual legal and political name for the leader of the Dáil Éireann. There’s no such thing as a “PM” in Dáil Éireann, other than a translation for folks who require an equivalent for familiarity purposes.
@@TheBomber15 Sorry, that's simply not a reason. When speaking English we use English words. For example we don't try to say, 首相 or そうりだいじん when referring to the prime minister of Japan or primer ministro for a Spanish speaking country. Just Irish being uppity Irish.
It is also important to mention that Ireland were sort of conned into backing Britain during the First World War in return for home rule (a form of independence), that Britain went back on after the war. Furthermore, Irish troops had a high death rate in comparison to other British nations and the British leadership cared little for them when it came to losses on the frontline. All of this made Ireland reticent of joining Britain in another European campaign.
Home rule was going to happen. It was why it was thought their would be no support for the Easter Uprising. The Easter Uprising and subsequent actions only served to delay 'Home Rule', intentionally so on the part of the rebels, who wanted independence NOT home rule.
@@markhutton6055 I’m sorry, “was going to happen”?? You have absolutely no way of knowing that. And saying that it was because of the actions of the rebels that home rule was scrapped is nonsense. It had far far more to do with unionist efforts in the north to stop home rule.
@@markhutton6055 That is a moronic statement with no basis in reality, home rule had been fought over for the past 50 years at that point and the British refused to nudge. The original Easter rising was a home rule based movement. The British cracked down brutally like they repeatedly did for the past century and a half. I don't know who told you this but it clearly was in bad faith and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if its based in anti-Irish stereotypes and discrimination.
Loved the video, which actually reminded me on how I'd love a similar video on Portugal's stance to stay out of WW2! Or maybe a more general view on the dictatorship that ruled the country during that time?
Just one point regarding the "condolences". DeValera did not sign a book of condolences it appears there was never such a book. He didn't visit the German ligation (Embassy), but instead went to the German Ambassador Hempel's home. Arguably very naive but he was following diplomatic protocal for a neutral state. But it is not as has been portrayed in Ireland or particularly in the British press.
@@annoyingbstard9407 Have you a source for your contemporary history or did you think this was like PM Question Time where any old bs can be said as fact?
@@seankavanagh7625 You could start with “The History of Ireland” by Dermot Keogh. He is professor of History at Cork University and, unusually for an Irishman, quite prepared to admit to some of the misdeeds of the Irish State. I realise it is difficult for many in the country to accept their history because of the strict censorship applied to the Irish press preventing them reporting much of the truth, he also writes quite frankly about the anti-Jewish sentiment prevalent in Ireland - including in parliament during the nazi years. Sorry, but it may be better you know as secrets always leak out in the end.
@@annoyingbstard9407 No Englishman has ever read a book about Ireland so how would you know what's in it? Was there some snippet of it online you saw and liked? Press censorship you say?🤔 Do you mean like how all the booing was edited from Charles being announced as your new -owner- sorry King? If we're discussing secrets getting out in the end then you won't mind releasing the records outlining British state involvement in the Dublin & Monaghan bombings. Technically an act of war on a neutral country but alas, we can't get any Nuremberg trials organized for ye. Not yet anyway.
I think it was fair for Ireland to stay neutral as a sovereign country but sending condolences for the death of Adolf Hitler does send some very bad publicity for them. That imo was a very poor decision from Ireland.
Churchill promised a "nation once again", pretty vague. Also, congrats on pronouncing the Gaeilge terms so well, especially Taoiseach. Love from Dublin
Churchill was blind drunk when he sent it, honestly look it up. There was a request to discuss the offer futher on the Irish side but it was explained away to nothing by British diplomats soon after. It wasn't a serious offer.
@@yermanoffthetelly True. Wish history videos on this topic would mention that point. As it stands, just saying it was an offer which the Irish rejected makes Ireland look stubborn and obstinate to anyone who does not know the details of why NI was partitioned and why Irish chose Neutrality to begin with. Also, the more I read of Churchill, the more I come to realise that he seemed to make a lot of decisions while drunk and/or high on some sort of narcotic. The Greatest Britain ever, ladies and gentlemen!
Imagine if they had taken Churchill’s offer of unification. Absolutely minimal impact on the war, huge ramifications for Irish history in the 20th century.
Ireland: "We send our condolences..." Allies: "To the US? For the death of FDR? How nice-" Ireland: "...to Germany, for the tragic suicide of their beloved moustache man. RIP" 🇮🇪
@@jacob4920 Kinda based ngl. Plus fuck FDR tbh. Hitler had basically zero negative impact on the world today while FDR turned America into an invasive hyperpower that ruins any country that looks at it the wrong way.
Lol, i never knew churchhill offered to return Northern Ireland if we joined. That would have been wild. But Churchill was almost certainly lying, lol.
The Emergency, a great bit of JC history that doesn’t at all address the fact that the Irish decision was utterly cowardly and driven by the unprecedented idiocy of DeValera.
@@niallhiggins2342 Cowardly or smart enough not to get involved in a war that had nothing to do with them? Dumbass imagine thinking it's bad to keep your people safe from the horrors of war especially when your nearest "ally" used Irish regiments for fodder during WW1.
As a Dubliner who's street was bombed in WW2 this is as good and detailed 3 and a half minute video of our complicated relationships we have with ww2 that you will find
Also notable that Irish people who did volunteer for the British army were ostracized and shamed for years after, as the Irish people saw them as "traitors"
Yes the ones that deserted the Irish Army in a time of international crisis were shunned. This gets into turned into a myth that Irish people were pro-Nazi or some other bullshit
So did Poles who signed Volkslist. After the war, new Communist government accused many people of collaboration with Germany and purged them (around 20 thousand people died this way) - of course, with majority of them being just AK soldiers uncomfortable for Communism.
Churchill: "We'll give you Northern Ireland if you join the war on our side!". De Valera wasn't that stupid. This would create an ethnic conflict in Ireland and the British "would have been forced" to send troops to protect the protestant minority and in the process occupying Ireland. It was very difficult for Churchill to swallow that Ireland had left his beloved empire and he couldn't stop them. If he just knew what was awaiting that empire. But de Valera acted in the interest of the Irish people and called Churchills bluf.
False. S-Ireland whined when Ulster opted to stay British in the '20's, and postwar [uptil the present] tried every dirty trick in the book to get it. It's both the N-Irish and UK that have said no.
@@jimtaylor294 you really don't know our history if you think we tried to get them or still try. Did you not see Northern Ireland in the 70s-90s? Who would want that? They spent decades slaughtering each other and the British had to sort it out by paying for it, and handling it with their army. So Britain kept Northern Ireland and suffered miserably with it and still does now. They don't even have a government anymore again. While down South we got rich, and became a hugely successful country despite British attempts to stop us. Win for the Irish and suffering for the British. Even now if the British try anything they get backhanded by Europe and the US, especially the US because Americans are obsessed with us. And Europe values us as a very important member especially since Brexit.
@@jimtaylor294 They didn't opt for anything Jim it was partioned by Lloyd George and Churchill. Unionist leader, Edward Carson was disgusted at partition. The 1918 General Election Irish Republican movements won more than 75% of the vote. Unionists only took a clear majority in Co. Down and Antrim.
@@kyleleonard2014 Britain would’ve benefited off of having Ireland out of the UK, since now they can control the border and make it easier/difficult for you to trade with your biggest trading partner. The British will never need to try anything because you don’t prove to be significant to them unless you commit a terror attack. You’re also thinking of Americans with Irish diaspora, but you forget that England has the biggest diaspora out of the entire British Isles and the governments are borderline intertwined between the UK & USA. Those two countries are inseparable, no way a country like Ireland could change that. Ironically it would be Russia and China who’d back you up, in an effort to portray the west as evil and the USA would back the UK like it has in every single war ever. You have the population of the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, and only half of London. You have ironically inherited the arrogance of Britain, but without the success. Fascinating.
Ireland had nothing to gain, even north Ireland would have been a problem as this dude said. They mission was to keep their citizens safe and not to get bombed which they accomplished just like Switzerland Sweden and Spain. Love Ireland from an Irish living in Pakistan.
1st, ireland wouldn't of been bombed, the Germans bomb raf base because its a smart moved, and hitler bombed english city's because raf bombed Berlin and hitler got mad There was no reason to bomb ireland, not while Britain was still fighting him 2nd, Unlucky 🇵🇰 < 🇮🇳
Given that Churchill's other words consisted of "Hey France, want to give up your sovereignty so you can keep fighting against Germany?", it's not like Churchill is a particularly good negotiator either.
Why? It's not like he was a famed liar like Hitler. I totally get why De Valera didn't *like* the old imperialist. But Churchill pretty much wore his heart on his sleeve - he wasn't really a cagey fellow diplomatically. Very much of the "Here's what we want, now how many people do we need to blow up to get it?" school of thought. It's not a very deception-heavy approach. @daevious That wasn't the proposal. In the chaos of the fall of France it got misinterpreted, but the actual offer was a full merger of the two nations, not one being subordinated to the other. The logistical issues would have been ridiculously complex (for one, what happens to the King?), but the base of the deal was straight equality.
@@Alsadius It was a bluff offer History Matters pointed it out too. One he didnt consult anyone on it, two it would lead to a civil between the two Irelands.
Many Irish people volunteered for the British armed forces (some deserting from the Irish armed forces in order to do so). Irish people lived and worked in Britain during the war, keeping important services going, including producing materials for the war.
@1:25 These 'Treaty Ports' had been unilaterally returned to Ireland by Chamberlain in 1938. If they had remained in British possession, it would have been unlikely that Ireland would have escaped the ravages of WW2 like it did for the most part.
This is very true. It was good of Neville Chamberlain to enable Irish neutrality (though he probably thought those ports would be more trouble than they were worth).
my granny lived in a non bombed area in WWII, but she recalled the fact that you could hear the Luftwaffe planes flying overhead going over to bomb Belfast and Derry. Also, something HM didn't mention here is De Valera also sent fire engines up from Southern Ireland to Belfast during the Belfast Blitz.
@@PinkBroBlueRope reason why it's sometimes called Londonderry is because the layout the city was built was similar to that of London besides us Ireland call it Derry and plus the football club is called Derry City not Londonderry City
Another excellent video! Would've loved to hear more of the Donegal Air Corridor, the ÉIRE signs along the coast, de Valera's message of condolences to the US on the death of FDR, the Dublin Fire Brigade helping with the aftermath of the Belfast Blitz (including the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alfie Byrne, hanging onto a fire engine the whole way), or Ireland giving aid to ordinary people in Germany after the War (there's a monument in St Stephen's Green in Dublin given to Ireland by Germany as a thank you gift during the 1990's)
another thing that wasn't mentioned there is that Ireland just recently got 3 ports back in Ulster and was a young sovereign state. If Ireland joined the allies and had British troops on the Republics soil there was bound to be a resurgence of the ira in fears that they wouldn't leave
Ireland was supposed to be given home rule from the British after they joined them in WW1, this didn't come to fruition though. In Ireland, there is a subtle, disgust towards British history and it's figures due to our past relations with them. We do understand it was government and monarchy who abused our country though, not the people.
"was the goverment, not the people" My grandpa could laugh at that. He used to say "no matter if its a democracy or not, the people choose their goverment, and their policies. If british didnt do much with the ireland famine, it means didnt care, so ireland people wont care in the future UK troubles.
@@sanhcman666 I think you are confused and don't understand the situation. The British common people had no say In what happened in Ireland. People like Henry VIII and other monarchs made those decisions, do you think he asked paupers and shoe shiners what they thought about it?
@@timdoherty6705 there's nothing known as "scots Irish" in Ireland. The Orange Order is a fraternity of protestants who commemorate 17th century religious battles, these people typically endorse the union but they are fading from history.
I heard on an interview with a news person that even into the late ninties British weather forcasts were just Irish weather forcasts "a day later and a bit milder"
I guess they remembered how the British offered the Arabs their own independent kingdom if they fought the Turks in WW1 only to break the agreement to please the French.
@@ihateregistrationbul Well they offered Home Rule to Irish nationalists and promised the it wouldn't happen to Unionists if they recruit in WW1, which they both did. Of course it was BS in the end they had no intention of Home Rule. The two sides pitted against each other for recruitment. That was Lloyd George and of course Churchill again which also is responsible for partition and the notorious Black and Tans.
^ Complete BS. Home Rule was to be enacted straight after the war. German backed Terrorists though scuppered all of that, with the Protestants choosing to remain British rather than be supplicant to a genocide prone catholic majority state.
@@jimtaylor294 Jim is clear with all the BS your posting that you're a bitter pallet collecting W⚓. Your fellow huns signed a covenant in blood vowing to start a war of Home Rule was passed. Ironically using guns they smuggled in from Germany.
De Valera sent fire engines and ambulances to Belfast when it was bombed in the Easter blitz in 1941. He also permitted Short Sunderland aircraft (based in lough Foyle) to overfly county Donegal in the hunt for U boats in the Atlantic
@@avery11123 no as technical it was humanitarian aid or medical aid so technically we were still neutral but the Germans then "accidentally" bombed Dublin afterwards so we had a warning.
United Kingdom: "I have no idea why those Irish aren't eager to help us!" Republic of Ireland: "Do want the list of our historical grievances to be chronological, alphabetical, or in order of importance?"
Churchill in particular would have been a divisive character in the eyes of most of Ireland’s population, considering his actions in the 1920’s. In fact for the same reasons he found himself untrusted/ unpopular among British people at the same time. It’s worth remembering that he came into office only after all diplomatic actions regarding appeasement had failed. Once a European peace was achieved he was subsequently voted out. As an antidote to Hitler he was just what was needed but not the right person to win the trust of the Irish.
I often say that the Irish were caught between a racist, concentration-camp-owning government bent on global domination and constantly threatening to invade on the one side, and Germany on the other. I'm not surprised we went with neutrality...
^ Blarney. Spain invented Concentration Camps, not the UK :P . Also: No. S-Ireland has vety little in terms of *actual* grievances; just tons of contrived copium for the sake of national creation myth making.
@@jimtaylor294 what is s ireland? Also what myths is there to be told about grievences here in ireland? The famines devastation being as bad as it was due to the incompetence of the british government, no representation for ireland in westminister and little help in dealing with the food crisis and the blight, or with Cromwells genocide acroos the island such as in drogheda and killing at estimates of up to 600,000 people, or the fact ireland is still divided as a nation itself to this day?
Pft, Just point to Easter 1916 and leave it at that. If the UK couldn't figure out why Ireland wouldn't join their side after reminding them of THAT moment in history, they never will.
Not gonna lie, when I saw Ireland covered with the Swiss Flag (without reading the title), I thought that Switzerland conquered Ireland. I was like WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?
You know, following the theme of "Answering questions you wouldn't think to ask", I'd like to see a video on how the US reacted to the rise of Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars that followed in Europe
I completely understand men's physiological needs, but it's not the same to openly expose this misunderstanding. It happens when a person just wants to jerk off, but to put it on public display, it's just disgusting on your part.
@@redtaiga6576 Mes voisins savent qui était chez moi hier. Ils sont intéressés par qui est venu avant-hier. C'est leur position de vie active, appeler régulièrement la police!
My granddad fought in WW2, had a ton of medals, but he never spoke about it. Think he drove the tank. He joined the British military like many other Irish men because they needed the money to support their families. Many Irish men fought in WW2, it’s just that they fought in the British military not the Irish. My aunt apparently traded one of the medals for marbles with a local boy.
Correction: Ireland still had some few vestiges of British power in the time period being discussed. It was not until 1948 (effectively/actually 1949) that Ireland fully and completely separated itself from the United Kingdom, as until then it still had the monarchy.
That's why Poland refused to peace offer from Germany - Poles knew exactly, that if Germany is planning something changing something about armistice, then it's going to end, sooner or later - and this small piece of land (,,Sea Corridor") would definetaly not be enough for Germans.
@@Admiral45-10 One would think Czechoslovakia's outcome would have been the reason they threw out the German offer. "Oh, sure. You'll get that little slice of Poland... and then you'll get everything else by force, a week later. No, buddy, we've seen this movie before." The sad part is that they were f*cked, no matter what they decided to do.
Many did they were promised the north back if we did. So near a thousand of Irish men and women enlisted and died in vain again, soldiers, nurses etc and just like after the first war when we were promised home rule and it was reneged on.
Ireland stayed out of the war primarily because it didn't *need* to join the war. In hindsight, almost all of the countries that joined the war had no choice. There's few examples of countries who joined that didn't have to (Brazil for example). The United States, the Soviet Union, France, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, China, were all directly attacked. Others like Romania and Bulgaria, joined to maintain their autonomy. Neutral countries like Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ireland sat it out because their geographic positions meant they had no need to fight. World war 2 was so brutal that almost any country that could sit it out did. I think any country would want to avoid famine, active warzones, and genocide on its own soil. Europe was so destroyed by the war that it arguably directly led to the EEC and later the EU.
@@jimtrack3786 And what about protecting your own nation first ? The British did abandon the French in the early stage of the war and they even killed French soldiers directly later on so why should anyone be ashamed of not wanting to die for them ? They did what they deemed was good, so did anyone else
@@jimtrack3786 it took Ireland over 100 years to recover from the famine, a country that had a population of 8 million reduced to 2.6 million, not sure if there was a lot of resources to be involved in a war
You did a good job covering Irish neutrality. Keep up the good work mate. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪 You also nailed the pronounciation of Taoiseach. Another thing is that Ireland also recognised Vichy France over Free France. (So did a few other states including the United States, but you know what I mean)
@Xterenix as a proud Irish citizen, I respect the American people as ye defend the free world. Oh and u are a big trading partner for us as well. Much love from Ireland 💚💚💚 🇮🇪💚💙🇺🇸
For anyone interested in this subject, I recommend the book "That Neutral Island", by Claire Wills. A very detailed analysis of everyday life in Eire during the Emergency.
My friends grandfather was a prison guard were downed German pilots were held. None of the Germans tried to escape, they were safe in Ireland, treated well and even let out of prison to go to dances on Saturday. When a German officer asked him why they let them out he said "sure it's an island, where are you gonna go?"
One German officer tried to encourage the others to make a break for it but the rest refused and reported him, saying they would rather stay prisoners in Ireland than return home and be sent to fight in Russia.
Lmao
Much better than the Russian gulags
Where they allowed to stay in Ireland after the war?
@@imperialrebel1256 I believe they were repatriated to Germany but some returned to Ireland to live when they could. I think it was a legal issue thing.
Wow, such a cool story!
Ireland: Doesn't join the war
The Allies: "UN membership is only for the winners. You get to be all alone"
Spain: _"Just the two of us.."_
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us...
Switzerland: Welcome to the club.
You and I
De Valera was half Spanish anyway so ... Almost a double ..
Some of the shots are so well set up and dripping with irony or humor that I have to pause the video. I think everyone wishes there could be more 10 minute videos but it’s great to see that you’re developing the shorter snappier format as best you can.
My idea with the 10 minute format I he makes videos with topics that need more time added to the
(eg League of Nations, Vietnam war etc...)
@@chickenlord2757 last I heard he had made a conscious decision not to make the ten minute videos anymore
@@willandersen3695 can u elaborate?
If I was a history teacher, I would try to begin each subject that I taught with one of these videos. They're short, they outline exactly the correct talking points of each subject, and they contain most of the facts that the majority of history exams would be asking the kids, anyway, so the videos are actually great study material.
@@nadarfa9413 He said it was due to youtube's seemingly random demonetisation. 10-minute videos are a lot of work, so if they get demonetised, he loses out financially quite a bit. If the shorter videos get demonetised, it's easier to take the hit since there are more of them.
Just a minor point; the bombings of Dublin were accidental. The German state actually apologised and gave money to those harmed by the blasts.
What about the time the Irish sent firefighters to help in the aftermath of bombings in the North and Hitler bombed Dublin in retaliation
I was thinking that when i heard it, as it wouldnt really make sense for germans to bomb Dublin with everything said before. aircraft navigation was so primitive at the time, they used maps and compass to get around and easily got lost at night or when weather was bad. Must be a crazy feeling to have bombed a city that you werent even supposed to bomb.
Irish Nazis@@Diamond-bd5ox
@@Diamond-bd5oxThats not true, there was an accidental bombing of Dublin due to lack of navigation. Additionally Germany apologised profusely, fearing Irelands entry into the war as it would strengthen Britain.
How could the Luftwaffe be so off course?
Me: huh why would he say no that seems like such a good offer.
Also me but 5 seconds later: yeah no that’s fair
I had the exact same thought process
Same
For some added context, De Valera heavily disagreed with the partition of Ireland and outright rebelled against the fledgling government over the issue, believing it was either all Ireland independence or nothing. So turning down the offer says a lot about how shrewd a politician he was (as does the mere fact that he came to rule a country after previously playing a role as a failed insurgent against it, in addition to somehow getting Ireland out of the war when a condition for their independence was to assist Britain in just such a scenario). Check out the speech he made just after the war in response to Churchill insulting him for being neutral.
Ditto, haha.
@freneticness _ Anything but- you need to do a little more reading up on De Valera , the Troubles of 1914-16, read up on Churchill's long running knee jerk refusal to any proposal of an any sort of Independent Ireland, going back to before WW1. FR
These are the questions we need answering…even if we didn’t ask them.
I love the nigga that makes this channel
@@internationalrtg5602 ong
@@internationalrtg5602 Amen
This is one of the few questions people probably asked.
Apparently, that Hitler guy could be a real jerk sometimes.
Ireland had lots of four leaf clovers and also….
“What was Vietnam like after the Vietnam war?” would be a good future video idea.
Economic collapse
Yes, this one. Just what happened afterwards when the N Vietnamese took over
real bad governing with China advisors, economy is suck, war with khmer rouge and china border conflict,…. things spiraling down until the “Renovate” policy start, accepting capitalism and foreign invests along with many government reform, currently, they’re doing fine
@@icecoldpolitics8890 shot all wealthy people, political opponent, intellectuals. Economy collapse, sides with USSR in the Sino-Soviet split, now enemy with China. Goes to war with Cambodia, which sided with China, the Kharm Rouge tried exporting their genocide to Vietnam and Vietnam wanted to created a "Indochina Union" led by themselves. Gets invaded by China for daring to topple the Khamr Rouge. Hyper-inflation, finds out socialism doesn't work, goes to capitalism. USSR collapse, becomes sort of friends with the US.
Edit for Grammer
It’s shamrocks, four leaf clovers aren’t an Irish thing
Churchill: How would you like a Northern Ireland:
Ireland: You shouldn't, you wouldn't and you can't.
😂
'And we wantn't'
Lying through his teeth he was....
How would You like Northern Ireland? ....... "emmm..... we haven't been able to, and we won't be able to!" "NO DEAL"!!!!
@@gloomfiend please translate to English! LOL
Churchill didn't just "consider" invading Ireland, he openly threatened De Valera with it.
@UC7UTnD3D99LP8kAU4sV-PFw hot take only among Brits
@UCcbVdLgz6uK_KLeAUiNLyhg Churchill is also the person who regularly go to ww2 front line just for the hell of it, so it is definitely not for the lack of guts.
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 Can't say I blame him. De Valera was an asshole who seemed to go out of his way to piss off the British during a time of war when the freedom of both of their nations were at stake.
@@girlgarde British have only themselves to blame for years of hostility prior. Neutrality was the correct choice on principle.
@@girlgarde worth it
Fun fact, the Irish Govt also established the Donegal Corridor, which allowed British planes to fly between N Ireland and the Atlantic by overflying a bit of Irish territory, thus avoiding a long journey around the north of the island. One plane that made use of this corridor was a Catalina seaplane that pinpointed the location of the Bismarck, causing the series of events that led to her destruction.
Ireland was probably just doing it`s bit for the environment.
Eh, i think it was called the Erne corridor after the river that flowed from Fermanagh. Im from quite near there.
Honestly what would the Irish have done had the British invaded their airspace? Just saying Britain was a far more powerful country.
@@winnienguyen4420 written a very polite letter.
@@IceWolfLoki - In Irish...
It's rather strange that the Soviet Union were so opposed to Ireland joining the UN when they didn't object to Sweden joining - a country that had sold Germany most of the steel and ball bearings they needed to invade the Soviet Union.
my though, though with no research: The USSR probably believed they could influence Sweden since it was close to their new boarders and would be a important trade partner to the USSR, Ireland on the other hand was surrounded by "Allied" nations, and would be influenced by them. So Sweden would be an "unofficial" extra vote in the USSRs interests while Ireland would be an extra vote in 'Allies" interest. Therefor keeping Ireland out would indirectly strengthen the USSRs power projection.
Because Sweden was the only country who told them(through the britts) about operation Barbarosa which Sweden had managed to intercept plans for. Which of course Stalin didnt believe because of the Molotov pact with the germans.
Probably because the Soviets feared Sweden joining NATO and siding with the west. Ireland on the other hand wouldnt really matter if it did. It gave little strategic value to the Soviets
Another possible reason is that the Soviets may not have been sure whether to recognize the Irish government. The Irish Republican Army in the post-war era were the remnants of the original IRA that rejected a treaty with Britain to accept a partial Irish republic with limited freedom until long after the war, with the IRA groups that accepted the treaty becoming the army of the Irish republic. As the IRA did espionage for the Soviets (and indeed the Nazis at one shameful moment), it's possible the Soviets didn't want to damage relations with a potential revolutionary movement down the line. Sure enough, a great deal of weapons were obtained from the KGB by the Marxist 'Official Irish Republican Army' (which formed the main body of the IRA after the 'Provisional IRA' split in 1969, soon overtaking the Officials) in the early 70s before they went on ceasefire.
It never came to anything, but there was a real chance of a Marxist armed revolt in Ireland in parts of the 20th century, even beating the Bolsheviks to the punch with James Connolly's openly socialist Irish Citizens Army taking part in the 1916 easter rising, which then prompted the war for independence.
Did Sweden harbour Nazi terrorists like Otto Skorzeny post war? Realistically it could just be a vote counting exercise. Maybe they just figured that the Irish would always back the British, as they would expect their satellites to do. Another possibility is they were screwing with whomever was for it.
*Churchill:* "Join the war & we will give you Northern Ireland."
*Ireland watches episodes of History Matters on UA-cam:* "... and so the British came up with an ingenious plan - they lied."
Naw, I feel Churchill was probably sincere with the offer. Truth is, Churchill didn't give a whit about the Irish one way or the other. But as the video pointed out, transferring Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic wasn't something Churchill had the power to unilaterally do; it was a certainty there would be strong opposition in Parliament and Northern Ireland. Also, lip service to the contrary, I suspect the Irish government wasn't all that enthused at the prospect of having a bunch of malcontents suddenly incorporated into the country.
@@alabamaal225 Churchill was seldom sincere about anything or anyone. He was Machiavellian in the extreme. He deliberately failed to pass on information regarding the presence of U boats and so the Lusitania was sacrificed so America would join the war . Horrible little alcoholic.
@@alabamaal225 northern Ireland belongs to the Irish not the English invaders
the lie a disgusting but often used tactic
@@CubeInspector that makes every Irish Catholic redundant, they’re just Norman pretenders stemming from Henry II of England
In fact by your criteria the only true Irishmen are severely inbred
“A bit of a rough time”
- The Blitz simplified.
A very British description of the Blitz.
Stiff upper lip and all that, what what
It's you, AGAIN! I see you on videos everywhere! The YT algorithm really wants us to be together. Wanna get a pint together?
I always wondered why the mustache fool began to fight russia when uk was not defeated yet.
Maybe some of the stories are true, he either wanted victories or he was cocaine addict.
Im not absolving him of the horrible camps, just wandering of his strategic fails.
A bit of a RAF time
A few things omitted here. Ireland had a civil war following the war of independence from British rule. Both of these were fresh in peoples' minds, meaning neutrality had cross party support and wasn't only the preserve of de Valera.
It wasn't just the fact of the Civil War being fresh in people's minds, it was the damage to infrastructure, too, which was in a lot of cases conspicuous enough to give people flashbacks To that Civil War and the war against the British that preceded it.
Treaty Ports weren't handed back until 1938 ...Churchill railed against the handover of same in his broadcasted interviews, calling Dev in same Mr...DEVIL...era
And more importantly, the IRA were deeply antisemitic and ideological allies of Hitler, who wanted him to kill the British and published poems saying so in their newsletters. The IRA gave aid to terrorist groups around the world such as Hezbollah, and are one of the most antisemitic and anti-west countries in Europe. If Americans only knew how much the Irish hate them, they would not HQ all their companies there.
This is a complicated issue that wouldn’t fit in a UA-cam comment section, but the IRA of 1940 where not the armed forces of Ireland.
And the fact that Britain still had control of the 6 Counties. Germany never invaded or stole anything from Ireland. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. German submariners came up on the west coast to get water and other supplies too. Churchill's talk about returning the 6 Counties was empty promises. He sent the Black and Tans in.
Shame there wasn't time in the video to talk about the hilarious joint Allied-Axis internment camp in the Curragh (yes as in one and only one camp) , which was were active combatants (fighter pilots, U-boat crews etc) from either side that ended up in Ireland were kept, would have been a fun animation for the video =D
For reference by mid war Allied service personnel that landed in Ireland that were non active combatants were taken to the border and told walk across.
There were 3 very VERY senior US generals that were traveling to Britain as passenger on a US Army Air Corp plane that force landed in the west of Ireland, there were considered non active combatants and so allowed to travel to Northern Ireland. The incidence was only declassified by the US in the mid 90s I believe.
That sounds like great material for a comedy.
That would be a great topic for a future video!
You ever read the book Guests of the State? It's all about this and is really excellent!
Class! Just Googled it! For anyone that is interested:
In Ireland, the Second World War was euphemistically called “The Emergency”; the country was neutral, prisoners of war were “guests of the state”, and they were interned in very comfortable camp: the Curragh.
When the Second World War broke out, Éamon de Valera, then taoiseach (prime minister) and later president of Ireland, reaffirmed the country’s neutrality. Irish ports and airspace were off limits to Axis and Allied forces. The government built No. 2 Internment Camp, also known as K-Lines Camp, on the east side of the Curragh army base in County Kildare, west of Dublin. Any Axis or Allied soldiers who landed in Ireland were interned there. Some of them were bomber pilots who mistook Ireland for Britain; some had to make emergency landings; and some were German aircraft or U-boat crews who landed in Ireland to escape the horrors of war. Around 2,000 Irish Republican Army members were also interned during the war, in No. 1 Internment Camp on the west side of the Curragh base.
K-Lines was divided into two compounds separated by a fence topped with barbed wire. The 200 or so Germans were in G camp; the 40 British and Allied internees in B camp. Security was very tight to begin with, but procedures were gradually relaxed after a visit by German ambassador Eduard Hempel in 1940. Later, prisoners on both sides were allowed leave the camp if they gave their word, in writing, to return by an agreed time and not to take part in any activity connected with the war. Initially, parole was for three hours in the afternoons, but this was gradually extended to include two nights a week so that they could go to the races at the nearby Curragh racecourse, or to one of the three cinemas in the area. The prisoners were given a weekly allowance, which was billed to their respective governments. Some of them met local Irish women when they were on parole, married and settled in Ireland.
Towards the end of 1943 most of the Allied prisoners were secretly released, and 20 German prisoners were allowed move to Dublin to enrol at university. The Curragh Camp now serves as a training centre for the Irish Defence Forces. The camp’s story during the Second World War was dramatised in the 1998 film The Brylcreem Boys, with Gabriel Byrne as camp commander.
Ralf Sotschek (of goethe.de)
The sad thing for a lot of the Irish soldiers who fought in WW2 for Britain was that when they came home they weren't seen as heroes by most as they fought for Britain and they weren't praised or thanked by the British as they were part of the "cowardly Irish". Their heroes who fought for a war that wasn't theirs to fight and fought for no glory or fame but because they deemed it the morally correct thing to do. Just another reason I'm proud to be Irish and despite the shit DeValera gets he kept true to his word and deserves praise for how he managed Ireland throughout the war.
They were pretty cowardly for not declaring war on Germany after sinking their ships though. That to me is just ludicrous. Can't really imagine any other country allowing someone to just sink their ships and then send the perpetrators a letter of condolence after the dictator who started the whole war and killed millions of innocent people decided to shoot himself. Sounds pretty shameful to me.🤔
@@winnienguyen4420 not really. That entire body of water was infested with submarines enforcing blockades on Britain. It was inevitable that Irish ships trading with Britain would be sunk. That's what happens when you ignore a blockage
@@finnl6887 sorry but I just can't get over the whole sending a letter of condolence to the Nazis after Hitler and his wife committed suicide. I just find that to be very odd. It would be like my country of Vietnam sending a letter of condolence to Japan after they executed Hideki Tojo or another Japanese war criminal.
@@winnienguyen4420 I mean, if you consider Tojo himself a war criminal despite all evidence to the contrary simply because he was a Japanese figurehead I really doubt it's possible to make any headway clarifying something like why the Irish would've bothered with the letter
@@winnienguyen4420 It was a condolences to the people of Germany for the hurt they were feeling at the time and as well as sympathy for the inevitable gang rape spree the Allies went on afterwards. If it puts it into context for you then your government sent condolences to Russia on the death of Stalin, despite his killing millions of people too.
Churchill: I’m gonna make you an offer you can’t refuse
Ireland: you legally cannot fulfill the offer
Churchill: And I took that personally
I doubt Churchill was really planning on letting Ireland keep the north. Especially since he had a plan to invade if needed. The man probably anticipated some civil war to excuse Ulster's restoration.
Even De Valera saw through that deal
If you understand ANYTHING of the ABSOLUTE BS Ireland had got from England for the last few hundred years... they're VERY lucky the Irish didn't side with Germany!!
@@OffGridInvestor They practically did, they even sent their condolences after Hitler's death. Only reason they worked with the Allies at all was because if they allied the Nazis they'd get nearly instantly invaded
@@OffGridInvestor they pretty much did.
@@mumflrpumble9107
The Irish Free State NEVER sided with Hitler's Germany.
The reality is that Ireland was neutral, and most of its actions benefitted the British, and more especially the USA, after the Americans entered the war.
1:31 Should be pointed out that German attacks against Ireland were cases of accidental mistaken identity. The aerial bombing was an incident where a German pilot made a navigational error and bombed Ireland, thinking he was over England. For that reason a giant sky facing IRL was placed along the coast to avoid later mishaps.
The signs say ÉIRE
Britain should have done that too, putting EIRE throughout the countryside
@@Joker-yw9hl "Modern problems require modern solutions" 😂
Germany used the same "zee whoops!" excuse when bombing London for the first time too.
The key difference if the UK had a modern airforce... and S-Ireland... didn't.
(I'm sure the Dubliners would have *loved* to have flattened a German city or two after being bombed... but cursing was all they could do)
@@Joker-yw9hl LMAO
As an Irishman, kudos for using the term “Taoiseach” instead of PM!
why is that pronounced the way that is thats worse than french
It's the same thing. Ireland uses both English and Irish.
@@ilikecheese4518 It is an irish word...
Disgrace how we even need to congratulate people for calling the Taoiseach by its proper title
@@maximilianolimamoreira5002 "it's a phonetic language"
I would like to nitpick that the *orthography* is phonemic. Calling the whole language that doesn't make sense.
My grandad was Irish and fought in WWII because he felt he should. I think he really took to heart the "All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing" quote. I have the utmost respect for any man that takes a stand against evil. Far too many people today look the other way rather than help others.
The black and tans shot at my grandfather who was just ploughing his fields so maybe there was a lot of evil happening and a lot of people ignoring it for hundreds of years !
"All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing"
Too bad the genocidal raping pillaging Brits won't ever get a taste of the karma they so richly deserve.
Qaqapera
The sad part is plenty of evil coming from Britain, which is why most Irish didn't sign up to fight
Very good. No man dishonored himself by enlisting against the Axis. They were bastards who needed to be taken down.
I suddenly remember that one Archer episode where he thought the Irish were part of the Axis powers cause he misunderstood what his mother said about her hating the Irish for not joining the Allies, and everyone repeatedly pointing out the Irish were neutral.
The hilarious part is when archer gets asked at the beginning which is the murder? and everyone is from the axis except the Killer.
I’m glad there are other people of culture out there
A Side note: De Valera responded to Churchill's complaint about Ireland's neutrality after the war and said "Britain had fought Germany on its "own" as did Ireland fight britain"
Yet more proof that De Valera was a POS
Mic drop
@@dewittbourchier7169 Disagree. He protected his peopleand when we look england's history with ireland it was a right choice.
@@mertcanasfg7986 Honestly. Nothing wrong with trying to keep your people away from war.
@@Eren03eren But there is in being a holocaust denier.
Saying "Irelands Taoiseach" instead of "Irelands prime minister" is a massive thumbs up from me! Good man yourself!
Pronunciation was bang on as well
That title is hard to say so we English speaking countries will just call them prime ministers
Fun thing is I understood it even though I‘m German ☺️
@@attiepollard7847 Tee-shock not really that hard to say
Totally agree
Churchill: "Join us and we'll give you Northern Ireland"
Ireland: "Do I look like fookin WW1 Italy to you?"
or ww1 arabs.
even later brits lied to india independance and got closer to war but gandhi called the bluff.
trusting an anglo-saxon descendant is a fools erand.
Archer: They were Axis?
Lana: NO, THEY WERE NEUTRAL YOU SON OF A "%"!#!4
I love Archer
"and I'm actually Canadian"
Archer: "Wait, they were Nazis?"
Lana: "No."
Archer: "Well, they weren't Japanese ..."
Lana: "Neutral!"
Are we not doing “phasing” anymore?
An American plane 'Taint a Bird landed in a small town in Cork on APRIL 7th, 1943. The crew was ‘detained' in the local hotel. Much partying and drinking took place. But their pet monkey which they brought with them died from alcohol poisoning. He was buried in the back garden of the hotel and their is a plaque to him. Guy Tice, the youngest of the crew members, made a return trip to the town in the mid-1990s.
I can confirm this story as true.
@@taintabird23 were u part of that crew?
@@lunalingo4461Yes, but I'm dead now as you can see from my avatar.
Another point to make was that Ireland was a relatively new country that just got it's independence and came out of a bloody civil war, so I believe Eamon did not want to jeopardize our freedom by joining any side in the event we lose the political gains we've made in the last 20 or so years leading up to WW2
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. At the time Ireland was not in a state where it could handle a full-scale war even with allies, and since it was not in immediate danger itself, it didn't really need to, either. I find it reminiscent of position the U.S. had when the French revolution occurred.
Honestly it was the best decision you made to stay out of the war, as a Scotsman I am massively jealous you managed to secure your independence from the crown and in the same life time stuck your finger up at a pointless world war where countless people died for no reason, whoever was running Ireland in the early 1920s and in the 40s you should be proud of their decision making, they certainly knew what they were doing and Ireland is still benefiting today from their decisions, Scottish, Northern Irish and Welsh economies are all lower in GDP in comparison to Ireland.
@@WilliamWallace42 you talk as if Scotland was in the same position as Ireland before it got independence, as an oppressed people, and not the actual integral part of the kingdom willing and disproportionate participant of the empire that it actually was.
The Ulster plantations were started by Scots, and like already mentioned, they made up a disproportionate amount of colonisers and colonial authorities in the empire compared to their actual population. It’s dishonest and pathetic after all of that to turn around with some “England bad” rhetoric.
@@Tom-2142 At the time of 1920 and 1940 Scotland was no longer on equal footing with England and were long away from the glory days of the empire, by that point how much respect do you think people like Churchill had for countries like Scotland, he was racist and looked down on everybody especially us, a small country of 5 million now has to bolster the weight of the debt sustained by world war 2 created by the UK government mismanagement of the empire, all the colonies were lost and the amount of debt a nation of over 60 million can generate is huge and now small Scotland has to bear the brunt of it, Margaret Thatcher also stole the oil from the North Sea and sold it from underneath Scotland and used the money to give herself and all her friends in parliament tax reductions, at the very same time Norway had access to very similar amounts of oil and created a private trust fund that is now the richest in the world of it's kind worth billions and it's enriched the economy of the country, Norway is still profiting from it's oil today and Scotland doesn't. The industry in Scotland is worthless to most of the local population. Ireland now has one of the best gdp per capita in the world alongside all the other small European countries, guess what Scotland has in common with them? We are also small and European with a lot of sparsely populated land, we have a country much bigger than the population and it's filled with natural resources, Scotland has one of the best renewable energy potential in Europe, we have all the factors of being a small successful rich European country and the only reason we are behind all of our neighbour's is because we are locked into a union that hasn't been good for the economy of the country in over 100 years.
But it was okay to watch others lose theirs?
Wow. This was interesting and well done. Felt like you didn’t dumb it down too much but still kept it easy to understand.
I love having answers for question I didn’t ask
I love seeing a comment copied by 8 years old 1000 times
@@gabrielcaldura8782 I'm not sure it was the guys intention to make this sound rude
@@fly8641 I know
@@fly8641 bt stop copying the same comment
@@gabrielcaldura8782 for sure, it was it
Unless this comment still copied from fresh times it aired
Many Irishmen fought in WW2, My Grandad and his brothers who were living in London all joined up. After the war there were mixed opinions of this when they went home to visit. I asked my Grandad why he joined up rather than go back to Ireland, he simply said it was the right thing to do.
My four great uncles, who were brothers and from Dublin, joined WW2. When I asked my dad why, he replied, "They needed a job!"
While theres many pointless wars in history, ww2 was different due to hitlers ethnic cleansing/genocide. If Hitler won ww2, he wouldn't have stopped and most likely would have invaded Ireland and sent many minority to 'camps'
The state didn't formally recognise or apologise for shunning Irish combatants in the British army in WW2 until fairly recently. Hopefully the recent downturn with Brexit is just a blip in the generally improving state of relations amongst these islands.
Many Irishmen joined the Royal Navy and were very valued. Naval ratings at that time were still considered to be pressed men, so Irishmen who joined did not have to swear allegiance to the Crown, as they did with the other services ( It was hidden in the papers they signed). The largest Royal Naval Veterans Association outside if the UK was in Cork, in the Republic.
My great grandad served in the British navy in ww2, for the same reason as it was the morally correct thing to do
The tricky situation Ireland was in so carefully and briefly explained. The humour sharp as always. This has been one of your best vids, and that is saying a lot.
@Ryan You yourself made an actual grammatical error after criticising him for an alternative spelling...
Don't forget that during the Home Rule crisis decades before, Churchill and Lloyd George tried to screw Dev so badly that he sent Michael Collins to sign the treaty to avoid the blame. Churchill would, and often did, say anything to get his way and everyone knew it
Good on him.
Churchill’s politics towards Ireland were a major factor in him losing his seat in the 1922 general election, something my home city of Dundee is quite proud of.
Wow, almost like he was a leader with balls isnt it?
I don't have a whole lot of time for De Valera but:
“the approaches which the Southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by hostile aircraft and U-boats. This was a deadly moment in our life…However with a restraint and poise with which history will find few parallels His Majesty’s government never laid a violent hand upon them...and we left the de Valera government to frolic with the Germans and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart’s content.”
-- Winston Churchill May 13th 1945
“Mr Churchill makes it clear that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated our neutrality and that he would justify his action by Britain’s necessity,”
“It seems strange to me that Mr Churchill does not see that this, if accepted, would mean that Britain’s necessity would become a moral code and that, when this necessity was sufficiently great, other people’s rights were not to count.
“It is quite true that other great powers believe in this same code - in their own regard - and have behaved in accordance with it. That is precisely why we have the disastrous successions of wars - World War Number One and World War Number Two - and shall there be World War Number Three?”
“It is, indeed, hard for the strong to be just to the weak. But acting justly always has its rewards. By resisting his temptation in this instance, Mr Churchill, instead of adding another horrid chapter to the already bloodstained record of relations between England and this country, has advanced the cause of international morality an important step.”
"'Mr Churchill is proud of Britain's stand alone after France had fallen and before America entered the war. Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone, not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoilations, famine, massacres, in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but that each time on returning to consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul."
-- Eamon De Valera May 16th 1945
From the man who signed a condolence book at the German Embassy a fortnight after the liberation of Bergen-Belsen.
@@EdMcF1 big mistake for sure
So he signed the condolences book following Hitler’s death because…he didn’t like Churchill? Or maybe he was a nazi sympathiser?
@@EdMcF1 Great moment showing our neutral stance front and centre. We owe the world nothing.
He starved 2million people in Indonesia to feed British troops that the moral code he had the same one Britain had for centuries lucky for them uncle Sam won the war for them. Plus dev wasn't long making short work of that speech of Mr Churchill's
The only reason they could stay neutral was their geographical position. Belgium and The Netherlands tried to stay neutral too and it didn't work out because their position was too strategic and easy to invade.
Same with Denmark and Norway
@@Aegis--- What made Denmark weird was that their leader was a dipshit and didn't want to fight.
Ireland was an incredibly strategic point, its the furthest west point of Europe and could seriously threaten an invasion of the UK from german soldiers entering the republic
@@DonetskChildrenBidenBomba to bad denmark probably get the least of the horror during ww2 because of it.
@@TheSmeggyBean6000it's the 4th furtherst
Portugal 1st
Spain 2nd
Iceland 3rd
"Are you insane?! If we reincorporated Northern Ireland into greater Ireland now, especially without consulting them, it would lead to widespread civil conflict!"
"What makes you say that?"
*points to the last century and a half of British/Irish history*
"Besides that."
I once read that the Republic is wary of Northern Ireland being reincorporated as both the Protestant and Catholic populations are so highly politicisised and militant.
I doubt that Ireland reunification would be possible even today. The issues are just too deeply ingrained.
@@hokutoulrik7345 the issues are primarily between different communities in the North though, the rest of UK and Ireland don't have such a big problem with it.
It would logistically be a nightmare but not impossible
@@ninjacell2999 It could reignite the Troubles, that's a nightmare.
Also the fact that Churchill would have 100% said, "what deal?" after the war was over.
I love the little visual jokes you build into your animations, like at 2:12 where you have not one, but two RMS Aquitanias (the only big four-stacker ocean liner to see service in WWII) sailing across the Atlantic.
A Question for you:
Why do Bhutan exists?And why it doesn't recognize any China?
If I had to guess. They don’t recognize the PRC because they control Tibet and have disputed claims against the Bhutan border. They don’t recognize the ROC because doing so would provoke the anger of the PRC. My guess
@@TheOtherOne122 The ROC also claim Tibet
Because China wouldn't dare invade THE THUNDER DRAGON EMPIRE
Based
They took the Chad way out.
Ireland: The weather is wet.
Britain: Isn't that always the case...
The Welsh counties: We're the Wettest!
similar weather
@Ryan Granted: "Wetist" sounds more like an irrational fear of / hatred of water XD.
The weather data that was sent from Ireland was the data that set off the D Day invasion. South Western Ireland.
@@danielcunningham648Ireland gets more rain than anywhere else in Europe. That's why it's called Europe's Rainshield and is a lot more greener
"Ignore the last 700 years and help!"
Comedy gold right there 😂
It's funny but would Ireland been better off under the Nazis as opposed to the British?
@@winnienguyen4420 I doubt that Ireland would've taken to facist rule..
@@shadowrunner2510 likewise
@@winnienguyen4420 nonsense
Maybe because Kaiser Wilhelm and Queen Victoria were not the best of friends with the Irish. Maybe also because the Irish have good memories?
I love that your depiction of british pilots at 1:09 is Lord Flashheart!!
My grandparents on my father's side were Irish and emigrated to London after the war where my father was born. My Irish grandfather served in the RAF in Asia during the war but unfortunately I know little about that at the moment. A lot of Irish fought for Britain throughout both wars despite the government's neutrality
A lot of Wild Geese only flew as far as England.
Getting to see the world on the English King's tab was always tempting.
Ireland: *Doesn't join the war so didn't get to be in the UN because they didn't help.
Turkey, who joined last minute and got credit despite not doing anything:
*Pathetic*
C H A D
@Beakew - They would have and everyone is shitting on Ireland in the comments just because they refused to fight the Germany.
@Beakew - In the fifth century CE the Scots from northern Ireland invaded what is now western Scotland and established a kingdom in the highlands...... and stayed there.
@@wobkgs Precisely. The Irish are hypocrites XD.
@Beakew - It's just amazing the British didn't try to pull an Iceland with Ireland. They probably tried to and didn't realize they went to the wrong island until it was too late.
As an Irishman who has studied Irish history quite in depth of just like to say I’m impressed by your level of knowledge on this subject. Even your use of the word Taioseach rather than Prime Minister (as a lot of English people do) really shows the depth with which you’ve researched.
We don't call any other country's PM or President by the native name, why the hell should the Irish be special?
@@iggyzeta9755 Because that is the actual legal and political name for the leader of the Dáil Éireann. There’s no such thing as a “PM” in Dáil Éireann, other than a translation for folks who require an equivalent for familiarity purposes.
@@TheBomber15 Sorry, that's simply not a reason. When speaking English we use English words. For example we don't try to say, 首相 or そうりだいじん when referring to the prime minister of Japan or primer ministro for a Spanish speaking country.
Just Irish being uppity Irish.
@@poruatokin are Irish arrogant 😳
@@kaibaing4288 Not all of course, but definitely the ones in the comments here praising the narrator for his "correct" wordage.
A big thumbs up on this one, History Matters channel. Whoever wrote the script should be a diplomat.
"He be lyin" should be used more often in history books
You just doubled the amount of pages in each historic book
It is also important to mention that Ireland were sort of conned into backing Britain during the First World War in return for home rule (a form of independence), that Britain went back on after the war. Furthermore, Irish troops had a high death rate in comparison to other British nations and the British leadership cared little for them when it came to losses on the frontline. All of this made Ireland reticent of joining Britain in another European campaign.
I'm not surprised that the Brits would send the Irish soldiers to the frontline.
Home rule was going to happen. It was why it was thought their would be no support for the Easter Uprising. The Easter Uprising and subsequent actions only served to delay 'Home Rule', intentionally so on the part of the rebels, who wanted independence NOT home rule.
@@markhutton6055 I’m sorry, “was going to happen”?? You have absolutely no way of knowing that. And saying that it was because of the actions of the rebels that home rule was scrapped is nonsense. It had far far more to do with unionist efforts in the north to stop home rule.
@@markhutton6055 That is a moronic statement with no basis in reality, home rule had been fought over for the past 50 years at that point and the British refused to nudge. The original Easter rising was a home rule based movement. The British cracked down brutally like they repeatedly did for the past century and a half. I don't know who told you this but it clearly was in bad faith and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if its based in anti-Irish stereotypes and discrimination.
@@Shnipe1 it was the government policy of the day.
Loved the video, which actually reminded me on how I'd love a similar video on Portugal's stance to stay out of WW2! Or maybe a more general view on the dictatorship that ruled the country during that time?
That was a bit different,
Both ireland and Portugal where (essentially) forced to help the allies, difference is tho Portugal got rich from it
Just one point regarding the "condolences". DeValera did not sign a book of condolences it appears there was never such a book. He didn't visit the German ligation (Embassy), but instead went to the German Ambassador Hempel's home. Arguably very naive but he was following diplomatic protocal for a neutral state. But it is not as has been portrayed in Ireland or particularly in the British press.
I don’t know who to believe. The contemporary history…or an unsupported claim on UA-cam.
@@annoyingbstard9407 Have you a source for your contemporary history or did you think this was like PM Question Time where any old bs can be said as fact?
@@seankavanagh7625 You could start with “The History of Ireland” by Dermot Keogh. He is professor of History at Cork University and, unusually for an Irishman, quite prepared to admit to some of the misdeeds of the Irish State. I realise it is difficult for many in the country to accept their history because of the strict censorship applied to the Irish press preventing them reporting much of the truth, he also writes quite frankly about the anti-Jewish sentiment prevalent in Ireland - including in parliament during the nazi years. Sorry, but it may be better you know as secrets always leak out in the end.
@@annoyingbstard9407 No Englishman has ever read a book about Ireland so how would you know what's in it? Was there some snippet of it online you saw and liked?
Press censorship you say?🤔 Do you mean like how all the booing was edited from Charles being announced as your new -owner- sorry King?
If we're discussing secrets getting out in the end then you won't mind releasing the records outlining British state involvement in the Dublin & Monaghan bombings. Technically an act of war on a neutral country but alas, we can't get any Nuremberg trials organized for ye. Not yet anyway.
I think it was fair for Ireland to stay neutral as a sovereign country but sending condolences for the death of Adolf Hitler does send some very bad publicity for them. That imo was a very poor decision from Ireland.
Churchill promised a "nation once again", pretty vague.
Also, congrats on pronouncing the Gaeilge terms so well, especially Taoiseach. Love from Dublin
Churchill was blind drunk when he sent it, honestly look it up.
There was a request to discuss the offer futher on the Irish side but it was explained away to nothing by British diplomats soon after.
It wasn't a serious offer.
@@yermanoffthetelly True. Wish history videos on this topic would mention that point. As it stands, just saying it was an offer which the Irish rejected makes Ireland look stubborn and obstinate to anyone who does not know the details of why NI was partitioned and why Irish chose Neutrality to begin with.
Also, the more I read of Churchill, the more I come to realise that he seemed to make a lot of decisions while drunk and/or high on some sort of narcotic. The Greatest Britain ever, ladies and gentlemen!
@@yermanoffthetelly When wasn't Churchill drunk! The big feckin racist
Imagine if they had taken Churchill’s offer of unification.
Absolutely minimal impact on the war, huge ramifications for Irish history in the 20th century.
When he said that, my jaw dropped!
Sure, like the imperialist fatso would have given them anything...
@@nanucit Churchill had tried to give NI away twice that we know of. Certainly an imperialist, but not exactly caring about NI.
The unionists would be very unhappy
Churchill was lying he had no intention to give it.
Ireland: "We send our condolences..."
Allies: "To the US? For the death of FDR? How nice-"
Ireland: "...to Germany, for the tragic suicide of their beloved moustache man. RIP" 🇮🇪
Well, Hitler was baptised Catholic, like most Austrians.
Yeah... I can kinda see why Ireland wasn't exactly "welcome at the dinner table" for a few decades after that...
@@jacob4920
Kinda based ngl.
Plus fuck FDR tbh. Hitler had basically zero negative impact on the world today while FDR turned America into an invasive hyperpower that ruins any country that looks at it the wrong way.
I take it Ireland was not happy about the constant threats and pressure to join the allies.
@@DISTurbedwaffle918 Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
You know, that's like saying, that Hitler didn't knew about Holocaust?
Lol, i never knew churchhill offered to return Northern Ireland if we joined.
That would have been wild. But Churchill was almost certainly lying, lol.
The Best bit is that is is an actual chapter in Irish curriculum for history
Yeah lol
The Emergency, a great bit of JC history that doesn’t at all address the fact that the Irish decision was utterly cowardly and driven by the unprecedented idiocy of DeValera.
@@niallhiggins2342 Cowardly or smart enough not to get involved in a war that had nothing to do with them? Dumbass imagine thinking it's bad to keep your people safe from the horrors of war especially when your nearest "ally" used Irish regiments for fodder during WW1.
@@Xer405 totally agree. Im not a huge fan of devalera but i respect him for keeping us out of unnecesary bloodshed
@@niallhiggins2342 So the choice to protect your people and families from war is cowardly?
Thank you for including the Star of David in the cemetery scene at the end, the existence o non-christian soldiers in WWII is often glossed over
As a Dubliner who's street was bombed in WW2 this is as good and detailed 3 and a half minute video of our complicated relationships we have with ww2 that you will find
The relationship took a hit... gad damn my man you are funny as hell
Also notable that Irish people who did volunteer for the British army were ostracized and shamed for years after, as the Irish people saw them as "traitors"
Wait what?
Technically they were as the went AWOL from the Irish army
Joining the army of a nation that attempted several cultural and agricultural genocides on you will do that
Yes the ones that deserted the Irish Army in a time of international crisis were shunned.
This gets into turned into a myth that Irish people were pro-Nazi or some other bullshit
So did Poles who signed Volkslist. After the war, new Communist government accused many people of collaboration with Germany and purged them (around 20 thousand people died this way) - of course, with majority of them being just AK soldiers uncomfortable for Communism.
Anyone notices how the ship near Cornwall at 2:18 crashed and caught fire. Damn I love these little jokes.
I don't get it
@@weepingangel3478 That coast is pretty prone to ships wrecking around there especially compared to the others.
Also, look up Slapton Sands.
I though it was torpedoed by a german sub, considering the point being made at the moment.
@@pyridonfaltis9761 nah, the south coast of ireland is surprisingly dangerous, had both the spanish and the french sink there at some point
Churchill: "We'll give you Northern Ireland if you join the war on our side!". De Valera wasn't that stupid. This would create an ethnic conflict in Ireland and the British "would have been forced" to send troops to protect the protestant minority and in the process occupying Ireland. It was very difficult for Churchill to swallow that Ireland had left his beloved empire and he couldn't stop them. If he just knew what was awaiting that empire. But de Valera acted in the interest of the Irish people and called Churchills bluf.
False. S-Ireland whined when Ulster opted to stay British in the '20's, and postwar [uptil the present] tried every dirty trick in the book to get it. It's both the N-Irish and UK that have said no.
@@jimtaylor294 you really don't know our history if you think we tried to get them or still try. Did you not see Northern Ireland in the 70s-90s? Who would want that? They spent decades slaughtering each other and the British had to sort it out by paying for it, and handling it with their army. So Britain kept Northern Ireland and suffered miserably with it and still does now. They don't even have a government anymore again. While down South we got rich, and became a hugely successful country despite British attempts to stop us. Win for the Irish and suffering for the British. Even now if the British try anything they get backhanded by Europe and the US, especially the US because Americans are obsessed with us. And Europe values us as a very important member especially since Brexit.
@@kyleleonard2014 and in 50 years you'll be a minority in your own country, just like the British. So, was it worth it?
@@jimtaylor294 They didn't opt for anything Jim it was partioned by Lloyd George and Churchill. Unionist leader, Edward Carson was disgusted at partition. The 1918 General Election Irish Republican movements won more than 75% of the vote. Unionists only took a clear majority in Co. Down and Antrim.
@@kyleleonard2014 Britain would’ve benefited off of having Ireland out of the UK, since now they can control the border and make it easier/difficult for you to trade with your biggest trading partner. The British will never need to try anything because you don’t prove to be significant to them unless you commit a terror attack. You’re also thinking of Americans with Irish diaspora, but you forget that England has the biggest diaspora out of the entire British Isles and the governments are borderline intertwined between the UK & USA. Those two countries are inseparable, no way a country like Ireland could change that. Ironically it would be Russia and China who’d back you up, in an effort to portray the west as evil and the USA would back the UK like it has in every single war ever. You have the population of the West Midlands and Greater Manchester, and only half of London. You have ironically inherited the arrogance of Britain, but without the success. Fascinating.
1:39 I never would have thought I'd find a gag about the blitz funny, but here we are 🤣
Ireland had nothing to gain, even north Ireland would have been a problem as this dude said. They mission was to keep their citizens safe and not to get bombed which they accomplished just like Switzerland Sweden and Spain.
Love Ireland from an Irish living in Pakistan.
1st, ireland wouldn't of been bombed, the Germans bomb raf base because its a smart moved, and hitler bombed english city's because raf bombed Berlin and hitler got mad
There was no reason to bomb ireland, not while Britain was still fighting him
2nd, Unlucky 🇵🇰 < 🇮🇳
"He didn't trust a word that came out of Churchill's mouth." Yeah, that was probably the wise choice.
Based Valera
Given that Churchill's other words consisted of "Hey France, want to give up your sovereignty so you can keep fighting against Germany?", it's not like Churchill is a particularly good negotiator either.
Boris Johnson is closer to Churchill than most people realise....
Why? It's not like he was a famed liar like Hitler. I totally get why De Valera didn't *like* the old imperialist. But Churchill pretty much wore his heart on his sleeve - he wasn't really a cagey fellow diplomatically. Very much of the "Here's what we want, now how many people do we need to blow up to get it?" school of thought. It's not a very deception-heavy approach.
@daevious That wasn't the proposal. In the chaos of the fall of France it got misinterpreted, but the actual offer was a full merger of the two nations, not one being subordinated to the other. The logistical issues would have been ridiculously complex (for one, what happens to the King?), but the base of the deal was straight equality.
@@Alsadius It was a bluff offer History Matters pointed it out too. One he didnt consult anyone on it, two it would lead to a civil between the two Irelands.
The "Britain was having a bit of a rough time" bit at 1:39, might be one of your best "dry humor" delivered lines of all time.
So funny... One Brit fighting and the other running for cover.
Britain: "Hey bestie, wannna jo-"
Ireland: "Piss off"
And the Irish proceeds to go to India to butcher Indians instead.
Why didn't Ireland Fight in World War 2?
Ireland: "Not our concern."
Yes, apparently ethnic cleaning and genocide isn’t of interest to Irish people 🙄
I mean dublin was bombed and irish ships were sunk.
Exactly lets us get drunk in pubs alone and go mister big empire with echothers 😂
@@SSMMTTEE it isn’t lol.
@@KR-mm4el Apparently!
Many Irish people volunteered for the British armed forces (some deserting from the Irish armed forces in order to do so). Irish people lived and worked in Britain during the war, keeping important services going, including producing materials for the war.
@1:25 These 'Treaty Ports' had been unilaterally returned to Ireland by Chamberlain in 1938. If they had remained in British possession, it would have been unlikely that Ireland would have escaped the ravages of WW2 like it did for the most part.
This is very true.
It was good of Neville Chamberlain to enable Irish neutrality (though he probably thought those ports would be more trouble than they were worth).
my granny lived in a non bombed area in WWII, but she recalled the fact that you could hear the Luftwaffe planes flying overhead going over to bomb Belfast and Derry.
Also, something HM didn't mention here is De Valera also sent fire engines up from Southern Ireland to Belfast during the Belfast Blitz.
I think you mean LONDONderry
@@PinkBroBlueRope it's genuinely either or, people call it either Derry or Londonderry, i just call it Derry because its easier
@@PinkBroBlueRope reason why it's sometimes called Londonderry is because the layout the city was built was similar to that of London besides us Ireland call it Derry and plus the football club is called Derry City not Londonderry City
@@PinkBroBlueRope there was a compromise made. Derry City in/and the County of Londonderry.
@@alanmcgowan3457 are you saying Derry girls isn't real?😂
Churchill: Shit, they're neutral, guess there's nothing we can do.
Elim Garak: Well....
I don’t think it would work. The Irish representative would probably discover the forgery and dramatically say, ‘It’s a FAAAAKE!
Have you ever danced with de Valera in the pale moonlight?
1:39
When you're the only one in the server with lag
2:18: "Western irish ports would make the journey across the atlantic much safer-"
*American ship bursts into flames*
“‘Tis better to die ‘neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud-El-Bar”
Was just talking about this yesterday great timing !!!
2:00 as person from Poland, I would say it was a good call
Myśmy dostali tą bolesną lekcję...
there was no way of saving Poland anyway
@@legokingtm9462 So He (Churchill) shouldn't have promised it
@@legokingtm9462 British could at least show graditude towards Polish soldiers, not deport them and act like they've never done anything.
@@legokingtm9462 Then don't make false promises
Another excellent video! Would've loved to hear more of the Donegal Air Corridor, the ÉIRE signs along the coast, de Valera's message of condolences to the US on the death of FDR, the Dublin Fire Brigade helping with the aftermath of the Belfast Blitz (including the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Alfie Byrne, hanging onto a fire engine the whole way), or Ireland giving aid to ordinary people in Germany after the War (there's a monument in St Stephen's Green in Dublin given to Ireland by Germany as a thank you gift during the 1990's)
another thing that wasn't mentioned there is that Ireland just recently got 3 ports back in Ulster and was a young sovereign state. If Ireland joined the allies and had British troops on the Republics soil there was bound to be a resurgence of the ira in fears that they wouldn't leave
Ireland was supposed to be given home rule from the British after they joined them in WW1, this didn't come to fruition though.
In Ireland, there is a subtle, disgust towards British history and it's figures due to our past relations with them.
We do understand it was government and monarchy who abused our country though, not the people.
"was the goverment, not the people"
My grandpa could laugh at that.
He used to say "no matter if its a democracy or not, the people choose their goverment, and their policies.
If british didnt do much with the ireland famine, it means didnt care, so ireland people wont care in the future UK troubles.
@@sanhcman666 I think you are confused and don't understand the situation. The British common people had no say In what happened in Ireland. People like Henry VIII and other monarchs made those decisions, do you think he asked paupers and shoe shiners what they thought about it?
@@loto7197 I think he forgets the failed brit uprisings. The people were not choosing their gov for a very long time.
What about the scots Irish and their orange bs? Their British subjects and seem to get a kick out of the northern occupation
@@timdoherty6705 there's nothing known as "scots Irish" in Ireland. The Orange Order is a fraternity of protestants who commemorate 17th century religious battles, these people typically endorse the union but they are fading from history.
Valera: yo Churchill we’ve just been in a civil war we don’t want to be in another
Churchill: cowards
Hardly 'just', it was nearing 20 years ago when WWII started
I heard on an interview with a news person that even into the late ninties British weather forcasts were just Irish weather forcasts "a day later and a bit milder"
@@cybertronian2005 20 years Isn't too long a time when it comes to something like a civil war.
*De Valera, the De is always used. He was colloquially known as "Dev".
@@cybertronian2005 20 years is not that lot considering the damage
The most interesting part of this whole video was someone telling the British no because they knew their territorial offer was just a bluff.
Dealt with them the longest??
I guess they remembered how the British offered the Arabs their own independent kingdom if they fought the Turks in WW1 only to break the agreement to please the French.
@@ihateregistrationbul Well they offered Home Rule to Irish nationalists and promised the it wouldn't happen to Unionists if they recruit in WW1, which they both did. Of course it was BS in the end they had no intention of Home Rule. The two sides pitted against each other for recruitment. That was Lloyd George and of course Churchill again which also is responsible for partition and the notorious Black and Tans.
^ Complete BS. Home Rule was to be enacted straight after the war. German backed Terrorists though scuppered all of that, with the Protestants choosing to remain British rather than be supplicant to a genocide prone catholic majority state.
@@jimtaylor294 Jim is clear with all the BS your posting that you're a bitter pallet collecting W⚓. Your fellow huns signed a covenant in blood vowing to start a war of Home Rule was passed. Ironically using guns they smuggled in from Germany.
I watch these videos just to read the commentary below. It's nice to get the multiple perspectives on history!
De Valera sent fire engines and ambulances to Belfast when it was bombed in the Easter blitz in 1941. He also permitted Short Sunderland aircraft (based in lough Foyle) to overfly county Donegal in the hunt for U boats in the Atlantic
thats little reason for germany to declare war
He couldn't have stopped them
@@avery11123 no as technical it was humanitarian aid or medical aid so technically we were still neutral but the Germans then "accidentally" bombed Dublin afterwards so we had a warning.
United Kingdom: "I have no idea why those Irish aren't eager to help us!"
Republic of Ireland: "Do want the list of our historical grievances to be chronological, alphabetical, or in order of importance?"
Churchill in particular would have been a divisive character in the eyes of most of Ireland’s population, considering his actions in the 1920’s.
In fact for the same reasons he found himself untrusted/ unpopular among British people at the same time. It’s worth remembering that he came into office only after all diplomatic actions regarding appeasement had failed. Once a European peace was achieved he was subsequently voted out.
As an antidote to Hitler he was just what was needed but not the right person to win the trust of the Irish.
I often say that the Irish were caught between a racist, concentration-camp-owning government bent on global domination and constantly threatening to invade on the one side, and Germany on the other. I'm not surprised we went with neutrality...
^ Blarney. Spain invented Concentration Camps, not the UK :P .
Also: No. S-Ireland has vety little in terms of *actual* grievances; just tons of contrived copium for the sake of national creation myth making.
@@jimtaylor294 what is s ireland? Also what myths is there to be told about grievences here in ireland? The famines devastation being as bad as it was due to the incompetence of the british government, no representation for ireland in westminister and little help in dealing with the food crisis and the blight, or with Cromwells genocide acroos the island such as in drogheda and killing at estimates of up to 600,000 people, or the fact ireland is still divided as a nation itself to this day?
Pft, Just point to Easter 1916 and leave it at that. If the UK couldn't figure out why Ireland wouldn't join their side after reminding them of THAT moment in history, they never will.
I thought it was because: " 'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky than at Suvla or Sud-El-Bar", so it carried on to WW2
-Fresh out of civil war
-Weak military
-Weak war support
-Isolation and universal poverty in case of waging the war against the UK
Not gonna lie, when I saw Ireland covered with the Swiss Flag (without reading the title), I thought that Switzerland conquered Ireland.
I was like WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?
Yeh I was very confused too
the swiss just wanted to make people more neutral lol
@@ElmasterjugonYT lol
@@ElmasterjugonYT aggressive neutrality defined
@@lordbonney9779 Can't be non-neutral if you own everything
You know, following the theme of "Answering questions you wouldn't think to ask", I'd like to see a video on how the US reacted to the rise of Napoleon and the Napoleonic wars that followed in Europe
I completely understand men's physiological needs, but it's not the same to openly expose this misunderstanding. It happens when a person just wants to jerk off, but to put it on public display, it's just disgusting on your part.
@@ValentinZenkov what
@@ValentinZenkov sir i think you might have posted on the wrong video
@@redtaiga6576 Mes voisins savent qui était chez moi hier. Ils sont intéressés par qui est venu avant-hier. C'est leur position de vie active, appeler régulièrement la police!
it resulted in 1812 with the USA declaring war and invading Canada.
Love these videos there so informative
My granddad fought in WW2, had a ton of medals, but he never spoke about it.
Think he drove the tank.
He joined the British military like many other Irish men because they needed the money to support their families.
Many Irish men fought in WW2, it’s just that they fought in the British military not the Irish.
My aunt apparently traded one of the medals for marbles with a local boy.
Correction: Ireland still had some few vestiges of British power in the time period being discussed. It was not until 1948 (effectively/actually 1949) that Ireland fully and completely separated itself from the United Kingdom, as until then it still had the monarchy.
You can be seperate from the UK but share a monarch. see Canada.
i consider it an irish victory cause they didn’t fall for the tried and true “promise land and then not really give the land” method
That's why Poland refused to peace offer from Germany - Poles knew exactly, that if Germany is planning something changing something about armistice, then it's going to end, sooner or later - and this small piece of land (,,Sea Corridor") would definetaly not be enough for Germans.
AKA The British Special.
@@Admiral45-10 One would think Czechoslovakia's outcome would have been the reason they threw out the German offer.
"Oh, sure. You'll get that little slice of Poland... and then you'll get everything else by force, a week later. No, buddy, we've seen this movie before."
The sad part is that they were f*cked, no matter what they decided to do.
poor italy fell hard for that one.
@@sovietunion7643 the one that never gets talked about. Italy
I literally didn’t even realize they didn’t fight in ww2
Many did they were promised the north back if we did. So near a thousand of Irish men and women enlisted and died in vain again, soldiers, nurses etc and just like after the first war when we were promised home rule and it was reneged on.
@@ciaranbrk wrong!
@@ciaranbrk wtf no on so many levels. You don’t know any of our history. Jesus
@@Flipflopflopper he's not wrong about the first world war bit. I don't know where he got other from.
They just spied for the Nazi's the entire time.
I love your channel keep up the great stuff
3:02 the one Star of David in the graveyard
Ireland stayed out of the war primarily because it didn't *need* to join the war. In hindsight, almost all of the countries that joined the war had no choice. There's few examples of countries who joined that didn't have to (Brazil for example).
The United States, the Soviet Union, France, Poland, Denmark, Belgium, China, were all directly attacked. Others like Romania and Bulgaria, joined to maintain their autonomy. Neutral countries like Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ireland sat it out because their geographic positions meant they had no need to fight.
World war 2 was so brutal that almost any country that could sit it out did. I think any country would want to avoid famine, active warzones, and genocide on its own soil. Europe was so destroyed by the war that it arguably directly led to the EEC and later the EU.
it’s not so much as arguable as basically openly the reason
What about a moral responsibility, say ohhhh...to the thousands of your neighbors in the rest of Europe?
@@jimtrack3786 And what about protecting your own nation first ? The British did abandon the French in the early stage of the war and they even killed French soldiers directly later on so why should anyone be ashamed of not wanting to die for them ? They did what they deemed was good, so did anyone else
@@jimtrack3786 it took Ireland over 100 years to recover from the famine, a country that had a population of 8 million reduced to 2.6 million, not sure if there was a lot of resources to be involved in a war
That’s the best point yet!
Ireland didn't discriminate: they hated Britain and the Nazis equally
Facts
Yh both did horrible things to undeserving people
UK 🇬🇧 is a "Snake"
True
Our police force was founded by an actual fascist - Eoin O'Duffy.
“In 1940 as Britain was having a bit of a rough time”
I adore this Chanel’s nonchalant humour 😂
Congrats on the 1 mil!
I was rolling on the floor when you said that “Britain was having a rough time” while I just see the hell of the Battle of Britain
You did a good job covering Irish neutrality. Keep up the good work mate. 🇮🇪🇮🇪🇮🇪
You also nailed the pronounciation of Taoiseach.
Another thing is that Ireland also recognised Vichy France over Free France. (So did a few other states including the United States, but you know what I mean)
@Xterenix as a proud Irish citizen, I respect the American people as ye defend the free world. Oh and u are a big trading partner for us as well. Much love from Ireland 💚💚💚 🇮🇪💚💙🇺🇸
@@galaxyred7 actually, no, the US has a long history of being a dick to other people, and I say that as a Latino
@Xterenix I’m writing from Ireland and 90% of Americans dislike the Irish and would favour Britain any day of the week.
@@livingbruhmoment3776 good thing it doesn’t work both ways. We’d pick Ireland over America
@@itzimperiumxvi2620 Sure, pick a country with the most repressive laws on Earth.😂
For anyone interested in this subject, I recommend the book "That Neutral Island", by Claire Wills. A very detailed analysis of everyday life in Eire during the Emergency.
Looking at the comments , I doubt many of them can read. ;)
thank u for the recommendation!