Over several weeks during January and February of this year a
spirited correspondence took place in the Irish Times concerning the Minister
for Justice’s proposed pardon for soldiers who deserted from Oglaigh na
hEireann during the emergency period 1939 to 1945. My interest in the subject arose several
years ago when I purchased at a book auction a bound volume stamped ‘Confidential’ and bearing the title ‘List of Personnel of the Defence Forces
dismissed for desertion in time of National Emergency pursuant to the terms of
the Emergency Powers (No. 362) Order 1945.’
The 133 page book listed the Army no., name, last recorded address,
date of birth, declared occupation prior to enlistment in the Defence Forces
and the date of dismissal from Defence Forces of every one of the 4,983 men who
were absent without leave from the Defence Forces for more than 180 days.
I went through the book at that time and extracted the names of 19
men from Athy and the surrounding countryside who were included in what has
sometimes been referred to as ‘Irish List
of Shame’. For my part I never
regarded the book in that light and especially so after I had the privilege of
interviewing one of the men who was so listed.
His story was a simple one. Without
work and with no prospect of getting work he enlisted in the Irish Army only to
find conditions and food so bad as to be intolerable. He, in company with so many of his army
colleagues travelled by train to Belfast to enlist in the British armed
forces. His was not an ordinary act of
desertion, rather a simple man’s response to what he felt was an uncaring Irish
Army regime which treated its recruits with callous disregard for their well
being. He fought alongside Irish men,
English men, Scotsmen and Welshmen throughout the Second World War and never
once did anyone question his right to do so.
Irish men who enlisted in the British Army during the Second World
War did so despite their country’s neutral stand which Alan Shatter, Minister
for Justice, has recently described as ‘a
principle of moral bankruptcy’.
There are a few things I see eye to eye with Mr. Shatter, but his view
on Irish neutrality is one I share.
Interestingly the Sinn Fein party supports the call for a pardon for
the World War II deserters who enlisted to fight Hitler and fascism. Historically that party would have had little
sympathy for those men during the war years as the Sinn Fein publication ‘An Poblacht’ reported in 1940 that ‘if German forces land in Ireland they will
land ..... as friends and liberators of the Irish people.’ No doubt the very few men still alive who
might benefit from a pardon will welcome the Sinn Fein support for the campaign
which was started by the ‘Irish Soldiers
Pardon Campaign Committee’.
The possibility of a pardon was referred to the Attorney General
last Christmas and her opinion as to the legality of extending a pardon to the
men involved is expected later in the year.
If the decision of the Government is to reject the De Valera government
stand on the issue it will come sadly far too late for many of the men affected
by the penalties imposed in the post war period. Apart from losing whatever pension
entitlements they might have earned during their Army service, the men who
deserted were barred by De Valera’s government from State jobs for 7
years. For many men so affected the
emigrant boat was the only alternative.
Peter Mulvany, Co-ordinator of the Irish Soldiers Pardon Campaign in
a letter to the Irish Times wrote of ‘the
traumatic experience of these Defence forces personnel and their families post
war’. My interviewee of some years
ago has now passed away but I can still recall with chilling clarity his bitter
disappointment at the way he and his colleagues were treated following their
return to Ireland. He felt the stigma of
dishonour at a time when his record of participation in the war against fascism
deserved to be respected. History tells
us that deserters leave the field of battle not embrace it as did the 4,983 men
who left the relative safety of neutral Ireland to take to foreign battlefields.
As I look at the 19 Athy names I compiled I recognise familiar
family names and realise that my generation and those that followed are
indebted to these men and to their colleagues.
They deserve to have removed from them the dishonour which attaches to desertion. I hope that a pardon granted even on
compassionate grounds can be offered.
They deserve no less.
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