Too close for comfort

It was the late Lord Deedes who once succinctly explained to me what it was like to live through the second world war. I had said to him, ‘Those Battle of Britain boys were so brave’.And he had replied, almost impatiently, ‘No, it wasn’t bravery we felt. It was a strange, deep, primitive compulsion that we were up against it. We had our backs to the wall. It was us or them.’

To any defender of Irish neutrality during the second world war — among whom I would count myself — the Deedes doctrine explains everything. It particularly illuminates Winston Churchill’s leadership. He felt that compulsion — to defend the realm at all costs — in such a profound and magnified way that it enabled him to lead his imperilled nation with unique resolve.

Churchill deplored Eire’s neutrality: he remained enraged that Neville Chamberlain had restored the Atlantic ports to the Irish Free State in 1938, and convinced that these were a danger to the interests of the United Kingdom in time of war. Winston didn’t even believe that Eire was legally entitled to neutrality — it was still, technically, a Dominion within the Commonwealth. For two pins, he would have invaded the Irish state, had he not been advised by intelligence that the game wasn’t worth the candle — even the pro-British elements within Eire would not have supported the venture.

Eunan O’Halpin is the foremost living authority on intelligence networks in Ireland during the second world war, and this dense and voluminous book is an invaluable source of data for historians researching the subject and the period. Professor O’Halpin’s knowledge is matchless, and we can be thankful that he has put his superb research at the service of such historians.