70 Years Ago Today

[macwilkin]

The Irish Government at the time viewed the bombings as an act of retaliation for having sent every fire engine and fire man from Dublin to the boarder to Belfast to fight the fires started by German air raids. My neighbor's father (Herr Klissmann) was attached to the German Embassy during the war, and he said that the representative of the Irish government came right out and told the German ambassador that if one more bomb fell on Irish soil, it would mean a declaration of war. He added that the language used by the Irish representative was anything but diplomatic, with the F-Bomb being dropped more than once. Hitler's government had never been broadly popular with the Irish, and with this incident opinion turned decidedly against the Germans.

The face-saver was the public acceptance of an apology by Germany and the immediate offer of reparations, which was officially accepted by the Irish Government.

In answer to Mike's question, during the war my family was busy fighting the Nazis, and the Japs (historically, if not politically, correct) and so nobody was home when Ireland was attacked and (I am happy to say) we lost neither property nor loved ones in the raids, County Wicklow being well away from all of the excitement!.

Rathdown's post reminds me of a scene in the well-done movie The Brylcreem Boys, about downed Allied and Axis flyers and sailors held in the K-Lines internment camp at the Curragh in the Republic. A Luftwaffe pilot and his RCAF counterpart are both (unknowingly) invited to tea by a local member of the gentry and his daughter. The housekeeper/cook refuses to have anything to do with the German, as her boy Frankie is serving with the 8th Army in North Africa. A little under 30,000 Irishmen and women from the Irish Free State served in the British Army during the War.

If you haven't seen The Brylcreem Boys yet, I highly recommend it. Although it was filmed on the Isle of Mann (cheaper for the movie industry), the film does a spot on job in capturing the whole "Who are we neutral against?" spirit that was Ireland. Jean Butler of Riverdance fame stars, as well as Angus McFayden of Braveheart fame and Gabriel Byrne. No kilts, more's the pity, but the Irish Army uniforms are spot on.

T.