Dev’s treatment of Irish army deserters: vindictive or pragmatic?

Under EPO 362, 4,634 Irish soldiers who had been absent from their posts for more than 180 days were summarily dismissed from the Irish Defence Forces for desertion. Servicemen who […]

Boredom

Apart from increasing military wages, there was little that the Irish government could do to address the main problem facing Irish servicemen: boredom. After the initial surge of recruitment in […]

Drogheda fire service and the Belfast blitz

Sir,—The article ‘When Dublin responded to blitzed Belfast’s Mayday’ (HI 19.3, May/June 2011) coincided with a commemoration of the event held in Drogheda on 15 May. The mayor of Drogheda, […]

Seán Lester & the Nazis

Sir, —Paul McNamara’s excellent article on Seán Lester (HI 17.3, May/June 2009) shows us how weakness in the face of totalitarianism can lead to greater disaster. The article reminded me […]

When Dublin responded to blitzed Belfast’s may-day

The response of the Dublin government to the urgent message from the war room at Stormont was remarkable, given the historically tense relations between the two jurisdictions. While hundreds of […]