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Сообщение от Igor'

Kstati v angliiskoi armii est' Irish Brigade. ...

Если я не ошибаюсь, та бригада северо-ирландская... хотя и называется Ирландской

[zulu]

не совсем так, чтобы внести ясность:

Ireland's Decision to Sit out WW II Is Seen as a Mistake on the 60th Anniversary of D-Day

Geoffrey Roberts, in the Irish Times (June 24, 2004):

The 60th anniversary of D-Day has once again highlighted the contribution of Irish volunteers in the British armed forces to the allied victory.

The best estimate is that some 70,000 citizens of the Irish Free State served in the British forces during the war, together with 50,000 from Northern Ireland.

This was half the number that enlisted in Ireland during the first World War, with, thankfully, only 5,000 fatalities, compared to the 30,000 who died in the trenches. But the southern Irish enlistment was a significant contribution from the citizens of a small, neutral state.

On this, as on previous anniversaries, the Irish media lauded the service and sacrifice of the Irish volunteers of the second World War. There was general agreement that the volunteers were fighting for Ireland as well as Britain, and that the allied victory safeguarded Irish freedom and independence.

As this paper's editorial said of the volunteers: "All of us on this island owe them a debt of gratitude" (June 4th).

But there remains an unfinished debate about the Irish State's neutrality during the war...

http://hnn.us/roundup/comments/5984.html

еще больше здесь:

"Catholic Ireland was neutral in World War 2

* Eamon de Valera, Ireland's ultra-Catholic leader, kept Ireland neutral in perhaps the most unambiguously just war in history, World War Two.
* De Valera condemned the siting of US bases in Northern Ireland to help in the liberation of Europe.
* De Valera offered condolences on the death of the evil genocidal monster Hitler in 1945. He called to the Ambassador of genocidal Nazi Germany in Dublin, saying: "I certainly was not going to add to his humiliation in the hour of defeat." Some blind Irish nationalists defend his decision (and Irish neutrality) even today.


* Irish who fought on the beaches (also here) - The true Irish heroes of WW2: the 40,000 Irish who fought for the Allies. These brave men redeemed Ireland somewhat from the villainy of de Valera.
* Apparently, fully two-thirds of the Irish Army of 1939 joined the Allies.

* I agree with Churchill on Ireland's treachery. Ireland was a democracy, one of the only democracies in a world full of genocidal communist and fascist totalitarianism. And it should have stood with the other democracies in World War Two. As Churchill said:..."

http://markhumphrys.com/fascism.html#ireland