The Republic did, however, provide some support to Britain during the war. It allowed limited use of Irish airspace as well as the use of radar and radio facilities. It operated a campaign of strict censorship of newspaper reports of key information such as weather forecasts. The government also did not place any restrictions on Irish citizens joining the British Army. An estimated 50,000 from the twenty-six counties of the Republic served in the British Army.
However, the Republics’ contribution paled in comparison to that of the belligerent North. If the Second World War presented the Republic with an opportunity to distance itself from Britain, the opposite was the case in Northern Ireland. Unionists saw the war as an opportunity to further align itself with Britain. Northern Ireland contributed to the war effort in two main areas; munitions and food production.
Belfast-based munitions manufacturers produced 75 million shells, 180 million incendiary bullets, 50,000 bayonets, and a variety of other military material over the course of the war. Between 1940 and 1944 Belfast shipyards produced 140 warships, including six aircraft carriers. Harland and Wolff provided 500 tanks and over 13 million aircraft parts for the war effort. The Short and Harland aircraft factory supplied 1,200 Stirling bombers and 125 Sunderland flying boats. A total of 38,000 men and women from the six counties of Northern Ireland enlisted in the British Army, Air Force, and Navy.
Between 1939 and 1945, Northern Ireland provided Britain with an average of £3 million worth of cattle and sheep a year, as well as 20% of its total supplies of eggs. 25,000 gallons of milk were despatched daily to Scotland from Northern Ireland ports.
Both Northern Ireland and the neutral Republic were bombed by Luftwaffe bombers during the war. Belfast suffered from four separate nights of Luftwaffe bombing in 1941, totaling ten hours, where 1,100 people were killed and over 56,000 houses damaged leaving 100,000 people temporarily homeless. The Republic was also bombed on a number of occasions between 1940-41.
On May 31, 1941, a bomb which landed in the Phoenix Park in Dublin exploded, shattering the windows of the President’s residency, Aras an Uachtaráin. Later that same night, in the most deadly bombing raid on the Republic during that period, 28 people were killed and another 90 were injured in the North Strand area of Dublin. In 1958, West Germany paid £327,000 compensation to the Republic in reparation for the bombings.
Despite ongoing British pressure and sanctions, the Republic remained neutral for the duration of the war. The Republic’s continual denial of access to the “Treaty ports” made the North’s ports even more vital to Britain. Churchill later remarked that “but for loyal Ulster’s granting of the full use of the North Irish ports and waters during the early years of the war Britain would surely have been confronted with slavery and death.”
Sources For Further Reading:
Imperial War Museum – How Britain Hoped to Avoid War with Germany in the 1930s
The Guardian – Neville Chamberlain’s Declaration of War
History Channel – Irish Free State Declared
Culture Trip – The Partition of Ireland: A Short History
Irish Times – What Happened in 1921 In Ireland?
BBC – Historians Declare 3 May as Northern Ireland Birthdate
Irish Central – Northern Ireland Comes into Existence In 1921
International Churchill Society – What Did Churchill Really Think About Ireland?
RTE – How Ireland’s Emergency Introduced Restrictions on Daily Life
Irish Times – Was the Bombing of Dublin Really A Luftwaffe Mistake?