“Where Is Ireland?”
Karen Garner, Friends and Enemies: The Allies and Neutral Ireland in the Second World War, Manchester University Press, 2021, 248 pages, £80/$120. ISBN 978–1526157294
The Second World War placed the government of Ireland in an impossible position. Nominally a member of the Commonwealth, Ireland, uniquely among the self-governing dominions, maintained a policy of neutrality throughout the conflict. Realistically there was no alternative, but a steep price had to be paid.
When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, only sixteen years had passed since the Irish Civil War had ended. That conflict in no small measure had been driven by the refusal of
