Why Irish soldiers who fought Hitler hide their medals

BBC ^ | December 27, 2011 | John Waite

[decimon]

Five thousand Irish soldiers who swapped uniforms to fight for the British against Hitler went on to suffer years of persecution.

One of them, 92-year-old Phil Farrington, took part in the D-Day landings and helped liberate the German death camp at Bergen-Belsen - but he wears his medals in secret.

Even to this day, he has nightmares that he will be arrested by the authorities and imprisoned for his wartime service.

"They would come and get me, yes they would," he said in a frail voice at his home in the docks area of Dublin.

And his 25-year-old grandson, Patrick, confirmed: "I see the fear in him even today, even after 65 years."

Mr Farrington's fears are not groundless.

He was one of about 5,000 Irish soldiers who deserted their own neutral army to join the war against fascism and who were brutally punished on their return home as a result.

They were formally dismissed from the Irish army, stripped of all pay and pension rights, and prevented from finding work by being banned for seven years from any employment paid for by state or government funds.

[MasterGunner01]

Exactly right about that. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. — the family patriarch — was the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain and was actively urging the Brits to “cooperate” with the Nazis. He and Lord Halifax were of one mind (including the ex-King Edward VIII) when it came to cozying with the Nazis. Joe Kennedy's schmoozing with the Nazis got so bad, the Brits requested his recall, and FDR recalled him at the height of the Battle of Britain in 1940.

That bloated buffoon, Edward “Teddy” Kennedy could have schooled Joe Senior on perfidy.

[Secret Agent Man]

Well you know the Irish. They don’t hold grudges. /s

[gogogodzilla]

In other words, during WWII... the Irish thought Nazi Germany to be their friend.

One is measured by the company you keep. So shall Ireland.

[dangus]

Just so you know, “bugger” means “to f*** in the ass,” and is based on an ethnic slur against Bulgarians, who were associated by the West with the Cathar sect, which believed procreative sex led to damnation, but non-procreative sex was fine.

[yldstrk]

I had no idea Ireland’s government was so depraved. That is completely sick hoping Germany would beat England just because it was England, without looking at what Germany was doing which was murder and robbery.

Ireland’s government was evil and awful. These soldiers should sue it out of existence.

[decimon]

Ireland’s government was evil and awful.

There was a lot of that going around. IMO, "evil and awful" is the final stage of all governments.

[Sherman Logan]

To be fair, we allied with Joe Stalin, on exactly the same notion that the enemy of my enemy and all that.

And we were right to do so.

During WWII the Brits had a secret plan in place for the conquest of Ireland if necessary.

[Shimmer1]

The last line of the article calls these survivors nonagenarians, so maybe he’s 90

[decimon]

They’ve removed the reference to his age in the original article.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon. Sez you. :') Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

additional:

• How Irish soldiers were blacklisted for daring to help Britain fight Hitler
• Irish minister admits neutrality policy during WW2 was 'morally bankrupt'
• Why Irish soldiers who fought Hitler hide their medals

[KeyLargo]

My great uncle was killed at the Somme in France in 1917.

He joined the British Army in Dublin as did thousands of his fellow Irishmen to fight against the Germans.

Sadly if he would have survived WWI he would have undergone massive hate against him by the Irish when he returned from the war.