[MplsSteve]

Really?!

I had never heard that before. The British were willing to sacrifice Ulster in return for the Irish Republic allowing the Brits the use of their ports and 400000 recruits.

Who proposed this? The British Foreign Office? You mentioned that Churchill would have had to bite the bullet - so I'm inclined to believe the idea didn't come from him.

[Godwin1]

Ireland's behavior in WW2--like its behavior in the Cold War--was despicable. DeValera fawned over Nazi Germany's ambassador to Ireland while giving the cold shoulder to the US envoy, a cousin of Roosevelt. In the closing days of the war, when Hitler committed suicide, DeValera made a very public visit to the German embassy to sign the condolence book. This was well after the death camps had been discovered and liberated. DeValera justified his action by saying he'd also gone to the American embassy when Roosevelt died.
I was in Ireland for four years during the Cold War. Ireland was officially "neutral." But the steady drumbeat of anti US criticism from the press and politicians was not matched by like criticism of the Soviets. The national broadcasting system was totally infiltrated with hard core Marxists who hated the United States. Strangely enough, most Irish Americans remained clueless about this.

[tomcorn]

Curiously it was Churchill who proposed the idea to to Anthony Eden after the fall of Chamberlain-Halifax. It was Edens job to covertly get the notion to De Valera. De Valera rejected the idea out of hand. Churchill was facing desperate odds with allof western and central Europe under Nazi Control.

The Germans were pressing in the desert war and the War of the Atlantic was hotting up with things looking grin for the UK. Manpower for North Africa Africa was a problem and after Dunkirk Britain had an army without weapons. Bringing Ireland into the war brought an additional dimension. The American Irish. If fighting for the Allies mean't the unification of Ireland. then Irish everywhere of any nationality could be appealed to. They wouldn't be fighting FOR Britain but FOR Ireland.