Madam, - In his article on Irish wartime neutrality, (Opinion, January 29th) Garret FitzGerald writes that Mr Eamon de Valera had agreed that "in the event of a German invasion, British forces would be invited to join in repelling them, with the Irish Army being put under British command for that purpose". As this is not my understanding of the position, I should be interested to learn where Dr FitzGerald received his information.
In early 1941, with the organising of the expanded defence forces nearing completion, a matter of great concern to the general staff was the appointment of a general officer commanding the defences forces (GOC DF) in the event of an invasion. In Military Archives, Cathal Brugha Barracks, there is a submission by Maj Gen Hugo MacNeill, the assistant chief of staff, to Maj Gen (as he still was) McKenna, the chief of staff, dated February 24th 1941, of which the following is an extract:
"In one of the two main contingencies under which the defence forces would be engaged in operations, it is almost certain that the forces of a belligerent power would come to our assistance. These forces are known to be commanded by a lieutenant general. It is understood that our Government will claim in such a contingency that the supreme command on land should be vested in our GOC defence forces and, further, that on no account will our forces (or our GOC DF) be placed under the orders of the GOC of the belligerent force. It is considered necessary that the officer now to be vested with the command of the defence forces should be given no less rank than that of lieutenant general on his appointment, and that further orders should now be prepared so that on the outbreak of hostilities he would immediately be promoted to the rank of general."
General MacNeill was clearly referring to the possibility of British assistance in the event of a German invasion. General McKenna was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general but the appointment GOC DF was never made.
If Mr de Valera entered into the agreement referred to by Dr FitzGerald, it would appear that he did not communicate this to the general staff, which seems strange given the great trust he reposed in General McKenna. - Yours, etc.,
DONAL O'CARROLL,
(Col, retired),
Moorefield Drive,
Newbridge,
Co Kildare
Madam, - Andrew Pierce (January 26th) believes that De Valera's visit to the German Legation to express condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler was the "essential duty of a neutral statesman in a time of war" .
Dr Pierce is misinformed. As Prof Dermot Keogh pointed out in a valuable article published in The Irish Times on January 11th 1990, the only other countries in Western Europe where condolence calls were made were Spain and Portugal (both of them non-democratic authoritarian regimes).
As Prof Keogh wrote: "The Swiss had provided the Irish with a model for action, but De Valera had acted with uncharacteristic speed and had to suffer being attacked as a pro- Axis fellow traveller".
And (though Prof Keogh did not note this) what was most remarkable about De Valera's condolence call was that it was to the representative of a regime that had (in more senses that one) gone for good.
An apology from President McAleese would be in order; certainly, such an apology would increase rather than diminish the standing of the Republic of Ireland among the nations. - Yours, etc.,
COLIN ARMSTRONG, Village Court, Newtownbreda Road, Belfast 8.