An Cosantóir

| 29 www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE is probably neither but like so much in history, somewhere in the middle. Trying to generalise large numbers removes the individualism of many of the decisions and reasons and never gets us closer to the truth. Judge them from an Irish military court-martial or legal framework, and they are guilty of desertion; judge them from a higher moral compass not bound by national laws, and these men contributed to a heroic struggle and were liberators of peoples from authoritarian regimes. By following the latter point, it is apt to point out for those few who did desert for idealistic reasons how ironic in the historic sense their cause was, in that Irishmen would have to join the traditional foreign oppressor to defend the sovereignty of Europe and, by extension that of Ireland. Even if this were not the case in individual personal motivations – it is undoubtedly an overarching historical truth. An interesting perspective on the deserters of WWII has come from retired officers of the Defence Forces, many of whom wrote opinion pieces for the Irish Times of the amnesty legislation in 2012. They made it 'clear that their objection centres squarely on the question of desertion and that that they bear no grievance against the tens of thousands of Irish men and women who directly joined the British forces during the war'. To Be Remembered, Commemorated or Celebrated? Or Ignored and Forgotten? Having analysed some of the pertinent and contentious points that may refrain or convince one from committing to either side of the argument, the question remains whether we should commemorate, celebrate, merely remember, or ignore and forget the Irish deserters of the DF during WWII. Can we celebrate their activities? Or is it sufficient to commemorate? Or can we ever commemorate deserters? If not, should we, by extension, ignore them and cast them aside? Does their story deserve to be told? If so, how does one write it – within what context? The Allied cause during WWII was a heroic struggle with herculean effort. By extension, then, are the soldiers' heroes too? Even if they did not fight for noble reasons per se, should they be deemed heroes? Is there a correlation, and instead, should there be between a man seeking adventure and a man who ends up liberating so many? To Irishmen at the time, Imperialism and Nazism/Fascism were interchangeable evil terms. Reflectively, of course, one would find it exceedingly difficult to argue that these men's contribution was not for a great cause, but did people know at the time – the ordinary person on a Dublin street or in the West of Ireland? Did they know of the atrocities of the Nazi regime? And a bit more controversially, even if they did so, was it still the correct decision for soldiers to desert their national forces? One can argue that the contribution of Irish volunteers in the war against Fascism deserves to be honoured. There is no credible or substantial evidence that their involvement was the cause of any diminution in their sense of Irish nationality or even, for most, a rejection of Irish neutrality. This does not mean that unintentionally and inadvertently, the act of desertion increased the likelihood of invasion or at least the chances of a successful defence in the event of an invasion. While the men may not have fought for the values they ended up defending, one may be living under a far different regime today without their contribution to a wider collective sacrifice. Sometimes there are only perspectives and no truthful answer to the question of heroes or traitors. Humans naturally like categorising and placing people and arguments into black-and-white brackets, but some questions are too complicated. I am sure if we go into the weeds of every single story, some soldiers were pardoned who committed a war crime during WWII – the law of averages dictates so. Therefore, when the inevitable question of how to approach such a sensitive topic arises, maybe it is prudent to commemorate all the lives who suffered and were lost because of WWII and not to pick and choose between who deserves to be remembered and who does not and to what degree characters in the story are recognised – perhaps everybody deserves to be remembered but not celebrated is the answer. Technically, they were deserters (broke an oath to the state), but to state they committed a treasonous act may be pushing it too far (from a European perspective). There are facts, but there is no universal truth. There are only perceptions. We are not arguing over what happened, which can be resolved. Was everybody wrong? Were the soldiers wrong to desert? Was the de Valera government wrong to be seemingly punitive once they realised how gruesome the Nazis were? And are we wrong here today in arguing over them for ill or good? Perhaps it is time to let the dead rest - and the past... remain the past. Author: Capt Cían Harte was born in Riverstown, Co. Sligo in 1991. He holds a B.A. and M.A. in Ancient History from Queen's University Belfast and an M.A. in Strategic Studies from UCC. He has self-published five history books to date including his latest: 'Heroes or Traitors: Irish Deserters of WWII' (2021), available from www.lulu.com or any online book retailers. Capt Harte's book, 'Heroes or Traitors? The Irish Deserters of WWII' is available from www.lulu.com and online booksellers Figure 3. Gunner Paddy Reid (pictured 2nd from left) served in the Anti-Tank Regiment of the British Army. Picture taken in Burma during WWII. Irish Independent (13/06/2013).

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