Ireland Pardons Wartime Deserter ‘Heroes’

LONDON â€" The Irish government is to reverse what has been described as a historic injustice by granting a pardon to soldiers who deserted their units to fight the Nazis in World War II.

An amnesty and immunity bill, scheduled to be enacted on Tuesday, includes an apology to some 5,000 men who faced post-war sanctions and ostracism after they quit the defense forces of neutral Ireland to join the allied war effort against Hitler.

The measure comes too late for most of the deserters â€" only about 100 are believed to be still alive â€" but it was welcomed by their families and supporters.

The successful campaign for a pardon has revived a debate about Irish neutrality during World War II and has prompted calls to remember others who suffered during a tense period of the country’s history.

Most of the Irish service members went on to join British forces that began fighting Germany in September 1939.

On their return, many were court-martialed and dismissed under emergency wartime powers. Considered by some of their countrymen as traitors, by others as heroes, they were blacklisted by the state for seven years, depriving them of state jobs and pensions.

Alan Shatter, the justice and defense minister who introduced the bill, said of the veterans, “When they returned to Ireland at the end of the war, they were treated shamefully by the State, despite their bravery.”

“Unfortunately, many of the individuals whose situation is addressed in this bill did not live to see the day that this state finally acknowledged the important role that they played in seeking to ensure a free and safe Europe,” he told the Irish Independent.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Eamon de Valera, the country stayed neutral during World War II â€" a period known in Ireland as The Emergency.

At a time when, only 18 years after Irish independence from Britain, the main threat to the state was seen as coming from dissidents in the Irish Republican Army, the government adopted emergency powers that included internment and censorship.

Despite official policy, some 60,000 Republic of Ireland citizens, including the deserters, nevertheless joined the British armed forces.

When he announced the forthcoming legislation in June last year, Mr. Shatter stressed the importance of loyalty among members of the armed forces. However, the government recognized the grave and exceptional circumstances of World War II.

“Members of the Defense Forces left their posts at that time to fight on the Allied side against tyranny and together with many thousands of other Irish men and women, played an important role in defending freedom and democracy,” he said in a statement on behalf of the government.

The move to pardon the deserters has not been universally welcomed and critics have suggested they may have abandoned their units for a variety of reasons, including to benefit from the relatively better conditions in the British armed forces.

Tom McGurk, writing in Ireland’s Sunday Business Post last year to oppose the amnesty campaign, wrote:

“I don’t know of any other country in the world where thousands of men recruited to the army in a time of national emergency, and who then deserted to join a foreign army, would be seen as ‘victims’ or even ‘heroes.’”

Michael Kennedy, an Irish military historian, wrote at Ireland’s The Journal news Web site, “It is entirely possible that amongst those who deserted were individuals with less noble reasons than fighting with the Allies against Nazi tyranny.”

In Parliament, Aengus Ã" Snodaigh of the nationalist Sinn Féin supported the amnesty for deserters, who he said included those who joined the British Army to combat “a greater evil than the British Empire itself.”

But he also called for the country to reexamine the “torture and execution” of nationalists and the treatment of some 2,000 interned in Ireland during The Emergency.