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At a series of meetings in 17–26 June 1940, during and after the Battle of France, British envoy Malcolm MacDonald brought a proposal to end the partition of Ireland and offered a solemn undertaking to accept "the principle of a United Ireland" if the independent Irish state would abandon its neutrality and immediately join the war against ...
De Valera's reluctance to recognise a difference between World War II and previous European wars was illustrated by his reply to a radio broadcast by the British Prime Minister, Churchill on V-E Day. Churchill praised Britain's restraint in not occupying Ireland to secure the Western Approaches during the Battle of the Atlantic:
10 March – The United States alleged that Ireland's neutrality was operating in favour of the Axis Powers during World War II. 13 March – Winston Churchill banned travel and communication between Britain and Ireland, north and south. [1] 22 March – The Cymric (Captain C. Cassidy) was lost between Ardrossan and Lisbon: 11 dead.
20 February – The emergency Scientific Research Bureau was set up to seek alternatives to raw materials in short supply. [1]21 February – The first flight by a British Royal Air Force (RAF) flying boat took place through the "Donegal Corridor", Irish airspace between its base in Northern Ireland and the Atlantic Ocean, a concession secretly agreed by Éamon de Valera.
15 November – Irish Pine torpedoed and sunk by U-608, in the North Atlantic: 33 die. 12 December – Irish Poplar collides with the launch Eileen and the Cork Harbour pilot during a force eight gale: five die. 22 December – there are reports of a split in the Labour Party due to the selection of candidates for the forthcoming general election.
9 September – Billed as "The Last Race in Europe" until after World War II, the Irish Motor Racing Club held its Phoenix Park Race; this included motorcycle and car races. [8] 11 September – The Irish-flagged tanker Inverliffey was shelled and sunk by the Nazi submarine, U-38. The U-boat towed the lifeboats away from the blazing oil.
January – The Irish Naval Service acquired the first of its six motor torpedo boats, the M1. 3 January – Tomás Óg Mac Curtain shot and mortally wounded Detective Garda Síochána John Roche in Cork city centre. He had been disarmed by Garda Pat Malone in 1935. He was spared the death penalty in view of his father's history.
The Irish Free State declared itself a neutral country in 1922, and Ireland remained neutral during the Second World War; although it allowed Allied military aircraft to fly through part of its airspace, and shared some intelligence with the Allies (see Irish neutrality during World War II). During the Cold War, it did not join NATO nor the Non ...