Introduction

Abstract

During the Second World War, neutral Ireland (then also known as Eire) interacted with military internees and prisoners of war both inside and outside the island of Ireland: members of the belligerent forces incarcerated in Eire, prisoners of war (including Irish) held abroad in Europe and Asia, and German prisoners of war detained in Northern Ireland, which was still a part of the United Kingdom. As a neutral, Eire was required by international law to arrest and intern members of the belligerent forces who made landfall in the 26 counties and as a result, between 1940 and 1945 a total of 45 Allied aircrew and 269 Axis airmen and sailors were held at the Curragh military camp. The Allied personnel consisted of 31 British, eight Canadians, three Poles, one Frenchman, one New Zealander and an American, described on the official internee list as ‘Yanks (USA)’.¹ The lone American was a member of the RAF; no US military personnel were ever interned. Situated in county Kildare, around 30 miles from Dublin, the Curragh camp was (and remains) the largest military complex in Ireland. First constructed in 1855, it served as a military base and police depot until it passed into the hands of the Dublin government after the foundation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The belligerent internees in the Curragh were initially classed as prisoners of war, in order for the government to extend the 1907 Hague and 1929 Geneva Conventions to them, and also to establish a basis for their treatment: what food, clothes and medical treatment they were entitled to, where and how they were to be detained, whether they had to work or not and what privileges the government could offer them.