Dev’s helping hand to Britain
QUESTION
How much help did Éamon de Valera give the Allies during the Second World War?
DURING the Second World War, the then-taoiseach, Éamon de Valera, gave the Allies much more help than was publicly known at the time, or has been acknowledged since.
For many, de Valera’s role in the Second World War ‘Emergency’ in Ireland was characterised by his decision in 1945 to offer official condolences on the death of Hitler, but in fact, throughout that war, he and his government gave a lot of assistance to the Allies.
German aircrew who crashlanded in Ireland were interned, but RAF crews who landed here after crashing were treated much more leniently. Up to the late summer of 1940, six RAF planes had crash-landed in Ireland, but their crews were allowed to return to Britain. The first British airman wasn’t interned until the end of September 1940.
In one instance, where an RAF plane came down in the sea off the north Co. Dublin coast, the pilot walked into Skerries Garda Station to make an official phone call home about his crash and he wasn’t detained.
The Irish government had two internment camps on the Curragh in Co. Kildare. Number One camp was for IRA men who had been interned – De Valera had cracked down hard on the IRA – while Number Two camp, informally known as ‘K Lines’, was used for detaining German and UK aircrews, mostly German.
Another relaxation of neutrality came with the Donegal Air Corridor, which enabled RAF crews, based in Co. Fermanagh, to fly directly over south Co. Donegal to patrol the Western Approaches during the Battle of the Atlantic. This saved the aircrews having to make a lengthy detour round the north of Co. Donegal.
The county had another example of De Valera’s help to the Allies; his government allowed a Royal Navy tug to be stationed at Killybegs to help in air sea rescues.
Just before the war ended, De Valera had given the British permission to set up secret radar bases in Ireland, but after the war in Europe ended in 1945, those were never needed. When it came to communications, the Dublin government clamped down on the radio transmitter being used in the German legation in Dublin to send information on the Allies to
Berlin. In 1941, the head of the German legation, Dr Eduard Hempel, was forbidden to use the transmitter and two years later, it was confiscated.
Ireland continued to send meteorological reports to Britain throughout the war and in 1944, Ireland contributed a crucial report in the D-Day landings in northern France.
The Atlantic weather report from the Blacksod weather station on the Mullet peninsula in west Co. Mayo, on June 3, 1944, was key to enabling the D-Day landings to go ahead three days later. This country also had a secret agreement with the British for their joint co-operation should the Germans ever try to invade Ireland, but fortunately, this never had to be put into effect.
In terms of cross-border cooperation, the most famous incident was in 1941, when fires were raging after the German blitz on that city. Fire crews were sent from Drogheda and Dundalk to help fight the blazes in Belfast.
In the earlier part of the war, the British under Winston Churchill had been very slow to help this part of Ireland in getting in vital supplies and during the first two years of the war, many supplies here of foodstuffs and other essentials, such as coal, reached critically low levels. But in another respect, Ireland gave much needed help to the Allies. During the Second World War, it’s estimated that 50,000 people from this part of Ireland joined up with the three armed services in the UK, the Army, the Royal Navy and the RAF. Some sources say the figure was as high as 70,000.
The high levels of unemployment in Ireland encouraged another 200,000 people to leave this part of Ireland and go and work in Britain. Many Irish women worked as nurses there, while many other men and women worked in munitions factories; lots of Irish men got work in the coal mines.
All this went far in helping Britain and the Allies win the war and Ireland had another secret ‘weapon’ too to help wartime Britain keep going, a steady flow of Guinness from Dublin.
Don Murphy, by email.
QUESTION
Why can’t rechargeable batteries be used in some devices?
A RECHARGEABLE battery, which can be restored to full charge by the use of electrical energy, is technically called a secondary cell. A disposable battery is a primary cell. Most modern rechargeable batteries are made of nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), which has superseded NiCd (Nickel-cadmium) on environmental grounds.
They have come a long way since they came onto the market in the Nineties: they hold a charge for much longer and can be recharged hundreds of times.
The energy profile of primary and secondary cells is quite different. Secondary cells have flat discharge at a steady 1.2 volts until depleted and then drop off very quickly to below 1.0 volts. Primary cells (carbon zinc or manganesedioxide, which is alkaline) use cells that have 1.5V open-circuit voltage when fresh, then drop to 1.2 and continue to 1.0 when the appliance stops working.
Digital cameras, flashlights and toys, where there is a high-energy consumption, are best suited for NiMH batteries. These batteries self-discharge at a rate of 1% per day, so in a low-energy consumption or stand-by device, they will need to be recharged after 90 days. A disposable battery is more suitable for smoke alarms, emergency flashlights, clocks and TV remotes, which are low-energy devices or where the battery is not used within 30 days. Disposable batteries are also better for emergency applications and military use.
Dan Rutherford, Nottingham.
QUESTION
A Meccano magazine, dated March 1939, described hollow cones that were widely used to deter rats from running up a rope and on to a ship. Are they still in use?
FURTHER to the earlier answer, I joined my first ship, a tramping iron ore carrier, in 1970. Though we always fitted rat guards to the mooring lines, we didn’t really need them because we had Hooley, the ship’s fearless young tabby cat. He visited Mauritania with us on the western edge of the Sahara. He jumped ship at Sagunto in Spain. Perhaps he became bored with the sea or didn’t relish our next trip – a long, slow voyage to Brazil. I like to think that having found a Spanish moggy for companionship, he settled in that Mediterranean port city.
Alun Rees, Cardigan.
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