Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I thank him for his contribution and welcome the proposed legislation.

In an hour or so the Minister will be debating the current Garda cutbacks and relocations with the House, perhaps in a more robust fashion, but this is a more reflective and conciliatory debate. We are discussing the events of the Second World War. In the course of history we should be mindful of the comments of one of the former leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. I cannot fully recall his name and certainly could not pronounce it, but he said it was too early to assess the significance of the French Revolution. Similarly, we have to do a lot of further deep thinking about Ireland's role, or non-role, in the Second World War. The specific Bill being introduced by the Minister relates to a small number of people who deserted the Irish Army during that time. This humane and realistic legislation strikes the right balance between attempting to right what most people see as a wrong and expressing once again our support for and thanks as a nation to all those who have served in the Defence Forces.

In this country we did not call the Second World War a war - we called it "the Emergency". Before we sneer at such terminology, we must remember and recognise that it was a time before the Internet, colour television sets, mass media, Twitter and Sky News. It was difficult for many people, even at high levels of the Government, to appreciate fully the slaughter, terror, mass murder and killing that was commonplace across the continent of Europe. The Second World War was entirely different from the First World War. While millions of people were tragically killed during the First World War, it moved at a snail's pace, as Senator Fidelma Healy Eames said. The technology of war had advanced by the time the Second World War started. This facilitated mass murder on a entirely different and more horrific scale, as evidenced by the dreadful concentration camps of eastern Europe. At this time, the Irish Government was a relatively new institution in a very new state. It was inevitable that the Government of the time was defensive and inward-looking. As Senator Denis O'Donovan said, just 17 years had passed since the end of the Civil War. There was a sense of tension and fear among the political establishment. Perhaps it is more understandable than it should be, therefore, that we decided almost to ignore what was happening across the continent of Europe. We tried to put our own little Iron Curtain around the island and look after our own affairs.

A number of people who were serving in the Irish Army at the time decided that the State's approach was not good enough and took the difficult and dangerous option of fighting for the British Army on the continent of Europe. The figures presented by the Minister seem to indicate that the majority deserted to join the British Army. A small number simply walked away from the Defence Forces. I recognise how difficult it was for the people concerned to remove themselves from their own national army and move into an entirely different theatre of military engagement, where death and destruction were a daily inevitability for so many. Many, if not all, of them went to war to defend democracy and fight fascism, which must be lauded. We have to recognise, as the Minister did in his very balanced contribution, that as a nation we were still hugely dependent on, and must be thankful for, the Irish Army. The LDF served side by side with the Irish Army in almost every town and townland. This created a great sense of national unity during the Emergency. The LDF played a part not just in a military sense but also from a community perspective. It had its role also.

I welcome the legislation that the Minister has introduced. It is appropriate, fair and balanced. The people who left our shores to fight on foreign fields were no lesser Irishmen, or no less committed, than those who had stayed at home. They took the road less travelled, which was the far more dangerous one. It is right, many years later, that we are recognising that they were patriots, too. We must try to wipe the record clean as far as they are concerned.