In his Victory in Europe Day radio broadcast (May, 1945), British Prime Minister Winston Churchill launched a strong attack on the Irish government’s policy of neutrality, while being careful to distinguish that from any criticism of the Irish people as a whole or of individual Irishmen.
De Valera’s reply, also in a radio broadcast, won widespread respect and praise in Ireland from even his staunchest opponents.
Churchill said
…if it had not been for the loyalty and friendship of Northern Ireland we should have been forced to come to close quarters with Mr. de Valera or perish forever from the earth. However, with a restraint and poise to which, I say, history will find few parallels, we never laid a violent hand upon them, which at times would have been quite easy and quite natural, and left the de Valera Government to frolic with the German and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart’s content…
DeValera then said (realaudio)
…Certain newspapers have been very persistent in looking for my answer to Mr. Churchill’s recent broadcast. I know the kind of answer I am expected to make. I know the answer that first springs to the lips of every man of Irish blood who heard or read that speech, no matter in what circumstances or in what part of the world he found himself.
I know the reply I would have given a quarter of a century ago. But I have deliberately decided that that is not the reply I shall make tonight. I shall strive not to be guilty of adding any fuel to the flames of hatred and passion which, if continued to be fed, promise to burn up whatever is left by the war of decent human feeling in Europe.
Allowances can be made for Mr. Churchill’s statement, however unworthy, in the first flush of his victory. No such excuse could be found for me in this quieter atmosphere. There are, however some things which it is my duty to say, some things which it is essential to say. I shall try to say them as dispassionately as I can.
Mr. Churchill makes it clear that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated our neutrality and that he would justify his action by Britain’s necessity. It seems strange to me that Mr. Churchill does not see that this, if accepted, would mean Britain’s necessity would become a moral code and that when this necessity became sufficiently great, other people’s rights were not to count.
It is quite true that other great Powers believe in this same code-in their own regard-and have behaved in accordance with it. That is precisely why we have the disastrous succession of wars-World War No. I and World War No. 2 and shall it be World War No. 3?
Surely Mr. Churchill must see that if his contention be admitted in our regard, a like justification can be framed for similar acts of aggression elsewhere and no small nation adjoining a great Power could ever hope to be permitted to go it own way in peace….
I begin by saying that although the reply from DeValera was just,sometimes i wish he could have said a good lot more of the cruelty and inhumaine acts that our neighbours have inflicted on us,unfortunitly the youth of today are not allowed to know our own history,and therefore cannot see the great battle for freedom that our anncestors achived whilst been under the most cruel and evil of great empires,yes i say great empires…because they were,and just to think that all it took was a good number of (stupid paddys) to bring them to there knees!DeValera says “he knows what answer he would have gave a quarter of a century ago” when he was alot younger…thats what should open your mind..how young these men where when they fighting for there freedom,i say men,alot only boys!!!we owe them so much.
I only wish the youth of today could realise where we really come from…a great nation of
highly passionate people with great intelect and a quality of never lying down..all the great ingredient for our fight for freedom!
As an Irishman I believe Churchill was right. De Valera was a yellow belly!
Where is the rest of this speech? The end of the speech is the most brilliant part of it, in my opinion. Also, the hypothetical he posits is very effective as well. F churchill, why should Ireland ever help England? (at least back then)
Undoubtedly Dev was right. I can only assume Churchill was still high on victory and this reinforced his own sence of self rightousness to abandon diplomacy and historical fact in order to critisize Ireland.
The fact is that the British were Irelands Nazis for centuries and through all that time we stood alone. Britain sewed seeds of hatred in Ireland which (to its huge surprise??) it reaped during WW2.
I think Dev’s hypothetical question regarding what Churchill would do if Germany had conquered England, subjected it to years of tyranny, granted it freedom but still holding strategic partitioned counties and then expected England to join it in a crusade, summed it up for us.
Above all it gave a real Irish freedom fighter (whatever his faults he was in the Easter Rising) the chance to chastise Britain for its crimes against Ireland as a head of state. The statesman-like manner in which Dev delivered it was a moral victory and a lesson in diplomacy for Churchill
I understand the nationalist sentiment, and also the reaction from Dev. I must say however that history leaves us in a bad light (I am Irish) and a letter of condolence to the German people on Hitlers death at a time when the camps were becoming knowledge is little short of shocking. Ireland was treated very badly by “the Brits”, undisputed - would we have preferred the Nazis? At base level the British are our closest neighbours. Had they been invaded how long would it have been before jackboots were walking through Dublin and murdering Irish Jews and others that they felt like murdering. We should have joined the war, but people do what they think is the best thing to do
The response by dev is just perfect, it is perfect in its syntax and structure. Dev was a great politician in every sense of the word he knew how to play the game and how to keep Ireland moving forward. Idealism is great but it is no basis for government policy on war, Ireland at the time had just gained independence and was bare;y out of a civil war and was struggling to survive in peace time let alone a war. Also if we had joined the allies as Churchill states he would have no problem falling back to Ireland, after gaining freedom the Irish people would not have been willing to accept this old oppressor back into their country so quickly after getting them to leave. How could we trust them to leave once the war was over. But overall Dev knew that teh Irsih people were tired war and violence after fighting for freedom for nearly 800 years to then enter a civil war to enter a world war would have crippled the country and the spirit of its people.
De Valera being American by birth and an American citizen so Germany invading was not likely, as germany would not want to draw USA into the war. Also apparently on 6 separate occasions prevented Hitler from invading Ireland, I think this warranted ‘playing’ with the german ambassador.
After hearing this speech from De Valera I was very proud of my forefathers it shows the Irish as an intellectual and mature people, if at the time Britain want to push their weight around just cause they won (barely), then let them it just shows that Ireland were able to move above this and not resort to idle threats.
Unless I’ve read Churchill’s speech incorrectly, he doesn’t say that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated Ireland’s neutrality and that he would have justified his action by Britain’s necessity. Doesn’t he actually say that Britain made a purposeful decision not to violate Ireland’s neutrality because of the political status quo?
Also, wasn’t the focus of Britain’s concern in Eire at that particular time the protection of the Western Approaches where convoys were taking an enormous battering from lurking German U-Boats?
Maybe De Valera held a festering distaste for Churchill personally or Britain nationally (and maybe that was justifiable) but don’t you think he exhibited an inability to keep pace with the realities of contemporary politics? He can surely only be judged by his own actions and I personally think that his wartime actions were despicable.
The previous responses forget the one basic reason that Churchill was responding to. The treaty that gave Ireland its independence carried a provision that in time of war the former Royal Navy bases and ports would be available to Britain. De Valera refused to honor that leaving Churchil with the choice of taking treaty rights forcibly or not. He chose the latter and it is understandable his bitterness, because during the war the Battle of the Atlantic was denied the use of the bases and Admiral Max Horton’s Western Approaches comand had to use west coast UK ports adding many extra miles to escorts that had to join up with convoys. Many historians agree that this added immeasurably to the losses incurred by the battle for the Atlantic.
Rock on Dev, thats the most awe inspiring speech i have ever heard and i would love to hear the full version, I’d also love to have been a fly on the wall when winston heard it, he probably choked on one of his cigars, was there a followup statement?
Well we fought for freedon from the british and we won it. I take the point about the ports-Im sure Dev would have hadned them over to the British Navy without a problem and he probably would have built better relations with Britain after the war for having done so. However, Churchill was too much of a snob to ask Dev if he wouldnt mind awfully if he could use them. no, he had to remain the big Empire prime minister and not be seen to cow down to the former Empire johnnies….Devs reply was pure genius..
britian cedded the treaty ports in the mid 30′ies. they occupied them from the creation of the free state up to the conclusion of the economic war (trade dispute). churchill believed in empire and as dev pointed out that the rights of his country supersedded the rights of others, an imperialist. he was pissed when the ports went he was pissed when the 26 went etc etc good speech by dev. read a biography of churchills before. churchill was fasciated even paronid about dev. had him put on the agenda to be discussed at major meetings with rosevelt and stalin. little old us.
on should we have joined in. at the time in ireland partition was a much bigger issue than it is today, partition was seen and still is by some as an afrunt to our right to self determination. WW1 was just 30 years previous and this was the first war britian was involved in that we had a choice not to go into. they exercised that choice which they won the right to. think there decision is there position was compleately justifiable.
It’s a great response from de Valera. Very calm and composed.
I think he was totally correct to maintain neutrality. Ireland would have stood no chance in a time of war. It’s a tiny country, with little or no resources, no manpower after having just recovered from two wars in ten years and there was hardly any fight left in us after all that had happened. If we had joined forces with Britain, the Germans would probably have pounced on us immediately and bombed us into the stone age. De Valera’s staunch position saved us an awful lot of suffering. Given everything we had been through, the huge loss of life that could have been inflicted and the continuing problems that we experienced here, it was definitely the right decision on de Valera’s part I think. I wouldn’t consider myself a huge fan of de Valera, but I think he was a highly intelligent man who had principles and stuck with them even in the face of bullying and cryptic promises of Irish unity from Churchill. This makes me fiercely proud and this speech alone gives me huge respect for de Valera despite the fact that I’m not a fan of the constitution he drew up. This speech embodies the Irish spirit. One of the things that I love about de Valera is the respect he had for himself and for other Irish people. He taught us what it means to be proud of who you are and where you come from. We don’t owe Britain anything and we shouldn’t have to make any apologies. That is what this speech is all about. It’s great and something we should be proud of.
I believe Churchill called this speech de Valera’s ‘finest hour’. He was right.