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.

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.

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.

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.

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