The debate over Ireland's decision to maintain neutrality during the Second World War periodically resurfaces in the letters page of the Irish Times, exposing the cracks in established political pieties. The challenge tends to come from those resistant to the idea that the political circumstances of the time made neutrality the most rational policy. The desire to atone for the failings of an earlier generation sees historical analysis driven by contemporary moral certainties. Something of this sort animates Brian Girvin's study of the diplomacy between the Allies and Ireland, Girvin's late father having been pro-German, as he reveals in an early footnote.

LRB 5 October 2006 | PDF Download