LABOUR COMMENT

De Valera On Arrival Of United States Troops In The Six Counties (Irish Press, 28.1.1942)

The Yanks Arrive!

EVERYBODY knew…. that Ireland had twenty years ago been partitioned and the Six Counties being cut off from the rest of the country by an Act of the British Parliament, despite the expressed will of the Irish people.

When the United States was entering the last war [1914-18].… President Wilson declared that America would fight for democracy and for the right of peoples to national self-determination.  The Irish people took him at his word and, in the General Elections of December, 1918, by an overwhelming vote—more than three for to one against—declared for National Independence and for the establishment of a Republic.

This decision was reaffirmed, after two years of conflict with Britain, in the General Elections of 1921, when the partition candidates returned were again less than one-fourth of the total representation.

Nevertheless, the British Government cut the nation in two, and set up a separate Parliament for six of the thirty-two counties.

These six counties formed no natural, historical or geographical entity.  The area was chosen solely with a view to securing a majority within it for the anti-national minority.

In one-half of the area, including the city of Derry and the whole territory adjoining the boundary of the Twenty-Six counties, a majority of the inhabitants are against Partition.

To partition the territory of an ancient nation is one of the cruellest wrongs that can be committed against a people.

The partition of Ireland is in essence not different from the former partition of Poland, nor are the evils that flow from it less in kind than those which Abraham Lincoln foresaw from the projected partition of the United States, when he determined to prevent it, even at the cost of fighting one of the bitterest civil wars in history.

The people of Ireland have no feeling of hostility, towards, and no desire to be brought in any way into conflict with, the United States.

For reasons which I referred to a few weeks ago, the contrary is the truth, but it is our duty to make it clearly understood that, no matter what troops occupy the Six Counties, the Irish people’s claim for the union of the whole of the national territory and for supreme jurisdiction over it will remain unabated.

Four years ago, the British Government and Parliament recognised fully the sovereignty of the Irish nation over that part of the national territory in the Twenty-Six-Counties, and the bond has been honourably kept in that regard . . . .

But the maintenance of the partition of Ireland is as indefensible as aggression against small nations elsewhere which is the avowed purpose of Great Britain and the United States in this war to bring it to an end (Irish Press-28.1.1942).

********************

“WHEN De Valera complained that the Irish Government had not been consulted either by the United States or Britain in regard to the landing of American troops in Northern Ireland, Roosevelt’s reply was brief and to the point — a cable which simply said:  ‘Really?’ ” (Tony Gray, Ireland This Century, Little, Brown & Company, 1994, p156.)

********************

THE first official U.S. troops landed in Northern Ireland on 26th January 1942.  A contingent of 4,508 soldiers from the 34th Infantry Division stepped ashore at Dufferin Quay in Belfast.  This was the first arrival of American ground forces in the European theatre during World War II, as part of Operation Magnet.

This marked the beginning of America’s military presence in Europe during WWII.  Their arrival became known as the “friendly invasion” and marked a key moment in Allied co-operation.

While the official combat forces arrived in 1942, hundreds of U.S. technicians had already spent much of 1941 building naval and seaplane bases in places like Derry.

The second wave came at the end of 1943 when troops from the 2nd, 5th, and 8th Infantry Divisions and the 82nd Airborne Division arrived.

Approximately 300,000 U.S. military personnel passed through or were stationed in the Six Counties during World War II.  This massive build-up, which began on January 26, 1942, served as a staging and training area for American forces before their deployment to mainland Europe and North Africa.

Stationing U.S. forces in Northern Ireland in January 1942 brought a pro forma complaint from the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera. The Irish Government had not been consulted, and he saw the move as approval of partition.  Some in Ireland actually feared the American army would attack Irish forces.

The Luftwaffe attacked Belfast because the city was a major strategic hub for the Allied war effort, housing vital shipbuilding, aircraft, and manufacturing industries.  As the Germans attempted to cripple British supply lines during the Battle of the Atlantic, they recognised Belfast as a prime industrial target with surprisingly weak defenses.

Approximately 1,300 people died as a result of World War II bombings in Northern Ireland.

These casualties occurred during a series of German Luftwaffe air raids on Belfast in April and May 1941, collectively known as the Belfast Blitz.

The First Raid (April 7–8, 1941):  13 people were killed as German planes targeted shipyards and docks in a reconnaissance attack.

The Easter Tuesday Raid (April 15–16, 1941):  The most devastating attack, resulting in roughly 900 to 1,100 deaths and 1,500 injuries.

The May Raids (May 4–5 and May 5–6, 1941)  

Two subsequent raids using incendiary bombs killed an additional 200 people.

There were approximately 150 to 200 civilian deaths in the Irish Republic during WWII. (September Issue:  Northern Nationalist Reaction;  De Valera and the Occupied Treaty Ports.)