Sign into an existing account

'we're the good guys, do what we say, don't even engage in general dialogue with our enemy, or we will destroy you'

On 10 March 1944, news breaks of an Irish refusal of a US request to expel Axis diplomats.

Early this morning, newspapers in London and Washington headline a story that on 21 February, US ambassador to Ireland, David Gray, handed Éamon de Valera, head of government of Ireland, the so-called 'American Note', demanding that Ireland expels all Axis diplomats from their territory.

The US government decides to publish only the text of their own note, part of which reads:
˝It has become increasingly apparent that, despite the declared desire of the Irish Government that its neutrality should not operate in favor of either of the belligerents, it has in fact operated and continues to operate in favor of the Axis Powers and against the United Nations on whom your security and the maintenance of your national economy depend...

You will, of course, readily understand the compelling reasons why we ask as an absolute minimum the removal of these Axis representatives whose presence in Ireland must inevitably be regarded as constituting a danger to the lives of American soldiers and to the success of Allied military operations.˝

The Irish government responds by making public the text of their response:
˝The Irish Government have also received the assurances... to the effect that the American Government did not contemplate proceeding to military or other measures because of the reply which had been given...

The Irish Government wish to express their appreciation of this assurance... They felt, moreover, that the American Government should have realised that the removal of the representatives of a foreign State on the demand of the Government to which they are accredited is universally recognised as a first step towards war, and that the Irish Government could not entertain the American proposal without a complete betrayal of their democratic trust. Irish neutrality represents the united will of People and Parliament. It is the logical consequence of Irish history and of the forced partition of the national territory...˝