The year 1941 started ominously in Ireland with a number of bombings by German planes from 1 to 3 January, which many feared were a prelude to an invasion. When compared to what was happening in Britain the attacks were small, carried out by one or two planes; three people were killed in Borris, Co. … Read more
Sir, —Michael Kennedy’s article in the last issue, ‘“Men that came in with the sea”: the Coastwatching Service and the sinking of the Arandora Star’, showed the function of the lookout posts, and I am looking forward to reading the author’s book, Guarding neutral Ireland: the coast watching service and military intelligence, 1939–1945. The sad … Read more
During the Emergency (1939–45) the Irish Army lacked much of the essential equipment needed to defend Ireland, and naturally it was not possible to import armoured vehicles from abroad. To overcome this, Major J.V. Lawless of the Cavalry Corps designed a number of armoured cars based on various truck chassis that were then built in … Read more
The 535ft-long, 15,000-ton Blue Star Line luxury liner was built in 1927 by Cammell Laird in Birkenhead. She was one of the best-known cruise liners of the 1930s, taking 354 first-class passengers in palatial style to destinations in the Mediterranean, the West Indies, the fjords of Norway and the Arctic Ocean. With her white hull … Read more
Established in 1939 by the Defence Forces to provide landward defence for a country with no naval service, the Coastwatching Service was an unarmed military force numbering approximately 700 and made up of army reservists and men with maritime experience who joined up after the outbreak of war. Manning 83 LOPs, one located every ten … Read more