Irish Neutrality and the Second World War: Policy, Sovereignty and Survival.

In the second episode of this three-part series on neutrality in Ireland, Dr Veronica Barry returns to examine the emergence and development of Irish neutrality in the years surrounding the Second World War.Picking up from the aftermath of the First World War, we explore the foreign policy concerns of the early Irish Free State, the limitations imposed by dominion status, and the wider European context in which neutrality increasingly came to be viewed as a means of protecting small-state sovereignty.A major focus of the episode is the role of Éamon de Valera in shaping Irish foreign policy during the 1930s, including the drafting of the 1937 Constitution, the removal of the British monarch from Irish constitutional affairs, and the decision not to formally enshrine neutrality within the Constitution itself.The discussion then turns to the outbreak of the Second World War and Ireland’s declaration of neutrality in September 1939. Dr Barry examines the practical realities of Irish neutrality during the conflict, including the weakness of the Defence Forces, fears surrounding partition and internal instability, censorship, covert cooperation with Britain and the United States, and the challenge of maintaining sovereignty during a period of total war.We also discuss how Ireland’s wartime experience differed from that of other neutral states, many of which suffered invasion and occupation, as well as the international criticism Ireland faced in the aftermath of the war.The episode concludes by examining how the Second World War fundamentally altered the concept of neutrality itself and shaped Ireland’s understanding of neutrality for decades to come.