The ‘desertions crisis’ in the Irish defence forces during the Second World War, 1939–1945

Abstract

Throughout the course of the Second World War, approximately 7,000 personnel serving with the defence forces of neutral southern Ireland abandoned their posts and absented themselves from duty. A large majority of these absentees successfully evaded capture by their authorities, crossing the border into Northern Ireland and arriving at British combined forces recruiting centres where they enlisted in the British army and the Royal Air Force. At the conclusion of the war, in August 1945, some 5,000 soldiers listed as ‘absent without leave’ were formally dismissed from the defence forces, deprived of all pension and gratuity rights, and legally prevented from obtaining any form of publicly remunerated employment for a 7-year period. This article investigates desertion from the Irish defence forces during the Second World War, producing fresh conclusions as to why it occurred on such a large scale.