On this episode of the Irish History Show we were joined by Cían Harte to discuss Irish Army deserters during the Second World War.

When the Second World War began the Irish government declared neutrality. As many neutral European nations were to find out, neutrality was no guarantee to avoiding invasion.

In the episode we discussed the state of the Irish Defence Forces at the outbreak of war; the massive recruitment campaigns undertaken by the state forces; the conditions and morale of soldiers; reasons for desertion; serving soldiers deserting and joining the British military and the repercussions for these deserters after the war.

Cían Harte is an historian, a serving officer in the Irish Defence Forces and self-published author of works such as ‘Heroes Or Traitors? Irish Deserters of WWII’, ‘Soldiers of Sligo’ & ‘The Lost Tales: Riverstown’s Great War, 1914-1918’ among others.

https://www.cianhartehistorian.com/

Intro / Outro music “Sliabh” from Aislinn. Licensed under creative commons from the free music archive.