Unknown stories about #Ireland

During WW2 a group of Nazi pilots crashed landed in Ireland County Kerry.

Given Irelands neutrality they were not taken in as prisoners of but interned there. They were having such a good time, many did not want to leave. Free dinners, cheap beer, loads of Cecil dances, Irish women and free bus trips to Dublin! They were happy out! And when any soldier kicked up a fuss, they were sure to be put back in their place by their fellow comrades.

There’s photos of them dancing at Ceilis and enjoying a snug pint of Guinness in families headed by a bean an tí (traditional Irish women of the house)

See “Luftwaffe Eagles Over Ireland: The Story of German Air Crashes Over Neutral Ireland 1940-1945” goes through it in immense detail and discusses other planes that landed. Contains an amazing set of photos.

Below I quote a review of the book

“The camp was more like a holiday camp than a prisoner-of-war camp, because they had great freedom of movement. Within the camp they were allowed to have their own radios and phonographs. They even had bars run by the camp authorities in each of the compounds, where they could buy beer and spirits at duty-free prices.

At the end of the war, most of the German internees wished to remain in Ireland longer. Four Austrians were given political asylum, but the remainder were compelled to return home, including the four German airmen who married Irish girls they met while interned here.

Those German survivors retained fond memories of their time in Ireland, unlike their Allied counterparts, who tended to resent their internment. When I was writing Guests of the State about the internment of the Allied and German servicemen, the Allied airmen explained that they were very frustrated in the Curragh and resented the suggestion that the camp was more like a holiday camp than a concentration camp.”