CEU Press
- Title
- Ireland's Helping Hand to Europe
- Subtitle
- Combatting Hunger from Normandy to Tirana, 1945–1950
- Author
- Jérôme Wiel
- Price
- € 188,00 excl. VAT
- ISBN
- 9789633864098
- Format
- Hardback
- Number of pages
- 572
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 01 - 10 - 2021
- Dimensions
- 15.9 x 23.4 cm
- Categories
- Discipline
- History, Art History, and Archaeology
- Imprint
- Also available as
- eBook PDF - € 187,99
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I. Deciding and Organising Relief at Home
Chapter 1. Handshake Debacle amidst Humanitarian Crisis
Independence and Catholic identity
Communists, Nazis, and Jews
A crypto ally called Ireland
Life in wartime Ireland
Europe reacts to de Valera’s handshake
Slowly coming to terms with Nazi horrors
Radio duel between Churchill and de Valera
Europe’s misery
Thinking of postwar times: UNRRA and the ICRC
Thinking of postwar times: the neutrals
Thinking of postwar times: the Vatican
Concluding remarks
Chapter 2. ‘A drop in the ocean’: The Decision to send Relief
Grim facts emerging and reported by the Irish press
1845/1945: Asked to remember the Great Irish Famine
25 April 1945: The decision to send relief
Motivations to aid Europe
18 May 1945: Dail adopts relief scheme
Concluding remarks
Chapter 3. Reaction and Organisation
Administration and management
The Irish Red Cross Society
Firms, factories, and farms react
People and charities react
The Irish Save the Children Fund
Organising donations
Cork adopts Cologne
Moralising
Irish relief volunteers for the continent
Concluding remarks
Chapter 4. Archbishop McQuaid to the Rescue
McQuaid the continental
A commitment to help
Going through the war years
Submerged by appeals for aid
Organising relief for continental children
Relief fatigue
Persevering with the NCWC
Concluding remarks
Chapter 5. 1946: Extending Postwar Relief
The state of Europe, 1946–1947
Ireland thinks of extending relief operations
International Food Conference in London
June 1946, Dail approves second relief ....
Jérôme Wiel
Ireland's Helping Hand to Europe
Combatting Hunger from Normandy to Tirana, 1945–1950
Post-war Marshall Plan aid to Europe and indeed Ireland is well documented, but practically nothing is known about simultaneous Irish aid to Europe. This book provides a full record of the aid – mainly food but also clothes, blankets, medicines, etc. – that Ireland donated to continental Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Balkans, Italy, and zones of occupied Germany.
Starting with Ireland’s neutral wartime record, often wrongly presented as pro-German when Ireland in fact unofficially favoured the western Allies, Jerome aan de Wiel explains why Éamon de Valera’s government sent humanitarian aid to the devastated continent. His book analyses the logistics of collection and distribution of supplies sent abroad as far as the Greek islands.
Despite some alleged Cold-War hijacking of Irish relief – and this humanitarianism was not above the politics of that East-West confrontation – it became mostly a story of hope, generosity and European Christian solidarity. Rich archival records from Ireland and the European beneficiary countries, as well as contemporary local and national newspapers across Europe, allow the author to measure and describe not only the official but also the popular response to Irish relief schemes. This work is illustrated with contemporary photographs and some key graphs and tables that show the extent of the aid programme.
Author
Jérôme Wiel
Jérôme aan de Wiel is lecturer in History and European Studies at University College Cork, Ireland. His research focuses on twentieth-century European history and Irish history, notably on the First World War, Cold War and post-war (WW2) periods.
