The first bombing of neutral Ireland,[1] during World War II took place on 26 August 1940, when the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) dropped bombs at Campile, County Wexford killing three people. The first bombing of the city of Dublin occurred early on the morning of 2 January 1941 when German bombs were dropped in the Terenure area of south Dublin.[2] This was followed the next night by further German bombing of houses in Donore Terrace in the South Circular Road area of south Dublin in the early morning of 3 January 1941.[3][4] Although a number of people were injured, no one was killed in these bombings. Later the same year, on 31 May 1941, four German bombs fell in north Dublin, with the greatest damage in the North Strand area, killing 28 people.[5][9]
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At the beginning of the Second World War, Ireland declared its neutrality and proclaimed "The Emergency". By July 1940 the United Kingdom stood only with the Commonwealth against Germany, after Germany’s military conquests of Poland, Denmark and Norway (Operation Weserübung), France and the Low Countries (Battle of France), most of which had been neutral. By May 1941 the German Air Force had bombed numerous cities in the United Kingdom, including Belfast in Northern Ireland in "The Blitz". Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom was at war, but the independent state of Ireland was neutral. German area bombings aimed in the direction of the British Isles were reduced after the launch of Operation Barbarossa in late June 1941.
Despite its neutrality, Ireland experienced a number of bombing raids:
Around 6am on 2 January 1941, two bombs were dropped in Rathdown Park, Terenure.[3] The first bomb, which dropped behind the houses at the corner of Rathdown Park and Rathfarnham Road, landed in soft ground and created a large crater but caused little other damage. The second landed behind the houses at 25 and 27 Rathdown Park, destroying both and damaging many neighbouring houses. Two other bombs were dropped on the corner of Lavarna Grove and Fortfield Road, close to the Kimmage Crossroads (KCR). Lavarna Grove was still under construction at this time and the bomb fell on undeveloped ground with the nearby houses at nos. 25 and 27 Lavarna Grove suffering the worst damage. Only one person was slightly injured, and there was no loss of life.
Just before 4am on the morning of 3 January 1941, a bomb fell at the rear of the houses at 91 and 93 Donore Terrace in the South Circular Road area of Dublin.[3][4] Three houses were destroyed and about fifty houses damaged. Donore Presbyterian Church, the attached school and the Jewish Synagogue in Donore were also damaged. 20 people were injured, but there was no loss of life.
Around 2am on 31 May 1941 four German bombs dropped on north Dublin.[5][20] One bomb fell in the Ballybough area, demolishing two houses at 43 and 44 Summerhill Park,[5] injuring many but with no loss of life. A second fell at the Dog Pond pumping works near the Zoo in Phoenix Park, with no casualties but damaging Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence of the Irish President (Douglas Hyde at the time).[5] A third made a large crater in the North Circular Road near Summerhill,[20] causing no injuries. A fourth, which was apparently a landmine, fell in North Strand destroying 17 houses and severely damaging about 50 others, with the worst damage in the area between Seville Place and Newcomen Bridge.[5][19] The raid claimed the lives of 28 people,[9] injured 90, destroyed or damaged approximately 300 houses, and left 400 people homeless.
On 5 June, a mass funeral was held for 12 of the victims; Éamon de Valera, the Taoiseach, and other government officials attended. De Valera made a speech in the Dáil Éireann (the lower house of the Irish Parliament) on the same day:
The then-West Germany later accepted responsibility for the raid, and by 1958 it paid compensation of £327,000. Over 2,000 claims for compensation were processed by the Irish government, eventually costing £344,000.[23] East Germany and Austria, which were both part of Germany in 1941, made no contribution. The amounts were fixed after the 1953 Agreement on German External Debts, allowing maximum compensation.
Several reasons for the raid have been asserted over time. Among the most discussed are: a navigational error; a deliberate attack in retaliation for Irish assistance to the victims of the Luftwaffe’s bombings of Belfast; a warning to Ireland not to assist Britain during the war or a deflection of radio beams on which the Luftwaffe relied. Unlike British cities Dublin was not subject to full blackout regulations, so the city would have been visible from the air, unlike Belfast. A limited blackout had been ordered as from 15 April. An Irish Department of Defence report dated 16 July 1941 noted that un-blacked-out Irish lights were often used by the Luftwaffe as an "aid to navigation" towards Northern Ireland, and that: "...the lights on the south coast and Dublin were used as points of arrival and departure in synchronized timing."[24]
German Radio, operated by the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, broadcast that - "it is impossible that the Germans bombed Dublin intentionally".[25] Irish airspace had been violated repeatedly, and both Allied and German airmen were being interned at the Curragh. A possible cause was a navigational error and mistaken target. Numerous large cities in the United Kingdom were targeted for bombing, including Belfast, which like Dublin is across the Irish Sea from Great Britain. Navigational error, equipment malfunction, or weather may also have played a role. A pilot who was one of the pathfinders on the raid later recounted this as the cause of the raid.[26] War-time Germany’s acceptance of responsibility and post-war Germany’s payment of compensation are cited as further indications that the causation was error on the part of the Luftwaffe pilots.
Irish neutrality in the Second World War was stretched. In April 1941, Germany had launched the Belfast blitz. Belfast, in Northern Ireland and therefore part of the United Kingdom was bombed severely during April. In response, Ireland had sent rescue, fire, and emergency personnel to Belfast to assist the city, and De Valera formally protested the bombing to the German government and made his famous "they are our people" speech. Ireland's response must have seemed unexpected from a neutral state, and some have contended that the raid served as a warning to Ireland to keep out of the war. This contention was expanded upon by Colonel Edward Flynn, second cousin of Ireland's Minister for Coordination of Defensive Measures, who recalled to the press that Lord Haw Haw warned Ireland that Dublin's Amiens Street Railway Station, where a stream of refugees from Belfast was arriving, would be bombed. The station, now called Connolly Station, stands a few hundred metres from North Strand Road, where the bombing damage was heaviest.[26] He similarly contended that the German bombing of Dundalk on 4 July was pre-warned by Lord Haw Haw as a punishment for Dundalk being the point of shipment of Irish cattle sold to the United Kingdom.
After the war, Winston Churchill said that the British could interfere with direction finding radio signals that the Luftwaffe used to guide bombers to their targets "The bombing of Dublin on the night of May 30, 1941, may well have been an unforeseen and unintended result of our interference with "Y"."[27] He was referring to the Battle of the Beams.
Some intelligence officials claimed that such interference caused the planes to hit Dublin. The technology, however, was not sufficiently well-developed by mid-1941 to have deflected planes from one target to another specific target, and could only limit the ability of bombers to receive the signals.[26]