Please note: In order to keep Hive up to date and provide users with the best features, we are no longer able to fully support Internet Explorer. The site is still available to you, however some sections of the site may appear broken. We would encourage you to move to a more modern browser like Firefox, Edge or Chrome in order to experience the site fully.

Supporting your high street Find out how »
That Neutral Island : A Cultural History of Ireland During the Second World War, Hardback Book

That Neutral Island : A Cultural History of Ireland During the Second World War Hardback

Hardback

Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks

Description

When the world descended into war in 1939, few European countries remained neutral; but of those that did, none provoked more controversy than Ireland. Despite Winston Churchill's best efforts to the contrary, the Irish premier Eamon de Valera stuck determinedly to Ireland's right to remain outside a conflict in which it had no enemies.

Accusations of betrayal and hypocrisy poisoned the media; legends of Nazi spies roaming the country depicted Ireland as a haven for Hitler's friends.

Where previous histories of Ireland in the war years have focused on high politics, "That Neutral Island" mines deeper layers of experience.

Sean O'Faolain, Kate O'Brien, Elizabeth Bowen, Flann O'Brien and Louis MacNeice are a handful of writers whose stories, letters, and diaries illuminate this small country as it suffered rationing, censorship, the threat of invasion, and a strange detachment from the war. Clair Wills brings to life the atmosphere of a country forced largely to do without modern technology.

She describes the work of those who recovered the bodies of British sailors and airmen from the sea.

She unearths the motivations of thousands who left to join the British forces. And she shows how ordinary people struggled to make sense of the Nazi threat through the lens of antagonism to Britain, the former colonial power.

She acutely targets the sleight-of-hand that hovers around the Irish definition of "neutrality."

Information

Save 22%

£32.95

£25.69

Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
Add to Basket
Sign in to add to wishlist
 
Free Home Delivery

on all orders

 
Pick up orders

from local bookshops

Information