‘We are trying to do our share’: The construction of positive neutrality and Irish post-war relief to Europe

This paper explores aspects of Ireland’s post-war relief programme, both governmental and non-governmental, including the provision of post-war relief to Germany. Irish relief efforts to Europe during and after the Second World War should inform the wider debates about the nature of Irish neutrality and Ireland’s relationship with the post-war world, but they are overlooked in the major analyses on Ireland and ‘the Emergency’. The provision of relief on the basis of need led to the diagnosis that Germany deserved relief just as the other war-torn countries did. This paper argues that many factors intertwined in the instigation and sustenance of the relief programme to Europe. The Irish post-war aid project was and remains unprecedented in the history of Irish humanitarianism, in terms of the scale and the level of national engagement. It is paradoxical that it is not remembered.