Some 2,500 Irish soldiers served in US and other armies in Vietnam between 1959 and 1975. The project is being led by the Irish Vietnam Veterans Memorial Project in conjunction with the
An estimated 30 Irishmen, serving with US forces, were killed in Vietnam war.
Over 200,000 men from the island of Ireland served in the British military during the First World War. Around 35,000 lost their lives. Those who returned found that commemoration of their service was controversial in a way that it was not in Britain.
A total of 206,000 Irishmen served in the British forces during the war. Of these, 58,000 were already enlisted in the British Regular Army or Navy before the war broke out, including: 21,000 serving regular soldiers, 18,000 reservists, 12,000 in the Special Reserve, 5,000 Naval ratings and 2,000 officers.
After the outbreak of the First World War, men flocked to recruiting stations in Ireland. Their motivations were often the same as those who joined up in England, Scotland and Wales: a sense of duty, the belief that the war was a just cause, a desire for adventure, the bonds of friendship and economic reasons.
During World War II, Ireland was now officially neutral and independent from the UK. However, over 80,000 Irish-born men and women (north and south) joined the British armed forces, with between 5,000 and 10,000 being killed during the conflict.
In the course of the war, an estimated 70,000 citizens of neutral Ireland served as volunteers in the British Armed Forces (and another estimated 50,000 from Northern Ireland, and this figure does not include Irish people who were resident in Britain before the war (though many used aliases).
The Irish would remain neutral throughout the war but were universally viewed as far more sympathetic and helpful to the Allies than the Axis. Despite their formal neutrality, the Irish experienced a number of aerial bomb attacks from German planes in 1940 and 1941.
The policy of Irish neutrality during World War II was adopted by the Oireachtas at the instigation of the Taoiseach Éamon de Valera upon the outbreak of World War II in Europe.
Ireland did not join the war, but declared neutrality. Indeed the world war, in Ireland, was not referred to as a war at all, but as 'The Emergency'. In staying neutral, despite British and latterly American pleas to join the war, Ireland, under Eamon de Valera, successfully asserted the independence of the new state.
Fought between 1919 and 1921, this was a guerrilla and sectarian conflict involving Irish republicans, Ulster loyalists and British government forces.
The reasons for Irish neutrality during the Second World War are widely accepted: that any attempt to take an overtly pro-British line might have resulted in a replay of the Civil War; that Southern Ireland could make little material contribution to the Allied effort, while engagement without adequate defence would ...
Sadly, many of the Irishmen and their fellow soldiers killed at Gallipoli during WWI now lie in unmarked graves. On Anzac Day (April 25), Ireland remembers theestimated 4,000 Irishmen who lost their lives at Gallipoli, and during World War I, while fighting alongside the Allied Forces.
It's known that 29 Irish people – 28 men and one woman – lost their lives in the war, including some serving with the Australian armed forces. Michael, now 69, tells me: "In the cavalry and tanks regiments, at least 75pc were Irish in some way."
At the end of December 1944, figures for the three services were provided which concluded that 37,440 men and 4,510 women born in the Twenty-Six Counties were in the armed forces, the figures for Northern Ireland were 37, 579 and 3,081 respectively. During 1945 the figures for the South were increased to 50,000.
To date, Ireland has not sought to join as a full NATO member due to its traditional policy of military neutrality, although there is an ongoing debate on whether they will join in the future after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The foreign relations of Ireland are substantially influenced by its membership of the European Union, although bilateral relations with the United States and United Kingdom are also important to the state. It is one of the group of smaller nations in the EU and has traditionally followed a non-aligned foreign policy.
Between ancient history and the famous country, the name Ireland originates from the old Irish word Eire for “land of abundance” and “fertile land”. The word has also been derived from the Goddess Eriu who was a heroic figure and queen in Irish mythology.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Black Irish" referred to Irish people with black hair and dark features who were considered to be descended from Spanish sailors as depicted in Black Irish (folklore).
During World War II Scotland suffered some 34,000 combat deaths, and approximately 6,000 civilians were killed, many in air attacks on Clydeside.
Prepared to defend their country to the last, Edinburgh and its patriotic citizens rallied to support the Allied efforts as the Scottish Command Headquarters during the war.
Who can join the UK armed forces? Nationality and residence requirements. People applying to join the UK's armed forces must be either a British or Commonwealth citizen or from the Republic of Ireland (either as a sole or dual national). Gurkhas serve under special and unique arrangements.
Despite its neutrality, Ireland experienced several bombing raids: 26 August 1940: Five German bombs were dropped on County Wexford in a daylight raid. One bomb hit the Shelbourne Co-operative Creamery in Campile killing three people. In 1943, the German government paid £9000 in compensation.
Iceland cooperated with the British and then the Americans, but officially remained neutral throughout World War II.