Just heard on the news that the Irish government have pardonned all it's citizens who left the mother country to join the British military to fight in WWII. Upon returning to Ireland they were treated as pariahs and deserters and most of them found themselves unemployable.
Funny how the Irish never mention that when they start talking about the beastly British and the potato famine.

Are you sure, are you sure?

Technicality (http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0612/govt-pardon-for-former-soldiers.html): the pardon is not for citizens in general, but for soldiers who deserted from the Irish Army. Civilians were not barred from serving in the British Army or penalised for doing so, and over 50,000 did (http://www.historyireland.com/volumes/volume6/issue1/features/?id=181).

Yes it was for the 4500 or so who deserted Irish army to join the British forces. As BNT correctly points out the most Irish who joined the British army suffered no such official recrimination.

In fact in some cases it was the opposite. The company my Father worked for in Dublin after the war favoured ex British servicemen when it came to jobs. Very common with protestant/Anglo Irish owned businesses right into the sixties.

Redhillphill, your comparision is most inapt.

soldiers who deserted from the Irish Army

Maybe they thought that they were going to have to fight for the Axis.

Maybe they thought that they were going to have to fight for the Axis.
Not sure what your point is, assuming there is one. Had the Nazis invaded Ireland, would the experience have been significantly different from that of Denmark or Greece, or the Channel Islands?

The Irish government's announcement is no more remarkable than the pardoning of British soldiers who were executed during WWI (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4796579.stm), except that it didn't take quite as long, and some of the soldiers in question are still alive. It should have happened many years ago, but desertion from the ranks is an extremely serious offence in any army I've heard of. I'm not Irish, and not particularly pro-Irish - as my sig says, I just live here, no more, and don't get me started on the effect the Catholic Church had over the centuries. But there's a streak of anti-Irish bigotry on this forum that puzzles me at times. If you don't believe me, have a read of this previous thread (http://www.pprune.org/military-aircrew/472713-spitting-soldiers-grave.html) on this same topic, from earlier this year.