With regard to the reporting on BBC News of this piece, just to correct a couple of factual errors.
1) the BBC News article stated that the government of Ireland chose to be neutral. That is inaccurate. In fact it is the Constitution of Ireland that imposed neutrality on the State.
2) The BBC News article repeatedly referred to "the Republic of Ireland". No such country exists, nor has ever existed. The term is a description of Ireland (the State, not the island) and didn't come into existence until The Republic of Ireland Act (1948).
While, personally, I have every sympathy for those who stepped forward and fought fascism (whether Hitler, Franco or anyone else), and do believe that their action and sacrifice should be acknowledged, in this case the fact of the matter is that members of the armed forces of one state deserted their post and went to fight for another sovereign. If members of the British Army had deserted their posts in Afghanistan, the UK or elsewhere to take up the fight against Gadaffi, how should they have been treated?
JAS