Whatever the legal definition of a deserter, I think in most people's minds the term means someone who is a member of an armed force who flees from that force, either to ensure their own safety, or perhaps to fight for the enemy for idealogical reasons.
To describe those who absented themselves from the armed forces of a neutral Ireland in order to go and actually fight against the Axis as deserters is tantamount to sophistry.
Nope it is the legal term and claiming its not desertion because it benefits one side rather than the other is playing semantics. Churchill wanted to invade Ireland and take back the ports it gave back in 1938...........Irish Govt was as worried about UK invasion as it was of German.
Irish Govt executed IRA members and locked many members up to make sure they couldn't become a Nazi support network.................so much for Irish Govt being pro German.
Where as Allied forces were treated a hell of a lot more leniently and as the war drew on many got released pretty soon after landing where as Germans were locked up for the duration.