I can back Dan Winterland's post with eye witness evidence, a friend of mine's father lived in Dublin during the war and had seen British airmen being put on the boat back to the UK, most of these people were pleased to be going back for a second chance to fight, one to two he told me were physically put on the boat by the Irish authority's. Clearly a small minority saw the Irish republic as a danger free bolt hole in which to sit out the war.