It was a display of support that no other national leader on earth made. At the time it was defended as a diplomatic gesture (really ?) but was one that not even General Franco was insensitive enough to make or any other neutral nation. It was also 3 months after the hell of Auschwitz had been discovered and a few weeks after Belsen ! What a leader eh !
And your point is what ?
A leader of a nation wishes to maintain its full declaration of neutrality in both its deeds and words even when he didn't have to.
As for using Franco as an example
................he happily used Nazi airplanes on his own people and was more than happy to accept Allied cash post war even while exiling and still terrorising his own people.
Irish maintained its neutrality even when Allied victory was assured and didn't jump on the bandwagon which is to their credit unlike quite a few others who did.
The Irish government were no friends of the British during WWII, no matter how some try to paint over it.
The Irish Govt were neutral and needed to be friends of nobody. Their stance was pro British rather than pro German as many other posters have already alluded to. Facts of history are already there to show it.
There is no such thing as friendship in International affairs just National Interests because if you think US supplied Britain with weapons prior to Dec 7th 1941 for friendship reason rather than for its own economic reasons I have a bridge to sell you.