Oops! Forgotten how to do a quote here, but anyway:
I was rather under the impression that citizens of the Republic who'd volunteered for the British Forces in WWII were not exactly welcomed as heroes when/if they came home afterwards. Has a sort of "general amnesty" for them been declared in Eire?
Two (or more) stories here:
The Irish Free State maintained a superficially strict policy of neutrality, but a very blind eye was turned to Irishmen joining the British forces during what was known here at the time not as "the War", but "the Emergency".
However, Irish servicemen who deserted the Irish Forces to join the British were, indeed, given a raw deal, including being barred from public employment in this State for years afterwards, and some suffered many years of unemployment.
In 2012 a belated and rather symbolic act of rehabilitation was adopted by the Irish parliament at the behest of Minister Alan Shatter. Here's a newspaper report that gives a brief summary plus the main statistics:
Shatter finally brings in amnesty for deserters who fought Nazis - Independent.ie
Shatter, being Jewish, had particular reason to honour those who fought against the Nazis, but his initiative fits in comfortably with a new willingness to recognise Irishmen who fought in the British Forces in both World Wars. This is all part of a slow process of reconciliation flowing from the Good Friday Agreement. At the moment, much of the focus (particularly since the centenary of the 1916 Rising) is on commemoration of the First World War.
I'll drip-feed a couple of further related items with more direct relevance to this thread when I have a chance to check a few facts from various books etc.