I think that it is worth remembering that events such as this were engineered and administered by people now long dead. Through the safe and comfortable telescope of time, it is very difficult to understand the reasoning, emotions and politics of an era which is, now, a life-time from us.

Current leaders and politicos may express regret for such actions; this really changes little, other than to act as a soothing (and justified) balm to the survivors themselves, and relatives & descendants of the subject individuals.

I sometimes find it slightly bizarre to hear present-day leaders 'apologising' for events which occurred perhaps more than 100yrs ago, before any of us were born; history is all in the past, as some sage said............

HB (Irish)

That is true, HB, but my point was that many of the victims of this policy are still alive, albeit in steadily diminishing numbers. This is different from, say, the slave trade, the potato famine and many other historical wrongs, where no amount of meaningless apologising can make a shred of difference to the long dead victims. In this case a (regrettably small) number can feel that their actions have finally been vindicated.

Point well made & taken, TT

HB

Just reviving this thread after two years to mark the fact that Phil Harrington, the last of the group of Irish soldiers who received a pardon for "deserting" during World War two, has died

Phil Farrington: Last 'Irish pardon' WW2 soldier dies at 94 - BBC News

With this and the welcome presence of the Irish head of state, President Higgins, at the recent ceremony at Gallipoli to mark the deaths of so many Irish soldiers in that campaign, perhaps Ireland can now finally put this shameful period in its history behind it.

Hmmmm. US airmen "deserted" their county to fight for the British as well as the Chinese governments. There was some consternation concerning their actions, but they were welcomed back into their own nation's military and came home with a hero's welcome. So in answer to your question, "they" should "have been treated" far far differently than they were and CERTAINLY their children should have been treated far far differently than they were. There's just no excuse or even a remote justification for treating the children of these people in the manner that they were treated. NONE.

Does anyone know where Benny Jackson is buried?

There were quite a lot of Irish people (such as my dad) out there exploiting the empire. Just to mention it. You know - holding long discussions about the wrongs done to them by the Brits and pausing occasionally to shout red-faced at their native servants. To be fair that wasn't my dad but I have the men in mind. :-)

Perhaps moral high-grounds should be treated like football matches. You win sometimes and lose sometimes but everyone manages, given the power, to do some things they're not proud of later. If you can't take the idea of ever losing a "match" then you can't take the steps needed to be the kind of decent group of people you want to be.

That is oh so true t43562 (or may I call you t45 for short? ;) The idea that the world can be divided into goodies and baddies is nonsense. Once anyone gets into a position of power we do tend to turn into baddies, regardless of our race, religion or nationality.

Look what happened to many Czech and Slovak warriors who joined RAF and returned home after WW2. Many of them have been considered as spies by communist regime under Stalin and served many years in jail or been even executed.

Heroes are not always acknowledged as it should be.

Without this thread I wouldn't know about this part of Irish - UK history.


Just a side note: Even today it is considered a criminal act if a Slovak citizen would join military service of any foreign state without permission from according authorities.