Irish Sorrows

Northern Ireland caught it last week. One night Nazi bombers roared over sooty Belfast for four thunderous hours. In the flaming darkness so many Ulstermen were killed that the usual Belfast newspaper obituaries were trebled. One Donnelly family, consisting of father, mother, three sons, three daughters and an aunt, was wiped out. A few days later the official Nazi radio accused Belfast officials of shooting "all the dangerous beasts" in the Belfast zoo in order to make it appear that Nazi bombs had done the killing and "incite all the animal-loving people of the entire world."

Bomb fires raged furiously in Belfast. To the rescue fire engines were driven with wide open throttles 100 miles from Dublin in neutral Eire. Last week Eire's Prime Minister Eamon de Valera made it plain that where wartime suffering is concerned, neutral Eire stands by warring Northern Ireland. "They are our own people," he said, "and their sorrows in the present instance are our sorrows."

But last week Eire also reaffirmed its intention to stay neutral. In Washington, balding, long-faced Robert Brennan, Eire's Minister to the U.S., lengthily argued that Eire's entrance into the war would be disastrous both for Great Britain and for Eire. The gist: Eire's national unity would be shattered. There would be a Nazi air onslaught against Eire and possibly an invasion. Great Britain might find itself attacked on a great new front, with the sea lanes virtually impassable. In any event, Nazi bombing and sea fighting would make it impossible for Eire to continue to ship to Britain an annual cargo of approximately $100,000,000 worth of food.

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