It seperated from the Catholic Church and understands itself to be both Catholic and Reformed. For the love of **** couldn't you just have looked up wikipedi? Your lesson is finished for the day, I'm off to le boozer.
THIS REASON:....... The following excerpt is from the novel ‘The Cruel Sea’ by Nicholas Monsarrat. Monsarrat saw action serving on the convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic and so was writing from experience. “……But it was difficult to hold one’s contempt from a country such as Ireland, whose battle this was and whose chances of freedom and independence in the event of a German victory were nil. The fact that Ireland was standing aside from the conflict at this moment posed, from the naval angle, special problems which affected, sometimes mortally, all sailors engaged in the Atlantic, and earned their particular loathing. Irish neutrality, on which she placed a generous interpretation, permitted the Germans to maintain in Dublin an espionage centre, a window into Britain, which operated throughout the war and did incalculable harm to the Allied cause. But from the naval point of view there was an even more deadly factor: this was the loss of naval bases in southern and western Ireland, which had been available to the Royal Navy during the First World War but were now forbidden them. To compute how many men and how many ships this denial was costing, month after month, was hardly possible; but the total was substantial and tragic. From these bases escorts could have sailed further out into the Atlantic, and provided additional cover for the hard-pressed convoys: from these bases, destroyers and corvettes could have been refuelled quickly, and tugs sent out to ships in distress: from these bases, the battle of the Atlantic might have been fought on something like equal terms. As it was, the bases were denied: escorts had to go ‘the long way round’ to get to the battlefield, and return to harbour at least two days earlier than would have been necessary: the cost, in men and ships, added months to the struggle, and ran up a score which Irish eyes a-smiling on the day of Allied victory were not going to cancel. From a narrow legal angle, Ireland was within her rights: she had opted for neutrality, and the rest of the story flowed from this decision. She was in fact at liberty to stand aside from the struggle, whatever harm this did to the Allied cause. But sailors, watching the ships go down and counting the number of their friends who might have been alive instead of dead, saw the thing in simpler terms. They saw Ireland safe under the British umbrella, fed by her convoys and protected by her air force, her very neutrality guaranteed by the British armed forces: they saw no return for this protection save a condoned sabotage of the allied war effort; and they were angry – permanently angry. As they sailed past this smug coastline, past people who did not give a damn how the war went as long as they could live on in their fairy-tale world, they had time to ponder a new aspect of indecency. In the list of people prepared to like you when the war is over, the man who stood by and watched while you were getting your throat cut could not figure very high.”
No, I am not the guy at the end of the bar. This is a forum for discussing things. You made a point and I countered it. Instead of trying to prove that your point was correct you tried the tried and failed method of abuse with the oldest wisecrack in the book. You haven't really got the hang of this internet thing have you?
Tut tut Lightfoot. Copying and pasting a guy who has an obvious bias. Tell me why Ireland should have joined forces with a country who had ruled them terribly for 700 years? In those years Ireland was the only country in Europe to reduce in population. The reason for that was starvation and emigration due to British policies. In your own words please.
A lesson from someone who cannot construct a sentence without having to curse to beef it out? I don't think so. The Church of England is a PROTESTANT church. Prove otherwise.
1) Fcuk copy n paste! I typed that myself! 2) obvious bias - like him seeing his mates killed, you mean? 3) read it before you respond 4) if you dont understand the point I'm making, go back to 3) above
Of course I read it. Irish neutrality caused the death, capture and other things to British and allied men and hardware. I know all this. Tell me WHY Ireland should have compromised their neutrality and new found freedom to team up with a country that mistreated it for centuries. British people have a habit of looking at this through British eyes without realising, or wanting to realise, the suffering they caused to Ireland. Ireland has never had any problems with Germany. Why join with our hated enemy (at the time) to fight against a country that had never done us harm?
What is "this internet thing"? I don't abuse people on the internet, I'm here for a bit of discussion and hopefully a laugh or two. You, unfortunately, seem to take this all very seriously. And by the way, you slagged me for resorting to abuse in my last post. i think if you check back the first insult was you calling me a "moron". So shut the **** up, if you want to be a big man on a higher morale ground on this forum you will get pissed all over. Go head and try.
I know. Plenty of Swiss living there suffered too I assume. I am talking about Ireland the country. British people will always look at this through their own eyes without taking into account other issues. It's a very lazy view to attack Ireland over their actions during WW2.