Operation Shamrock
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Operation Shamrock was a scheme bringing non-Jewish refugee children from mainland Europe to Ireland in the
aftermath of the Second World War The aftermath of World War II saw the rise of two global superpowers, the United States (U.S.) and the Soviet Union (U.S.S.R.). The aftermath of World War II was also defined by the rising threat of nuclear warfare, the creation and implementati ...
. It was organised by the
Irish Red Cross The Irish Red Cross Society (IRCS; also Irish Red Cross or IRC; ) is the National Red Cross Society for the Republic of Ireland. (Northern Ireland comes under the aegis of the British Red Cross.) The society was formally established on 6 July ...
, and involved about 500 children, mostly from Germany, who stayed for three years before returning home.


Save the German Children Society

The Save the German Children Society (SGCS) was founded on 16 October 1945 at a meeting in Shelbourne Hall, Dublin, to find
foster home Foster care is a system in which a underage, minor has been placed into a ward (law), ward, group home (Residential Child Care Community, residential child care community or treatment centre), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, ref ...
s for German children in Ireland. A number of pro axis activists in Ireland joined together, along with some well-meaning people, to set up the society. Many of its leading members were longstanding Pro-Axis supporters like Maurice O’Connor, Dr. Liam Gogan, P.S. O’Sullivan and Sean O’Bradaigh. People were aware of the Nazi influence within the group with Irish Times columnist Vincent Brittain describing it as ‘merely a thinly veiled excuse for the dissemination of Fascist propaganda’. The president was Kathleen Farrell (née Murphy), a paediatrician at whose house
Charlie Kerins Charlie Kerins (; 23 January 1918 – 1 December 1944) was a physical force Irish Republican, and Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Kerins was one of six IRA men who were executed by the Irish State between September 1940 and D ...
had been arrested in 1944.
Dan Breen Daniel Breen (11 August 1894 – 27 December 1969) was a volunteer in the Irish Republican Army during the Irish War of Independence and the Irish Civil War. In later years he was a Fianna Fáil politician. Background Breen was born in Grange ...
was treasurer. A
Garda Special Branch The Special Detective Unit (SDU) () is the main domestic security agency of the ''Garda Síochána'', the national police force of Ireland, under the aegis of the Crime & Security Branch (CSB). It is the primary counter-terrorism and counter-es ...
attendee reported some speakers favoured assisting Germany from anti-British sentiment.
Hermann Görtz Hermann Görtz (also anglicised as Goertz; 15 November 1890 – 23 May 1947) was a German spy in Britain and Ireland before and during World War II, liaising with the Irish Republican Army (IRA). After the war, he committed suicide rather ...
, a convicted German spy, became secretary of the SGCS on his release from prison. The SGCS proposed to house Catholic and Protestant children with families of the same denomination, and not to take Jewish children, who it feared would not integrate.
Kathleen Lynn Kathleen Florence Lynn (28 January 1874 – 14 September 1955) was an Irish Sinn Féin politician, political activist and doctor. Lynn was so greatly affected by the poverty and disease among the poor in the west of Ireland that, at 16, she dec ...
became vice president of SGCS in 1948 but was dissatisfied with its preference for Catholic children. Sidney Czira and Eamon Kelly were also members. The SGCS secured hundreds of volunteer families, 90% Catholic. It had contact with religious charities in the British Zone and approached the Irish government about transporting children from there via Great Britain. The centenary of the
Great Irish Famine The Great Famine, also known as the Great Hunger ( ), the Famine and the Irish Potato Famine, was a period of mass starvation and disease in Ireland lasting from 1845 to 1852 that constituted a historical social crisis and had a major impact o ...
was a motivator for the Fianna Fáil government to assist Europe in general in the post-war hardship, but it agreed with the
British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
that the SGCS was an unsuitable organisation and refused to permit immigration under its auspices. The SGCS applied to the
Allied Control Council The Allied Control Council (ACC) or Allied Control Authority (), also referred to as the Four Powers (), was the governing body of the Allies of World War II, Allied Allied-occupied Germany, occupation zones in Germany (1945–1949/1991) and Al ...
and the
United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA, pronounced ) was an international relief agency founded in November 1943 on the joint initiative of the United States, United Kingdom, USSR, and the Republic of China. Its purpose ...
but was advised to use the
Irish Red Cross The Irish Red Cross Society (IRCS; also Irish Red Cross or IRC; ) is the National Red Cross Society for the Republic of Ireland. (Northern Ireland comes under the aegis of the British Red Cross.) The society was formally established on 6 July ...
to arrange for migration.


Red Cross

The Irish Red Cross had by 14 February 1946 received 100 French children as refugees, and government efforts were ongoing to secure Polish refugee children. In Spring 1946, the British authorities agreed to allow children to leave Germany. The Irish government agreed to host some for three years, after which they would be sent back to relatives in Germany. German Catholic charity Caritas had by May selected 100 children aged between 5 and 14, predominantly from the
Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...
of
North Rhine Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...
. They were put in the care of the Irish Red Cross. The first 88 children arrived in
Dún Laoghaire Dún Laoghaire ( , ) is a suburban coastal town in County Dublin in Ireland. It is the administrative centre of the county of Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. The town was built up alongside a small existing settlement following 1816 legislation th ...
on 27 July 1946. The initial reception centre was St. Kevin's Hostel at
Glencree Glencree ( from the older Gleann Criothach, which translates as Valley of the Shaking Bog) is a valley in the Wicklow Mountains in eastern Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the third-closest valley in the mountains to Dublin city, the first be ...
,
County Wicklow County Wicklow ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. The last of the traditional 32 counties, having been formed as late as 1606 in Ireland, 1606, it is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces ...
, a former
reformatory A reformatory or reformatory school is a youth detention center or an adult correctional facility popular during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Western countries. In the United Kingdom and United States, they came out of social concern ...
school owned by the Minister for Supplies. There
Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul The Company of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul (; abbreviated DC), commonly called the Daughters of Charity or Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, is a society of apostolic life for women within the Catholic Church. ...
nuns provided treatment for transmissible diseases and
malnutrition Malnutrition occurs when an organism gets too few or too many nutrients, resulting in health problems. Specifically, it is a deficiency, excess, or imbalance of energy, protein and other nutrients which adversely affects the body's tissues a ...
. The Red Cross then liaised with the SGCS to place the children in the homes found by the SGCS. Some children were removed from abusive homes, while most adapted quickly, learning English and sometimes forgetting their German. Between 1 January 1946 and 25 June 1947, 1000 aliens were registered under the Aliens Act 1935 as having immigrated to Ireland, of whom 462 were children; 421 of those were German, all but 18 of whom came via the Red Cross. Some were orphans but others had parents incapable of caring for them, for reasons such as internment as
POW POW is "prisoner of war", a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. POW or pow may also refer to: Music * P.O.W (Bullet for My Valentine song), "P.O.W" (Bull ...
s, homelessness, or illness. In 1949, when the time came to return to Germany, many children did not wish to do so. Where host and German families were both willing, the SGCS applied to the government to allow the children to stay in Ireland. Against the wishes of the Red Cross, about fifty did so.


Aftermath

Irish assistance to Germany reinforced in Britain the perception, fostered by wartime neutrality, that Ireland was pro-Nazi. Conversely,
West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
in the 1950s had gratitude for Ireland's postwar relief aid, and ties grew between the countries. In January 1956 a memorial fountain sculpted by
Joseph Wackerle Joseph Wackerle (15 May 1880, Partenkirchen – 20 March 1959, Partenkirchen) was a German sculptor. His work was also part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Life Wackerle's grandfather was a woo ...
and commissioned by the German Gratitude Fund was unveiled in
St Stephen's Green St Stephen's Green () is a garden square and public park located in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current landscape of the park was designed by William Sheppard. It was officially re-opened to the public on Tuesday, 27 July 1880 by ...
, Dublin, by the West German ambassador. In 1961, the German war cemetery was opened near St Kevin's Hostel, Glencree, for graves of German aviators killed in Ireland during the war. In 1974, the hostel became the
Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation is the Republic of Ireland's only Peacebuilding centre. It has been resolving conflict through the power of dialogue since its founding in 1974. Established as a response to the conflict in No ...
, which played a role in the
Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland peace process includes the events leading up to the 1994 Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) ceasefire, the end of most of the violence of the Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, and subsequent political develop ...
in the 1990s. German-language courses provided for refugees in Dublin led to the foundation of
St Kilian's German School St Kilian's German School (Deutsche Schule Dublin - DSD) is an independent German international school in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Programme St Kilian's is legally a single organisation, with a primary school, offering kindergarte ...
. In March 1997, a reunion of over 300 foster-children and families was held at the German embassy in Dublin, attended by Presidents
Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president. Robinson had previously served as a senato ...
of Ireland and
Roman Herzog Roman Herzog (; 5 April 1934 – 10 January 2017) was a German politician, judge and legal scholar, who served as the president of Germany from 1994 to 1999. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he was the first president to be elec ...
of Germany. As part of
The Gathering Ireland 2013 The Gathering Ireland 2013, referred to as The Gathering was a tourism-led initiative in Ireland. It aimed to mobilise the Irish diaspora to return to Ireland during 2013 to be part of specially organised local gatherings and events during the ye ...
, 21 refugee children from Germany, France and Austria returned to Glencree.


References


Sources

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Citations

{{reflist


External links


RTÉ program about Operation Shamrock
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Humanitarian aid 1946 in Ireland Germany–Ireland relations Displaced persons camps in the aftermath of World War II World War II refugees Aftermath of World War II in Germany Refugees in Ireland German refugees Child refugees