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Volume 7 1941~1945

Doc No.
Date
Subject

No. 194  NAI DFA 221/147A

Letter from Joseph P. Walshe to
Lieutenant General Peadar MacMahon (Dublin)

DUBLIN, 24 March 1942

Dear Peadar
I am not sure whether your Department is fully informed as to the position regarding the various bombing incidents in this country about which protests were made to the German Government. The following list gives the position up to the present time:-


 
26 Aug., 1940. Co. Wexford (Campile and other places)
The German Government have accepted responsibility and have undertaken to give compensation for the loss and damage sustained.

 
25 Oct., 1940 Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow.
The German Government have declined to accept responsibility. They informed us, through their Minister in Dublin, that, after the most careful investigation, they had come to the conclusion that no German plane was over Ireland on that date.

 
20 Dec., 1940. Sandycove, Co. Dublin and Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan.
No protest was possible in either of these cases, as no evidence of the nationality of the aircraft responsible or of the country of origin of the bombs was available.

 
1 Jan., 1941 Drogheda, Co. Louth.
2 Jan., 1941 Borris, Co. Carlow.
Dublin (Terenure). Kilmacanogue, Co. Wicklow.
Curragh, Co. Kildare. Ballymurrin, Co. Wexford.
Julianstown and Duleek, Co. Louth.
3 Jan., 1941 Dublin (Donore Ave., South Circular Road).
Protests in all the above cases were made to the German Government, the bombs dropped in each place having proved to be of German origin.

In spite of several reminders made through the Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin and the German Minister here, it was not until November that a definite reply was received from the German Government.

This reply stated that the German authorities had made careful investigations, but that the result was completely negative, nothing having been ascertained to suggest that German aircraft were responsible. The note added that, as there could be no wish to reject our protest, the German Government proposed that further consideration of the matter be postponed until after the war. They had explored all channels and felt they could do nothing more.

 
5 May, 1941 Malin, Co. Donegal.
The German Government declined to accept responsibility. They said their investigations disclosed that at the time in question some German aircraft were carrying out armed reconnaissance at sea north of Ireland, but that, according to the reports of the detachments concerned, Irish territory was not overflown.

 
31 May, 1941 Dublin (North Strand and Phoenix Park).
1 June, 1941 Arklow, Co. Wicklow.
The German Government have accepted responsibility and have undertaken to give compensation for the loss of life and injury to property.

 
24 July, 1941 Dundalk, Co. Louth.
In spite of several reminders, no reply, beyond an acknowledgment, has yet been received from the German Government to the protest made to them through the Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin.

Yours sincerely,
[initialled] J. P. W.

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