Shipbucket

I can imagine also whilst England would have another front to defend, that the proximity would mean that Ireland would be defeated rather easily

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Rodondo, England does not have another front. The Irish are bombed by the Luftwaffe during the Blitz, causing them to join the fight. Hitler wanted the Irish bombed to keep them out of the war, and well, like all things, failed, and brought the Irish into the war on the side of the Allies, and making them a part of NATO during the Cold War.

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"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

Historically Ireland did have some degree of international support during the Famine,but unless you have major changes in the UK then it won't be enough.

The best case situation from what I can tell of your suggestion is that the 3rd Home Rule Act is passed early, (I once suggested on AH.com that perhaps the Lords delay is set as 1 year instead of 2 for example) this might head off some of the North/South issues (for example the Gun Running might not happen), this might give you a more unified force serving together in WW1.

If you have some sort of peaceful resolution to Home Rule then you'd have less damage to the Irish economy in both the 20's and 30's (ie no War of Independence/Civil War and their aftermath's, no Anglo-Irish Trade War) thus giving Ireland a stronger baseline economy and reduce loss of population. Perhaps there might be some agreement with the UK along the lines of the historical Lights Agreement (in which the UK in the 1920's agreed to pay for the upkeep of Lightships/bouys around Ireland instead of the Free State as most ships were bound to the UK), for defence ie perhaps a support for either second hand ships or support for new build ships).

The Air Corps could be based off the historic Airbases of WW1 and based around coastal patrol aircrafts (ie Shorts planes)

The WW2 issue ight be more complicated than what you are suggesting but the ramifications of Ireland being involved could be large (about 10% reduction of convoy loses) and increases in docks for maintenance and building.

I think you'd find that Ireland would most likely base it's hardware purchases off the UK to save costs throughout the post WW2 period.

EDIT: I forgot to add some of the proposals of the Free State during this period, in the 1927 talks between the Free State and the UK, Ireland floated the idea of about 6 Destroyers and a Light Cruiser along with smaller hulls, Admiral Pound replied instead something along the lines of between 9 and 30 Minesweepers. Now this came after the loss of experience caused by the split and the collapse of the main hub and support of the RN's presence in Ireland in Cork Harbour due to the more Army based view due to the 1920's, realistically with a 32 County Ireland and different policies perhaps you could see something along the lines of what New Zealand could field in WW2 (having about 3-4 times the population)

Sparky, thank you so much for your input, I sincerely and greatly appreciate it, your input is priceless!

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"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

No problem Nighthunter, as an Irishman any such idea is nice to see and the Air Corps planes are great to see in your other thread.

Like I said I did out a TL suggestion with a back of the hand OOB for a 32 County Ireland in AH.com if you are interested in what figures we threw around.

I also have some of the figures for the Haulbowline docks/Cobh dock which would be the main base for any Irish navy if it factors into your thinking.

Edit I'll add that as part of a debate on the site I dug out the Free States OOB from what I could tell of both equipment Ireland had and had on order by the out break of WW2.
Really have to think through the posts a bit or I'll keep editing. The other point to consider in terms of altered Anglo Irish history and maybe a peaceful Home Rule, is the Shadow factory potential that Ireland might be involved in during the run up to WW2. While the view is that Ireland didn't have much of an industry, it in fact did but suffered from significant self inflicted wounds, an altered history could change that.

I also figure that if you have a better relationship that Ireland might not delay joining the war, it would all depend on how the 1910-1939 relationship developed.

Well, if Irish Troops weren't used as cannon/machine gun fodder during the Great War, that would definitely improve relations, I think.

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"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

I think you'll find that the Irish troops were never used as 'canon fodder', in as much as any other component of the Allied forces were on the Western Front. In fact, a high proportion were volunteers, the British army having a long tradition of soldiers recruited from both the north and south of Ireland (as it was then one political entity). In WWII, a quite large number of volunteers also joined the British army; unfortunately they were persecuted by the Irish goverment upon demobilisation, and this has only recently been recognised as a scandal by the present goverment.

Well, if they were used the same way ANZAC troops were during Gallipoli, that's cannon fodder.

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"It is better to type nothing and be assumed an ass, than to type something and remove all doubt." - Me

I think in fairness that you could use that definition of "Cannon Fodder" to many of the losses that the common soldiers endured. The failures were widespread and perhaps should be considered a failure of incompetence rather than malicious orders.

Lads less politics more pics.

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