Northern Ireland, the United States and the Second World War

Description

Northern Ireland, The United States and the Second World War analyses the various responses to the American military presence in Northern Ireland during the Second World War, and its legacy in the years immediately thereafter. Simon Topping examines the political attitude of the Northern Irish government, as well as that of Irish Nationalists and the Americans themselves. He considers the internal political impact of America forces, hospitality provision for American troops, and the memorialization of the occupation in the war’s aftermath, among other topics. This study draws attention to influential and understudied individuals such as David Gray, the American minister for Dublin who was recruited to the Unionist cause, and the Northern Irish Prime Minister Basil Brooke, who visited the USA in 1950. In doing so, it provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of this largely overlooked aspect of the war, and the history of Northern Ireland more generally. This book is the first monograph-length political history of United States involvement in Northern Ireland, and is essential for students and scholars of Irish and American history, the Second World War, and political and diplomatic history. Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Contents Illustrations Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: ‘The Ties of Kinship’ Chapter 1: Céad Míle Fáilte: One hundred thousand welcomes!  Chapter 2: ‘Uncle Sam’s Stepping Stone to Berlin’: The US military in Northern Ireland Chapter 3: ‘Absolute and exclusive jurisdiction’: Policing and managing the Yanks Chapter 4: ‘If you can’t see the hills’: Occupying the occupiers Chapter 5: ‘My own country overrun’: Irish nationalism and the American presence Chapter 6: ‘To clear this territory of such forces’: The IRA and the Americans Chapter 7: ‘Developments in Northern Ireland’: The Belfast consulate and the war Chapter 8: ‘Johnny Doughboy Found a Rose in Ireland’: Women and the Americans Chapter 9: ‘The Dusky Doughboys’: Jim Crow racism in Northern Ireland Chapter 10: ‘A testy old gentleman’: David Gray, hyphenated-Americans and partition  Chapter 11: ‘Ulster Had a Hand in the First Independence Day’: Ulster-American revivalism and the Second World War  Chapter 12: ‘Letters from Ulster’: Propaganda, memory and the Americans  Conclusion: ‘Without Northern Ireland’ Epilogue: ‘Gray’s Great Illusion’ Notes Primary sources Bibliography Index