Ireland's Helping Hand to Europe : : Combatting Hunger from Normandy to Tirana, 1945–1950 / / Jérôme Wiel.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Central European University Press eBook-Package 2021
• VerfasserIn: Wiel, Jérôme,
• Place / Publishing House: Budapest ;, New York : : Central European University Press, , [2021]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (572 p.)

Post-war Marshall Plan aid to Europe and indeed Ireland is well documented, but practically nothing is known about simultaneous Irish aid to Europe. This book provides a full record of the aid – mainly food but also clothes, blankets, medicines, etc. – that Ireland donated to continental Europe, including France, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Balkans, Italy, and zones of occupied Germany. Starting with Ireland’s neutral wartime record, often wrongly presented as pro-German when Ireland in fact unofficially favoured the western Allies, Jerome aan de Wiel explains why Éamon de Valera’s government sent humanitarian aid to the devastated continent. His book analyses the logistics of collection and distribution of supplies sent abroad as far as the Greek islands. Despite some alleged Cold-War hijacking of Irish relief – and this humanitarianism was not above the politics of that East-West confrontation – it became mostly a story of hope, generosity and European Christian solidarity. Rich archival records from Ireland and the European beneficiary countries, as well as contemporary local and national newspapers across Europe, allow the author to measure and describe not only the official but also the popular response to Irish relief schemes. This work is illustrated with contemporary photographs and some key graphs and tables that show the extent of the aid programme.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I Deciding and Organising Relief at Home -- Chapter One. Handshake Debacle amidst Humanitarian Crisis -- Chapter Two. ‘A drop in the ocean’: The Decision to send Relief -- Chapter Three. Reaction and Organisation -- Chapter Four. Archbishop McQuaid to the Rescue -- Chapter Five. 1946: Extending Postwar Relief -- Chapter Six. End of Relief -- Part II Distributing Irish Supplies Abroad -- Introduction: relief in the unfolding Cold War -- Chapter Seven. Irish Aid to Western Europe -- Chapter Eight Cooperation with the International Red Cross in Geneva -- Chapter Nine. The Western Allied-Occupied Zones in Germany -- Chapter Ten. Berlin, the Soviet-Occupied Zone, and Eastern Expellees -- Chapter Eleven. Ireland’s Aid to Central Europe: Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland -- Chapter Twelve. Hungary -- Chapter Thirteen. Ireland’s Aid to the Balkans: Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania -- Chapter Fourteen. Yugoslavia -- Chapter Fifteen. Thanking Ireland -- Conclusion -- Photos -- List of frequently used abbreviations -- Bibliography and sources -- Index