Volume VI in the hugely successful Documents on Irish Foreign Policy series explores Ireland's Second World War neutrality through secret wartime documents. The book shows, in readable and gripping detail, how Irish diplomats established and executed the State's neutrality in wartime Europe. Most importantly, it reveals in detail hitherto unknown, the increasingly complex and highly-charged nature of wartime British-Irish relations. The volume is the most comprehensive account ever published of Ireland's foreign policy during the first years of the Second World War. Published, for the first...

Irish neutrality during the Second World War presented Britain with significant challenges to its security. Exploring how British agencies identified and addressed these problems, this book reveals how Britain simultaneously planned sabotage in and spied on Ireland, and at times sought to damage the neutral state's reputation internationally through black propaganda operations. It analyses the extent of British knowledge of Axis and other diplomatic missions in Ireland, and shows the crucial role of diplomatic code-breaking in shaping British policy. The book also underlines just how much...