Immigrants, Aliens, Evacuees: Exploring the History of Irish Children in Britain during the Second World War

This essay examines the Irish in Second-World-War Britain, particularly the histories of Irish children evacuated during the war. The central argument is that although they have failed to feature in many of the historical accounts of evacuation and do not have a place in the cultural imagination of the war, they were in fact deeply affected by the conflict. Irish mothers and their children participated in the official British evacuation scheme and also used private networks to escape the war. We know little of these evacuation stories, despite their coverage in contemporary newspapers. Using quantitative and qualitative approaches, this essay sketches out the available knowledge on their experiences and argues for the expansion of historical studies of the war to include Irish children. It also reflects on the nature of Irish neutrality, examining the administrative and financial role Britain played in the evacuation of Irish citizens.