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High Destiny: How Leadership and Censorship Made World War II Neutrality the Will of the Irish People

Thesis advisor: Robert K. O'Neill / World War II is regarded as the modern war in which it is easiest to make moral judgments about right and wrong. How could Ireland – a nation more closely tied to its religion than almost any other – have remained on the sidelines while Europe was torn apart in a bloody struggle to save democracy? This paper examines the ways in which the charismatic and savvy leadership of prime minister Eamon de Valera, a man of both pragmatism and principle, the strict war-time censorship which was imposed on the media (specifically the country's proudest, and most pro-British, newspaper, the Irish Times), and the lenses through which the people viewed the war – most notably, that of their Catholic faith – combined to make neutrality a policy which was not just accepted but embraced as a defining step for Ireland as a nation. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2005. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_102279
Date January 2005
CreatorsMurphy, Douglas Paul
PublisherBoston College
Source SetsBoston College
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, thesis
Formatelectronic, application/pdf
RightsCopyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.

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