Combat said:
That's interesting about your granduncles. I thought Ireland was neutral. Were they fighting on behalf of England? I even remember something about Eamon sending a sympathy note to the Germans when Hitler's death was announced. Not a proud moment. I agree 100% with your comment about it not being only an American operation and the question is not meant to dispute that point.
Ireland was indeed neutral (British troops on Irish soil would've triggered another civil war) but tens of thousands of Irishmen volunteered to fight in the British/Commonwealth forces and tens of thousands more worked in the munitions factories in Britain.
Eamon deValera had a pretty toxic relationship with Churchill though, and by the time the USA entered the war it was expected that Ireland would too, but the personal animosity between both leaders had put paid to that. (There were a few strange outcomes from the original Treaty, e.g. Ireland maintained all the lighthouses on the island of Ireland, even though part of it remained in the UK. Similarly Ireland had no merchant fleet and the withdrawal of facilities by the British gave rise to even more stubbornness on de Valera's part). Anyway, deValera maintained a "strict neutrality" that resulted in weather and other information being relayed to the Allies whilst heavy media censorship gave rise to news stories about car crashes etc which didn't mention fog as the cause. D-Day would've happened on 5th June, the same day as the fall of Rome, only that the weather stations in Mayo signalled the need for a 24 hour deferral.
Of course de Valera remained so pig-headed, particularly when a number of Irish ships were lost in the Irish sea that contained passengers largely engaged in the British war effort, he refused to enter the war under any circumstances. Near the end, in April/May 1945, upon the death of Roosevelt he expressed his condolences to the American government, and similarly upon the death of Hitler he expressed condolences to Eduard Hempel, the German ambassador. It was a typical act of de Valera, stubborn, pig-headed and wrong.
I suppose the fact that the thousands of Irishmen weren't organised into specific Irish regiments of the British army probably obscures their contribution somewhat, but that suited de Valera and Churchill.
Inescapable though, were some of the high-profile combatants, such as Bernard "Spitfire Paddy" Finucane.
Of the Victoria Crosses awarded in WWII to Irishmen you'll find that from the earliest campaigns at Dunkirk right through to Arnhem there were Irish recipients, most posthumously.
Have a look at one or two contributors here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Marcus_Ervine-Andrews
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Edward_Garland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Bernard_Jackman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Samuel_Anthony_Lord
There was of course one or two combatants from Northern Ireland too, of which it is perhaps surprising to note that northern unionists are sparse in the honours list. A Catholic from the Falls Road area of Belfast was the only recipient of the Victoria Cross from Northern Ireland:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Joseph_Magennis
Of course, there were many Irishmen who joined the British and Commonwealth forces long before the declaration of hostilities. See for example Richard Kelliher, decorated when serving as an ANZAC:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Kelliher
What I do not approve of is the trend for various people of Irish descent, and who identified themselves as Irish, as being roped in to the Irish war dead tallies: they were nothing of the sort - they served the RAF or Royal Navy from the persepective of those with Irish blood and a family tradition of service in the UK armed services. See for example Captain Fogarty Fagan, he of "Jervis Bay" fame:
http://www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/vc/fegen.htm
Overall, yes it should be remembered that Ireland was neutral. This decision ensured a functioning government and no slide back into civil war. It allowed perhaps a quarter of a million Irish people serve in wartime factories in Britain and up to 80,000 in British regiments, (from a population of just over 3 million), whilst still interning German pilots and naval personnel detected in Irish territorial waters (and discreetly releasing Allied pilots who baled out over Ireland).
Not everyone in Ireland was happy with the neutrality compromise. At the time I would probably have volunteered to fight in a British regiment myself, but I can see why many would not have done so.
There are thousands of online references for "Proud Paddys" who served, and equally there are hundreds of online discussion points which grumbled about them by so doing they were according a degree of legitimacy to the unpleasant regime in Northern Ireland and so forth, but that's a political argument rather than a historical one.