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Irish anti-British sentiment was one factor that kept the US from entering World War I sooner. It basically took Germany sinking US ships in order for the US to finally say "to heck with what the Irish think, we've got to do something about this."

Ireland was formally neutral in World War II, though in practice they were rather more pro-Allies than pro-Axis, generally allowing downed aircraft pilots to return to the UK if they were members of the Allied Forces while detaining German pilots in the same situation as "guests of the nation". (They got away with this despite ostensibly being neutral because German crews couldn't reasonably claim they were not on missions of war; it was easier for Allied crews to claim they were merely on a transport mission.) The German embassy in Ireland was billed for their upkeep; towards the end of the war, when Germany could no longer afford to pay, the "guests" were often forced to work on farms.

So, ultimately, the answer is "yes" and "sort of, but they realized the Germans would be even worse."

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14y ago

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