further maintained that the earlier statistics ' could no longer be verified and that they were unable at such a distance of time to say precisely where they came from or how they were obtained. ' The Home Office then circulated a note to Brooke which provided him with a figure of 37,282 for those of Northern Ireland origin who had volunteered during the war for all the services. In this case place of birth was used to determine the figure, considered the least satisfactory method of calculation. In April Henry Harrison and other Irish supporters in Britain issued a circular entitled ' How Many? Irish Volunteers Served in His Majesty's Armed Forces in the War 1939 to 1946 ' in which the figures were again disputed. Harrison argued in some detail that the official definitions were not adequate when assessing the Irish contribution and showed considerable gaps in the methods used to assess numbers from Eire. He pointed out that figures for the RAF did not take account of first hand evidence that large numbers of Eire citizens travelled to Belfast to join up. Harrison also challenged the lack of information, claiming that data on place of birth for RAF personnel was centralised and available. He then enumerated eight catergories of Volunteer which needed to be included to reach a more accurate figure:
1. Eire citizens serving at the outbreak of the war. 2. Those recruited in the United Kingdom when under no legal compulsion serve. 3. Citizens of Eire recruited to the Royal Navy and Marines, including men 1st January 1945 to 31st August 1945 and women 3rd September 1939 to 14th December 1943. 4. Irish Citizens who joined the army between 1st January 1945 and 31st August 1945. 5. Eire Citizens among army dead 3rd September 1939 to 31st December 1944. 6. Eire Citizens discharged from the army 3rd September 1939 to 31st December 1944. 7. Eire recruits to the RAF 3rd September 1939 to 31st December 1942 ( who appear to have been attributed to Northern Ireland ) 8. Eire Volunteers not identifiable by address on enlistment but identifiable by next of kin as opposed to place of birth.
Harrison also argued that the number of awards to Irish nationals during the war lent support to the view that far more people of Irish provenance were in the armed forces than the official figures would suggest. Thus, Canada with a population of between ten and eleven million received ten Victoria Crosses, while those with connections to Eire received eight VCs and one George Cross. Harrison's wider criteria are important because many of those in the British Forces in 1939 or resident in the UK at the time continued to consider themselves Irish. Eric Dunlop was one such individual who made a conscious choice to join the war effort, though he could have left his employment and returned to Eire. Indeed, for Dunlop the question was even more diificult as he was in Belfast, where there was no conscription. At first the war had very little impact on him, as was generally the case with people living in Northern Ireland. However, by May 1940 with the collapse of France he recognised that the world had changed appreciably and that he had taken to take a decision:
" The German menace was no longer a remote, impersonal thing cushioned from us by a huge effective French army . . . . I quickly realised that the old world of 1939 had vanished and i should now have to listen to my conscience and try to decide what, if anything, i should do. "
His decision was to join the RAF, on the fatalistic grounds that ' it was better to be in a service where you either survived intact or were written off. ' Decisions were individual and often complex. Basil Baker who was from Fermoy in County Cork recalled that there were military personnel on both sides of his family. His grandfather had been a general and Baker used to visit his house and play with uniforms and swords. At least three of his classmates at school also joined the forces. James Hickey volunteered in September 1940. This was clearly expected by his family as he recalled that he would have ' been given the white feather ' if he had not done so. Aidan McCarthy, a doctor from Cork, recalls that when he joined the RAF in 1939, ' he was actually looking forward to the war. ' Desmond Fay was already a committed anti-fascist when the war broke out, providing him with an opportunity to fight Hitler. Fay was living in Britain but his view of his identity is interesting. He considered himself Irish not British: ' the fact that you were brought up in a foreign country doesn't seem to me to alter your nationality. ' Dennis Murnane had visited Germany before the war and had been deeply affected by what he had seen there. He recognised that there would be a war and belived that even a neutral Ireland would not be immune from the consequences of a British defeat. Many of Murnane's family had fought in the Great War, but he believes this was not the main reason for him volunteering. Fay, Murnane and many others believed that they were fighting as much for Ireland as for Britain. Living in Ireland, one could choose to join up or not, a luxury not available to those who lived in Britain when conscription came in, so it is true to say that all the Irish people who joined up did so voluntarily, though this should not disguise the often subtle pressure to do so. In some firms in Dublin men of military age were encouraged to volunteer and there was tacit acknowledgement that jobs would be held open for those who did so. What is not clear is whether sanctions were imposed on those who did not. Even where this was not the case, it is clear that in firms with many veterans of the First World War there was a social context that pressurized individuals to join. In Northern Ireland some of these pressures may have been stronger but it is difficult to judge this without further research. Many Irish people in Britain believed that the British government did not have the moral right to impose conscription in Northern Ireland, but some also extended this view to Britain itself. Alexander McCann wrote to the Department of External Affairs in Dublin just after war broke out urging the Irish government to take action in defence of Irish nationals living in Britain who would be eligible for conscription because they had been resident there for two years or more:
" I must add that while many Irishmen here feel they have the obligation towards Britain in return for domicile and livelihood yet most of them would feel bound in conscience to resist conscription into an army which continues an occupation of part of their country and upholds there a regime as immoral as the one against which Britain insists Irishmen take up arms. "
It is difficult to judge how widespread this view was among the Irish in Britain, but there was certainly a view that their Irish identity gave them a speacial status. When the war started the British government agreed to provide exit visas for all those Irish people who might be liable for conscription on condition they left for Ireland and did not return to the United Kingdom for the duration of the war. Dulanty provided a letter in such cases indicating that the individual had a home in Ireland to return to. Sometimes he refused to do so. Dulanty refused James O' Rourke such a letter while conceding that he was an Irish citizen as he had been born in Britain of Irish parents and had lived there all his life. The assumption was that he was using his Irish background to evade his obligations under the Military Training Act. Likewise the Department of External Affairs in Dublin replied to Mrs J. Curran, who had written on behalf of her son in Britain, pointing out:
" Your son being registered as an Irish citizen would not, however, exempt him from liability to conscription if he is liable to be conscripted under the British Military Training Act of 1939 ( as a resident of Britain for two years or more ) You will understand that the application of the British Military Training Act, 1939 is a matter outside the Minister's control. "
