Dear The Hard Shoulder Team,
I am writing to express my deep concern and disappointment regarding the recent episode of The Hard Shoulder, aired on 27th January 2025, which featured claims and perspectives that propagate pseudo-history without appropriate scrutiny or balance.
As a programme that many viewers trust for accurate and credible information, allowing unverified or misleading historical narratives to be broadcast is irresponsible and damaging. Pseudo-history undermines the genuine study of history, distorts public understanding, and often fosters harmful ideologies or agendas. By presenting these perspectives unchecked, The Hard Shoulder risks amplifying falsehoods and compromising its reputation for journalistic integrity.
I was particularly alarmed by the claim made by a caller—and subsequently reinforced by several others through emails and text messages—that Ireland’s actions during WWII were ‘despicable’. This assertion is based entirely on a lack of historical understanding. It is important to note that no country entered the war with the explicit aim of saving Jews from Hitler and the Nazis. Not one. This is evident from the fact that the rescue of Jewish populations was never listed among the official war aims of any Allied nation.
The ‘Final Solution’, which formalised the plan for the extermination of European Jews, was only decided in January 1942 at the Wannsee Conference, and the extermination camps were built and operated in strict secrecy. If the Allies had knowledge of these camps, one must question why they did not take direct action to disrupt their operations—such as bombing the railway lines leading to them. This historical context must be understood before casting judgment on any nation’s actions during this complex and tragic period.
The Évian Conference has largely been erased from public memory. However, restoring this knowledge is crucial to understanding the historical context. Held from 6th July to 15th, 1938, the conference brought together representatives from 32 nations and 38 NGOs, all with an interest in addressing the urgent need to evacuate Jews from Germany. The initiative was led by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, reflecting international concern over the plight of German Jews.
Adolf Hitler was well aware of the conference and notably did not oppose the idea of relocating Jews from Germany. In fact, he cynically remarked that he would gladly ship them in luxury, underscoring his willingness to expel Jews but also his indifference to their fate. The conference’s failure to produce meaningful solutions highlights the broader international reluctance to confront the growing crisis at that critical moment in history.
Ireland was initially not invited to the conference but asked to be present. Francis Cremins, Permanent Delegate to the League of Nations, John Duff, Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and William Maguire, Second Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, attended the conference on behalf of the Free State.
The conference ultimately ended in failure, with each nation presenting reasons why they could not accommodate the number of refugees the evacuation required. Ireland expressed a desire to help but argued that its lack of industrial infrastructure and limited resources made it impossible to address the crisis effectively. At the time, Ireland was a poor country, struggling to feed and employ its own population. Bringing refugees into such dire conditions would have only worsened their plight and provided no real solution for the German Jews. In 1938, no one could have foreseen the horrific fate that awaited the Jews of Europe.
As for the despicable actions of the Irish government, compare and contrast them with the actions and words of other governments.
The Australian delegate stated, ‘as we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one’.
Roosevelt himself was advised by one of his advisors, a Jew, that increasing immigration quotas would just create a ‘Jewish problem’ in nations taking them in.
Before the conference, the United States and Britain had a secret agreement. Britain promised not to bring up the news that the US was not filling its immigration quotas. The US agreed not to mention Palestine as a possible destination for Jewish refugees.
The Zionist Jews did not support the idea of the conference, thinking that resettlement in countries other than Palestine would weaken their cause for an independent homeland.
The French could take no more Jews, as they were at ‘the extreme point of saturation as regards admission of refugees’.
When it comes to despicable behaviour, there is much of it to share, even among Allied nations.
Genuine history is complex and requires the expenditure of energy to appreciate the nuances of our human past. Twenty-first-century Irish society has large numbers of self-loathers with a tiresome audacity, who are armed with little more than half-baked facts and a surplus of indignation. They find themselves emboldened to kick up a storm based on false information or flights of imagination.
These self-appointed arbiters of truth—whose understanding rarely stretches beyond the headline or the soundbite—march into the discourse arena with seasoned scholars’ confidence yet wield nothing but the blunt cudgel of ignorance. Their fervour is matched only by their obliviousness as they trample over nuance, dismiss expertise, and proclaim their baseless declarations as gospel. It is not conviction they possess but the unshakable arrogance of the uninformed, mistaking the echo of their own opinions for the voice of reason.
Reference
Statement by Francis T. Cremins to the fourth (public) meeting of the Evian-les-Bains Refugee Conference
Evian-Les-Bains, France, 11 July 1938
https://www.difp.ie/volume-5/1938/evians-les-bains-refugee-conference/2346/#section-documentpage
EJ
