1941 To 1950
1941 The cathedral narrowly escapes destruction in the blitz which destroys properties adjacent.
City: In April, German air raids kill 740, injure1,511 and damage 56,000 homes in Belfast. de Valera orders all Dublin fire brigades save one to assist Belfast in putting out the resulting fires.
IRL: On May 30th Germans bombs fall on Dublin killing 28 and wounding 45.
James Joyce dies.
World: Germany attacks the Balkans and Russia. Japan launches a surprise attack on U.S.A. fleet at Pearl Harbour which bringsthe U.S. into World War II; U.S.A. and Britain declare war on Japan. The first U.S. Lend-Lease shipment of food is sent to Britain.
1942 IRL: James Dillon resigns his seat in the Dail and from Fine Gael to protest the party’s continuing support of the government’s neutrality policy. The first of 300,000 American troops stationed in Northern Ireland during the course of the war arrive Jan 26 at Londonderry , which becomes a major port of call for Atlantic convoys. The Allies establish half a dozen airfields in the province. Joe Cahill and 5 other IRA members were sentenced to death for the killing of a police officer. Tom Williams was hanged and the rest had their sentences commuted to life. Cahill was freed in 1949.
World: Nazi leaders attend the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "final solution to the Jewish question," the systematic genocide of the Jewish people, known as the Holocaust. The Declaration of United Nations is signed in Washington.
1943 IRL: Sir Basil Brooke succeeds Andrews as Prime Minister of Northern Ireland.
World: Churchill and Roosevelt hold the Casablanca Conference. Mussolini is deposed and placed under arrest (July).
1944 Due to the growth of the Church of Ireland in the dioceses, the General Synod decides to establish Connor and Down and Dromore as separate dioceses. However, they are to continue to share Belfast Cathedral. Consequently both bishops have stalls in the cathedral and the chapter comprises of clergy from both dioceses.
IRL: Fianna Fail wins a sixth consecutive general election under the leadership of deValera.
1944 World: Allies invade Normandy on D-Day (June 6). A conference at Bretton Woods creates the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. U.S.A, British Commonwealth, and U.S.S.R. propose the establishment of the United Nations.
The Battle of the Bulge begins as the German army penetrates the Allied front in Belgium (Dec. 16 to Jan. 1945). Anne Frank and her family are betrayed and sent to concentration camps. She will die in 1945.
1945 IRL: On April 30th de Valera visits the German embassy in Dublin and signs a book of condolences memorializing the death of Hitler. The visit provokes widespread criticism but de Valera regards it as a perfunctory diplomatic act by a neutral government.
On May 13th Winston Churchill, during a victory broadcast, is critical. He says, "The approaches which the southern Irish ports and airfields could so easily have guarded were closed by the hostile aircraft and U-boats. This indeed was a deadly moment in our life, and if it had not been for the loyalty and friendship of Northern Ireland, we should have been forced to come to close quarters with Mr. de Valera, or perish from the earth. However, with a restraint and poise to which, I venture to say, history will find few parallels, His Majesty’s Government never laid a violent hand upon them, though at times it would have been quite easy and quite natural, and we left the de Valera Government to frolic with the German and later with the Japanese representatives to their heart’s content".
de Valera replies to Churchill in a broadcast over Radio Eireann. The speech does much to restore his domestic popularity in the wake of the furor over his visit to the Germans. " Allowances can be made for Mr. Churchill’s statement, however unworthy, in the first flush of victory. No such excuse could be found for me in this quieter atmosphere. There are, however, some things it is essential to say. I shall try to say them as dispassionately as I can. Mr. Churchill makes it clear that, in certain circumstances, he would have violated our neutrality and that he would justify his actions by Britain’s necessity. It seems strange to me that Mr. Churchill does not see that this, if accepted, would become a moral code and that when this necessity became sufficiently great, other people’s rights were not to count... That is precisely why we had this disastrous succession of wars - World War No.1 and World War No.2 - and shall it be World War No.3? Mr. Churchill is proud of Britain’s stand alone, after France had fallen and before America entered the war. Could he not find in his heart the generosity to acknowledge that there is a small nation that stood alone not for one year or two, but for several hundred years against aggression; that endured spoliations, famine, massacres, in endless succession; that was clubbed many times into insensibility, but each time on returning to consciousness took up the fight anew; a small nation that could never be got to accept defeat and has never surrendered her soul?"
World: Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin plan the final defeat of Germany at a conference at Yalta (Feb). Hitler commits suicide (April 30th); Germany surrenders (May 7th); May 8th is declared V-E Day. The San Francisco Conference establishes the United Nations (April–June). Truman, Churchill, Stalin at the Potsdam Conference agree the basis of German reconstruction (July–Aug.). The USA drops atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Hiroshima (Aug 6th) and Nagasaki (Aug 8th). Japan signs an official surrender on V-J Day (Sept 2nd).
1946 World: The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly opens in London on Jan 10 th. In April The League of Nations is dissolved. In June Italy abolishes the monarchy. The Philippines gains independence from the USA (July 4th). In the Nuremberg trials12 Nazi leaders are sentenced to hang, 7 are imprisoned, and 3 are acquitted in the Nuremberg trials (Oct 1st)* Winston Churchill's "Iron Curtain" speech warns of Soviet expansion.Juan Perón becomes president of Argentina.
1947 IRL: Sam Neill, actor (Jurassic Park, Dead Calm, Piano), was born in Omagh, Sep 14.
World: Britain nationalizes coal mines (Jan. 1). Soviet Union rejects US plan for UN atomic-energy control (March 4th). In June the Marshall Plan is proposed to help European nations recover economically from World War II (June).India and Pakistan gain independence from Britain (Aug15th). The Dead Sea Scrolls are discovered at Qumran.
1948 IRL: The state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence, Dec 21.
World: Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi by a Hindu militant (Jan 30th).
Communists seize power in Czechoslovakia (Feb. 23-25). The Nation of Israel is proclaimed; the British Mandate ends at midnight and Arab armies attack (May 14th.). The Berlin Airlift begins on June 21 and ends on May 12th, 1949. Stalin and Tito break off the relationship between their countries (June 28th).
1949 IRL: The British House of Commons adopted the Ireland Bill that recognized the independence of the Irish Free State, but affirmed the position of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, May 17. The Irish Free State opts to become a republic outside the British Commonwealth.
World: Twelve nations sign the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO (Apr 4tyh).
The German Federal Republic (West Germany) is established (Sept 21st).
Chairman Mao Zedong on Oct. 1st formally proclaims the Communist People's Republic of China. South Africa institutionalizes apartheid.
