Nazi Corrigans?

Last autumn an unidentified bomber roared over County Wexford in neutral Eire, suddenly dumped its bombs, killed three young girls. Later Germany admitted that part of its Luftwaffe might have lost its way. Since then the drone of unidentified planes has frequently troubled the

Irish night. Last week the droning and the trouble increased. Within three days, more than 70 bombs hurtled down on eastern Eire. Many fell from unidentified wings in the dark, some in broad daylight.

For the most part, sleeping farm people were killed here & there and hayricks were ignited. But one monster land mine (1,000-lb. bomb which descends slowly and silently by parachute) struck the heart of Dublin's Jewish quarter. It blew Eire's chief synagogue to pieces, damaged so many houses that 40 families took to the streets. By the lurid light of rescue flares, 26 people were rushed to hospitals, including a rabbi, his wife and daughter.

These strange, scattered, seemingly irrelevant bombings might have been the work of Nazis off their course, unloading to save fuel. But Dublin isn't blacked out as Britain is. Its thousands of street lights are easily seen from the air. How account for the Dublin bombing when bombers could have flown a few minutes less and unloaded in the Irish Sea? How account for the daylight bombing?

Germany promptly disclaimed responsibility. Said a Berlin spokesman: "Those bombs in Ireland are English or they are imaginary." Britain's motive for faking a Luftwaffe on Ireland would, of course, be in order to get her as an ally so that Britain could heavily fortify the country and use her naval bases for anti-submarine and convoy activity.

Was the bombing German? Germany recently warned the U. S. against declaring Irish ports in the neutrality zone, using them for unloading war materials en route to Britain. Possibly Germany bombed Ireland by way of discouraging the acceptance of any such proposal.

From Eire in due course it was reported that bomb fragments and the green parachutes had been examined and indeed found to be of German make. Eire's Charge d'Affaires in Berlin was instructed to protest the bombing, demand full reparations. A British short-wave broadcast crowed: "There is no loophole through which Hitler may wriggle. Pieces of the missiles have been picked up with German identification marks on them. We are forced to one of two conclusions. They either meant it or they didn't. They either intentionally bombed another country, or, and perish the thought, they aimed at England and hit Ireland. Even Mr. Corrigan could do better."

Meanwhile in the London Fortnightly Review James Phelan contributed a notion as to how Eire could be persuaded to let Britain use Irish ports as convoy bases. He suggested that Eire's Prime Minister Eamon de Valera in reality has a constituency not only of 2,900.000 Irishmen, but also of 15.000.000 Irish-Americans. He pointed out that in 1916-22 Irish-Americans sent men, guns and $200.000,000 to help Ireland's fight against Britain, and declared that if the Irish do not care whether Hitler is in the Atlantic, the Irish-Americans do. He suggested that pressure on Prime Minister de Valera by his Irish-American "electorate," through their many potent organizations, could persuade Eire to lease Irish ports not to Great Britain but to the U. S.

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