Case in point was, is, the famed Irish Guards Regiment, a unit in the British Army also known as the “Fighting Micks”: “Although restrictions in Ireland’s Defence Act make it illegal to induce, procure or persuade enlistment of any citizen of Ireland [i.e., the Republic of Ireland] into the military of another state, people from the Republic do frequently enlist in the Regiment.”

They did so in WW2, and continue to do so today.

I have visited Ireland on several occasions, and in my extensive travels through both the Republic and the Six Counties I found that the Irish generally had unfavorable views of England and the English. The term “unfavorable views” covers a lot ground, and can extend to extremes, but I haven’t visited Ireland in 25 years and these attitudes may have, probably have changed — which is to say, ameliorated. I suspect that young Irish men and women are indifferent to the English. A number of very old men and women I met in the course of my travels, and with whom I struck up lengthy conversations (as was to often the case), had fought in the War of Independence and the Civil War and lamented that the younger Irish generations were appallingly ignorant of Irish history.

In the event, the Irish in WW2 wanted nothing to do Hitler and the Nazis, and saw that a German victory would result for Ireland in a situation far worse than the rule of the English from which they had so frequently divested themselves.

Interesting little-known fact: Collins’s older brother emigrated to America before the Easter Rising and settled in Chicago, where was buried. He tried very hard, in letters to his younger brother, to convince Michael to join him. Evidently Michael gave the suggestion his serious consideration, but ultimately decided to stay in Ireland and fight for the expulsion of the English and the creation of an Irish free state. It seems that the older brother knew that Michael would get himself killed if he stayed in Ireland. He was, of course, right about that.

Just imagine how the course of Irish history would have been changed had Michael joined his brother in Chicago.

“He was that person that everyone wanted to break, and you can’t break him,” Adames-Pimentel said. “He was intimidating in the sense that he was always right, and always himself.”

Correction: “He was intimidating in the sense that he was always right, and always full of himself.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaS3vaNUYgs

For some jobs, the arrest on their records will be a plus. For example, they could get jobs with the Times, the WaPo, NPR, or the Squads’ campaigns.

Also see this.