In a new series Pat Poland recalls some, now almost forgotten, unhappy episodes from Ireland’s past.

In the Second World War, Ireland stood apart from the fighting powers but the sea around the island did not respect our neutrality. When storms lashed the south-east coast, strange objects sometimes appeared on the tideline: sea mines, built to explode against ships, now adrift from the wider naval war. Most were spotted, marked, and watched until a military party could deal with them.

But at Cullenstown Strand in County Wexford, one mine brought the war’s violence abruptly and fatally onto Irish shores.

By 1940-41 neutrality – officially the ‘Emergency’ in Éire – had changed daily life. Blackouts in urban centres were enforced, fuel and imports were scarce, and the state rushed to strengthen its defenses. The Army expanded quickly from a small peacetime force; coastal ‘Look Out’ posts and reporting networks multiplied; and auxiliary forces helped guard roads, bridges, and shorelines.

Yet resources were limited, and Ireland’s long coast meant that danger could arrive anywhere, at any time.
The Defence Forces’ rapid growth brought its own strain. New recruits and reservists were trained quickly, units were dispersed into requisitioned buildings, and specialist skills such as communications, engineering, and explosives work had to be built up under pressure.

Neutrality also demanded restraint: the state needed to keep order at home, avoid provocations abroad, and still be ready for the possibility of invasion or bombing. In that tense atmosphere, small incidents could carry outsized weight, because they tested how prepared the country really was.

Drifting mines were among the most unpredictable threats. Mining of sea routes intensified around the western approaches and mines could travel far before washing ashore. Walkers and fishermen were often first to see them; Gardaí and Coastwatchers would cordon off the area and send urgent messages inland. Then, a bomb-disposal party from the Army engineers would be dispatched, sometimes from the Curragh in County Kildare, to make the device safe.

Cullenstown Strand lies near Carrig-on-Bannow, a quiet stretch of south Wexford where dunes and low ground meet a broad beach. In late January 1941 a mine came ashore there. The alarm was raised and steps were taken to keep locals back.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own