Pat Poland reflects on the remarkable time when The Nazis arrived in Kinsale
It was Saturday morning, 19 January 1946, when local solicitor Dick Hegarty left his home in Kinsale, Co. Cork, to take his usual bracing walk along the pier. World War Two had finally come to an end just four months’ before with the surrender of Japan to General MacArthur in Tokyo Bay.
Although Éire had been neutral in the conflict, it was a time of austerity, shortages, and rationing. Most people just wanted to put it all behind them and get on with their lives.
Hegarty, lost in thought, was suddenly confronted by two men dressed in naval uniform who blocked his path. Almost immediately, his eyes alighted on the decoration that both men were wearing, for it was none other than the German decoration known as the Iron Cross, with the Nazi Swastika at its centre.