The book is a very enjoyable collection of different contributors’ views about how Ireland's neutrality policy was impacted in different ways during WW2. Many of the contributors have written books of their own subsequently or were established authors in their own right at time of publication. Among the best chapters include Defence and the New State by Peter Young, Ireland, Canada and the American Note by Emma Cunningham, Con Cremin, Berlin and ‘Die Billige Gesandtschaft’ by Niall Keogh, Keeping the Temperature Down by Donal O Drisceoil and Blueprints from Britain by Robert McNamara. I don’t necessarily agree with everything written by each contributor in their pieces but they argue their cases extremely well and there is an excellent bibliography which gives suggestions for further reading. ( )