Dave, isn't your post a quote?

Ir reads very like something the Irish Times would publish.

Anyway not drifting too far away from the point of the thread, and mentioning the ROI - where BTW you could NOT be conscripted to serve in HM forces against the Axis - I recall mention in the 1950's of gentlemen from the North who had absconded to the Republic for the duration of the ...err hostilities, and of note were those in the majority, Orangemen, who preferred the Church Of Ireland's hospitality as opposed to the rough reception offered by the Civil Defence. Now that is a story well worth the telling, ...these days.