Formal Agreement signed with RAF to defend iIish Airspace

[GoneToTheCanner]

The Air Corps did practise intercepts even in the Fouga days. The standard international intercept training was carried out. problem was, a Fouga couldn't catch anything warry as it topped out at 360 kts, which is not shabby for a light training jet but not up to snuff for proper intercepting.......the AA defences in the Emergency fired frequently at intruders from both sides, not just on the night of the North Strand bombing, and there are still extant after action reports about same. The procedure was to fire warning shots at the estimated height of the intruder and then bring the shots closer if the intruder maintained his course over the city. the perennial problem was the shortage of guns, sighting gear, shells, searchlights,etc,etc.

[expat01]

But german air attacks on Ireland were only possible because they had bases in france, Belfast which was bombed in 1941 was long thought to be safe, which is why the brits had such paltry defenses at a city that was making a lot of war materials. People blame finance, but that their job, the real decisions were taken at cabinet.

Without supposing the complete collapse of France, WW1 also warned that Germany would attack into France from the north and likely advance some distance so German bases there were also not exactly unthinkable. However, raids on Ireland did not only become possible with the fall of France. Belfast was also bombed by aircraft from The Netherlands. A German invasion of The Netherlands and Belgium was a certainty. The increasing range of bombers and the truism that "the bomber will always get through" was also a given.
Belfast was simply poorly defended, as German recce flights determined in 1940. It was also poorly prepared, an omission which had been questioned in Stormont as early as the outbreak of war, to little effect. Seems Stormont had more in common with Dublin than they would like to admit.
And more to the point, the Irish government of 1939 strongly disagreed with you.
The very real fear of air raids is precisely why the government was determined to buy AA guns if nothing else and why the Air Raid Protection Bill was introduced in 1939.
The fact that the Luftwaffe turned out not to be capable of either the range or the tonnage of bombs that was feared before the war was not known until the war began.

[GoneToTheCanner]

if you go to the Titanic museum, you will see a map of the Belfast Docks and the Short Bros works, showing where the bombs fell and the level of damage inflicted. It's an eye opener and shows how well they could hit, if conditions were right. Belfast was also smaller then than it is now, so the bombing had a greater proportional effect.......it is also ironic that when the Irish Govt withdrew the 4.7in AA guns after the war, they had to dispose of something like 92, 000 rounds of ammunition for them. Too little, too late as usual.