"By God’s providence and with the unremitting zeal and loyalty of all concerned, we were able to come through the trial successfully’ Taoiseach, Eamon De Valera speaking there in September 1945 in the aftermath of the Second World War. Ireland was in a very depressed state. We were struggling with high inflation, falling living standards and rationing - despite the country’s wartime neutrality. So what was life like for people here after World War II? How reluctant were we to take in refugees? And how did we treat the Irish who returned after fighting for the Allied forces. Historian, Michael ...