BTW, Ireland’s behavior was very common among the neutrals; most of the other neutrals openly allowed internees to escape, and many actually facilitated the escapes and then simply claimed that the internees had escaped on their own agency. Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey, and the USSR all facilitated the secret repatriation of interned US airmen. Sweden eventually did as well, but not until 1944. Switzerland never did this with respect to US airmen, although they allowed exchanges when agreed upon by Germany and the US, resulting in one exchange in early 1944, and several in early 1945.