Chapter 1
As dawn broke on 1936 the world continued to be the tense mess it had been. The International movement inspired fear and hostility from Mittleuropa while overseas the remnants of the once powerful Entente watched for any opportunity to reclaim their power. In Ireland however this was of no concern, these were after all things happening in foreign fields and did not in any way affect the little island. People went about their daily business, in the South normal productive lives, in the North the passive aggression of an oppressed people. The government however, weary of the fact that not knowing what was going on in the world, began to fund the study of new Encryption and Decryption technology, while under the orders of President Collins himself, the old intelligence networks throughout Britain where brought back on-line. This wouldn't mean much now, but it would be a start.
Badly cropped picture is badly cropped
On January 23rd King Geroge V passed away in Canada in exile. While there were some celebrations of this news among the more hard line members of the Republican groups of Ireland his passing was mourned in Northern Ireland and by a fair number of people in the South, they may not have liked British rule but that did not mean they were necessarily against the King. The new king Edward VIII would be crowned in all pomp and ceremony as the leadership of Canada began to reshuffle itself. In domestic news however a major question was asked of the Irish government, on the 10th of February the position of the Catholic church in the government was brought before President Collins. While in theory such a question should have been brought before the Dail it was in reality more of a decision that the president had to make. The question was whether or not the Church had a place in the government of Ireland or should the country adopt a more secular view?
The decision was made that Church and State should be separated and that Ireland should become a more secular and tolerant nation. While this move received some criticism, most noticeably from the Pope himself, it was treated with a sense of cautious optimism by the majority of the Protestant population of Ireland who felt it might be a conciliatory step by the Dublin government. In a similar vein of domestic policy a proposition by the mining board, Bord na Mhona, was brought forward to establish a company to exploit the natural peat bogs of the Irish countryside, they argued that it would help reduce Ireland's dependency on British coal for fuel as well as help create jobs in Ireland. The decision was made to create the company that would be mostly owned by the State but privately run, thus the semi-state Turf Development Board was created.
However the creation of this company would be overshadowed by the events of later March when on the 13th the Union of Britain sailed its fleet off the Irish coast in a purely provocative manner. While the Irish government had been forewarned of this event it still sent alarm bells ringing throughout the country and the military was put on full alert. However there was no way Ireland could stand up to a head on fight with the British navy and Ireland was going to have to take a course of action. It could remain neutral and try and ignore the event in the hopes that the British would go away, it could appeal to the Kaiser for help and hope that any such help did not come at the price of placing Prince Joachim on the throne or they could appeal to the Canadians for assistance. While the idea of remaining neutral was quickly abandoned early on the cabinet was split almost 50/50 on whether to appeal to the Kaiser or the King. The decision was finally made by President Collins when he stated:
"Better the devil you know than the one you don't. Telegram the Canadians."
The response was an offer of support both militarily and diplomatically by the Canadians.
While the move would be viewed as unpopular by some members of society it was generally greeted with a sigh of relief as the British were forced to back down. The news was also greeted quite warmly by the Unionist community as they felt their King had not forgotten them and was pledging to defend them against the greater of two evils that was Syndicalism.
This news however did not prevent members of the Ulster Volunteer Force, the UVF, from bombing the Irish Press offices in Dublin. While in the South this action arose feelings of anger and a desire to punish the North in the North it brought feelings of intense fear. Catholic mobs started moving through the streets of Derry and Belfast with the intent on taking revenge on any Protestants they could find while the Protestants feared a return to the dark days of the Northern Campaign. It would all depend on the actions that the Collins government would take.
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So first real update done. Next chapter will see the beginning of my custom events as the government handles this situation as well as addresses the total lack of security the country has.
Also I keep getting this error:
Anyone have any ideas what it means? I know I added some custom tech teams into Ireland via the save game file (They will show up later) but I'm not sure what is causing it.