Operation Shamrock was a humanitarian project started by the Dublin-based “Save the German Children Society” and organized by the Irish Red Cross. It placed more than 400 German children in the care of Irish families in the aftermath of the Second World War. The children were aged between four and ten years old and came from the Rhein-Ruhr area of Germany, a British occupied zone and area with a high Catholic population.

The first group of participants arrived in Ireland on 27 July 1946. For most of them, the roughly three-year stay was a positive, in some cases even life-saving experience. Some children, however, suffered strongly from the separation from their families and a few were even mistreated by their foster parents. Most children were returned to their families in 1949. In some cases where the German family was unable to care for the returning child or the child wished to stay with their foster family, exceptions were made and around fifty children remained in Ireland permanently. Some children were returned to Germany against their wish.

About the Exhibition

Monica Brandis started to collect the stories of the “Children from ‘OP Shamrock’” in 2015. So far she has interviewed 24 participants, first accompanied by photographer Sidarta Coral, then by Boris Albert.

The exhibition has travelled extensively across Germany and Ireland, having been shown at the Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation, the Goethe Institute in Dublin, the Irish Embassy in Berlin and the University of Limerick among other places.

In 2020 Monica published the book, “The Children from Operation Shamrock – Historical Context, Testimonies and Fictionalized Memory Fragments”, based on the exhibition. The book consists of interviews with the original eighteen participants as well as an historical analysis of the origins, circumstances and participants of Operation Shamrock. In addition, short stories based on real incidents yet creatively transformed add an emotional dimension to the participants’ early childhood experiences of separation and loss but also affection and healing. In-depth research, interviews and short stories combined facilitate a deeper understanding of an important part of Irish-German relations and the European war and postwar experience.

In 2022, Monica Brandis interviewed nine Irish children, siblings and school friends of the “Children of Operation Shamrock” to invite a closer look at the Irish perspective on Operation Shamrock.

The book has been published by Wissenschaftsverlag Trier as part of the series ‘Irish-German Studies’ (Volume 14) together with the Centre for German-Irish Studies at the University of Limerick.