<P> In response to claims that Ireland had failed to take up the moral fight against Nazism, the Secretary of the Department of External Affairs, Joe Walshe, answered in 1941 that: </P> <Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td>... small nations like Ireland do not and cannot assume a role as defenders of just causes except (their) own...Existence of our own people comes before all other considerations...no government has the right to court certain destruction for its people; they have to take the only chance of survival and stay out . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> "</Td> <Td>... small nations like Ireland do not and cannot assume a role as defenders of just causes except (their) own...Existence of our own people comes before all other considerations...no government has the right to court certain destruction for its people; they have to take the only chance of survival and stay out . </Td> <Td>" </Td> </Tr> <P> On 1 September 1939, in response to the German invasion of Poland, a hastily convened Dáil declared an immediate state of emergency . The Emergency Powers Act that the day's debate culminated in came into effect one day later, on 3 September . It was modelled extensively on the British draft worked out during the Sudeten crisis a year before . In some respects, the Irish act was regarded as more drastic . The key provisions were as follows: </P>

Why was ireland neutral during world war 2
find me the text answering this question