This paper explores aspects of Ireland's post-war relief programme, including the provision of relief to Germany. Irish efforts in the immediate aftermath of World War Two should inform the wider debates about the nature of Irish neutrality and Ireland's relationship wit the post-war world, but they are overlooked in the major analyses on Ireland and 'the Emergency'. The provision of relief on the basis of need led to the diagnosis that Germany deserved relief just as the other war-torn countries did. This article argues that many factors intertwined in the instigation and sustenance of the relief programme to Europe. The Irish project was unprecedented in the history of Irish state and popular humanitarianism.