Well for the most part they sat out the war, in their so called "emergency", but had the Germans or English invaded they would have put up some kind of fight. In the case of Englandicon invading it would have not been long, as they never had much in the way of ammunition, being dependent on UK supplies.

The orientation was, at least outwardly against the Germans, but the Germans never had the means to threaten either the UK or Ireland with a serious invasion.

I think at peak strength the Irish had something like 2 divisions worth of men (mobile) and large numbers of stationary Home guard battalions.

They were short on rifles, having only around 42,000 Enfield's of all type of which around 28,700 were considered serviceable in September of 1939. Hence the SMLE MK I*** rifles had to be issued when the were capable of being used.

Few pictures exist of post 1939 issue of the SMLE MK I*** rifles, but there are some shown with the rifle:

from the book Step together" 1999

Front cover shows an Infantry unit with quite a number of SMLE MKI*** along with Lewis guns (Unit not identified)

On page 63 one out of 3 rifles shown in sailors hands are SMLE MK I***

On page 86 there is a shot of the 20th Infantry battalion and at least 2 of the 9 rifles viable are SMLE MK I*** rifles from 1942.