Irish Fascist Eoin O'Duffy

Eoin O'Duffy was a fairly significant figure in the history of Ireland between the two world wars and yet he is seldom remembered today, mostly because modern politics and trends have robbed him of any real ground for his own views which are still hotly debated. He is most often, today, dismissed as a fascist and lumped together with Hitler and Mussolini. To some extent this is fair considering that he himself did so but it is also quite unfair considering that despite all his rhetoric he never advocated dictatorship or totalitarianism and he never held absolute power nor invaded any countries. So, like many on the far right, if one is willing to give the subject some dispassionate thought, O'Duffy is hard to pigeonhole. He was an IRA man, a supporter of the treaty and the Irish Free State, a fascist and a defender of democracy. Instead of trying to label him as one thing or the other perhaps it would be better to take a fresh look at the man and just what he did support and what kind of Ireland he himself advocated before dismissing him as a cardboard villain.



The man who was to become the most famous Irish fascist was born Owen O'Duffy on October 20, 1892 in Lough Egish in County Monaghan near Castleblayney. He worked as an apprentice engineer in Wexford before becoming a full fledged engineer and architect in Monaghan. As a young man he joined the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ulster and became an auctioneer in 1919. During World War I he joined the Irish Republican Army and later fought in the Irish War for Independence with the IRA. Early in 1920 he and Ernie O'Malley became the first IRA leaders to capture a barracks (in Ballytrain) of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Monaghan. Despite being arrested and thrown in jail on several occasions he rose through the ranks to become the director of the Irish Republican Army in 1921. In May of that year he served in the Irish Parliament as a representative for Monaghan as a member of Sinn Fein. However, when the Irish Civil War broke out he took the side of the pro-treaty faction and in 1922 replaced General Richard Mulcahy as the chief of staff of the IRA. With his promotion he gained the distinction of being the youngest general in Europe until a young Spaniard by the name of Francisco Franco came along.



The man who was to become the most famous Irish fascist was born Owen O'Duffy on October 20, 1892 in Lough Egish in County Monaghan near Castleblayney. He worked as an apprentice engineer in Wexford before becoming a full fledged engineer and architect in Monaghan. As a young man he joined the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ulster and became an auctioneer in 1919. During World War I he joined the Irish Republican Army and later fought in the Irish War for Independence with the IRA. Early in 1920 he and Ernie O'Malley became the first IRA leaders to capture a barracks (in Ballytrain) of the Royal Irish Constabulary in Monaghan. Despite being arrested and thrown in jail on several occasions he rose through the ranks to become the director of the Irish Republican Army in 1921. In May of that year he served in the Irish Parliament as a representative for Monaghan as a member of Sinn Fein. However, when the Irish Civil War broke out he took the side of the pro-treaty faction and in 1922 replaced General Richard Mulcahy as the chief of staff of the IRA. With his promotion he gained the distinction of being the youngest general in Europe until a young Spaniard by the name of Francisco Franco came along.

General O'Duffy made quite a name for himself during the war and was one of the rising stars of the Irish Free State military and a close friend of IRA General Michael Collins. He helped conceive the strategy of amphibious landings in republican territory and led the capture of Limerick for the Irish Free State in July of 1922. When the war ended with a victory for the pro-treaty forces General O'Duffy served as the commander of the Irish Free State police force Garda Siochana from 1922 to 1933. His time at that job came to an end when he was dismissed by Eamon de Valera after he was elected to power in that year. De Valera stated that he did not think O'Duffy would be able to overcame his past loyalties to work with the new government. That may well have been true but it has since been learned that the real reason probably was that in 1932 it was learned that O'Duffy was one of those advocating a military coup rather than turning power over to Fianna Fail. In any event, O'Duffy refused any further role in government and instead devoted himself to the founding of his Army Comrades Association in July of 1933.



This was a group, originally set up to provide protection for the Society of the Gaels (Cumann na nGaedhael) later Fine Gael who were often attacked by IRA opponents of the pro-treaty faction who declared that there should be no free speech for traitors. The Army Comrades Association dedicated itself to protecting free speech and democracy in the Irish Free State and soon attracted a variety of ultra-conservative support which soon, because of the political trends of Europe at the time, came to appear more and more fascist in style. The name of the organization was soon changed to the National Guard and General O'Duffy, who was a professed admirer of Benito Mussolini, adopted the Roman salute and a blue shirt uniform after the fashion of the black shirts of the Italians. They also adopted a flag which was the cross of St Patrick with a blue background. Just as groups with similar appearances were known as black shirts in Italy and brown shirts in Germany the National Guard in Ireland became known as the blue shirts. One must keep in mind (though very few do) that fascism at that time did not have the same connotations that it does now and before one condemns O'Duffy for speaking highly of Mussolini one should also remember that a wide array of figures from Winston Churchill to Gandhi also praised the Italian leader for his actions and new ideas.

General O'Duffy was always adamant that there was nothing sinister or totalitarian about his group. Their blue shirts were no different than the blazers worn by football clubs and the group was always supportive of the existing democratic government and pledged itself to defending Irish freedom and democracy. Nonetheless, the General has been vilified by many in the years since for his praise of Mussolini and even Adolf Hitler. However, again, one must keep in mind that all of this happened long before Hitler ever attacked anyone or indeed did anything other than change Germany from a broken, bankrupt and crime-ridden nation into a prosperous, powerful success story. The cosmetic similarities were enough though to cause fear when O'Duffy planned a parade in August of 1933 in Dublin to mark the anniversary of the passing of IRA General Michael Collins and Sinn Fein founder Arthur Griffith. Despite all assurances to the contrary many in power at the time feared that this would be a repeat of the March on Rome by Mussolini and his fascists and there was worry enough that O'Duffy planned to seize power that de Valera refused to allow the parade to be carried out.

As the year passed fear continued to mount about O'Duffy and his blue shirts and by September the National Guard was declared and illegal organization but this was circumvented by simply renaming the group the League of Youth. They carried on for a time, advocating Irish nationalism, support for Catholic values and corporatism. In 1936 O'Duffy and a blue shirt delegation attended the 1936 International Fascist Conference in Montreux, Switzerland where the General stood out by condemning anti-Semitism. Partly because of some of his own remarks, this little fact about the general is often forgotten by those who wish to paint him as villainous Irish Nazi. Most today also choose to forget that in September of 1933 Cumann na nGaedhael, the Center Party and the blue shirts joined forces to form the Fine Gael party though this is sometimes remembered by opposing parties today as a tool of slander. In any event, it is not much talked about that Eoin O'Duffy was the first leader of Fine Gael with W. T. Cosgrave serving as parliamentary leader for the party. The National Guard was the youth wing of the party which coincided with the change in the official designation of the group. Part of this was a matter of necessity since Fine Gael meetings were often attacked by disgruntled IRA men opposed to the treaty.

However, before any modern Fine Gael adherents get too embarrassed rest assured that O'Duffy was a military man from start to finish and not a politician and he did not last long as party leader. In September of 1934 he resigned and went on to found the even more conservative and openly fascist National Corporate Party to push for Irish nationalism and the system of corporatism advocated by Church leaders such as Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius XI. By that time, however, the blue shirts were clearly on the decline and by the following year had effectively ceased to exist as most found themselves quite comfortable with one of the more mainstream liberal or conservative parties. The liberal, socialist types were the enemy of the party and the treaty while the conservative Catholics generally found the administration of Eamon de Valera sufficiently conservative and Catholic for their taste. Despite losing most of his following O'Duffy did not go away and remained committed to the broader fight for the principles he believed in. With civil war raging in Spain between the nationalists and communists, in 1936 O'Duffy organized a volunteer Irish Brigade to fight on the side of the nationalists (aka fascists) of General Francisco Franco in spite of the ban on such activity by the Irish Free State government.



The Spanish Civil War has often been called a dress rehearsal for World War II and it did indeed underline the divisions that existed at the time in Irish society as well. O'Duffy and his 700 men made it very clear that they were coming to Spain to fight communists and no one else. They refused to serve against the Basques, the Catalonians or the Galicians who were (far enough into history) fellow Celts. This meant that there were not too many areas in which the Irish Brigade could be deployed. Also, on the communist side was another Irish 250-strong contingent of anti-treaty IRA men in their own unit called the Connolly Column named after the Irish socialist who was one of the leaders of the Easter Uprising. After the Irish Brigade was accidentally fired on by another nationalist unit General Franco sent them home without too much having been done to or by them.

In many ways the Spanish adventure was to be the last hurrah for General O'Duffy and he returned to Ireland to find his own movement effectively dead. He retired from politics but still managed to stir up some controversy during World War II through his connections with the Axis. He allegedly was part of an IRA delegation that met with the German consulate in the summer of 1939 to discuss a possible alliance against the British in the six counties of Ulster and in 1943 supposedly approached the German legation in Dublin about the possibility of organizing an Irish Volunteer Legion for service on the Eastern front against the Soviets. Like the Spanish and other Europeans who fought there he wanted to do something to oppose the communist conquest of Europe but Berlin never took him seriously. His health was, by then, on the decline and at the age of 52 he died on November 30, 1944. The Irish government granted him a state funeral for his lifetime of service and after a requiem mass in St Mary's Pro-Cathedral he was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.



So, in the end, how does one evaluate the life and career of General Eoin O'Duffy? From modern, mainstream political thought it is easy to dismiss him as a villain because of the fascist style of his organization, his praise of Hitler and Mussolini and his Axis connections. However, when one takes a closer look it is a little more difficult to be too critical. After all, he never actually attempted a coup or made any effort to seize power illegitimately nor did he ever advocate tyranny or oppression but was always supportive of maintaining the Irish state. His political opinions are (and were) regarded as fascist but as a loyal Catholic he never really pushed for anything more than the corporatist model which had been advocated by numerous Catholic intellectuals and several popes as a better alternative that absolute capitalism or socialism/communism. His support for Franco in Spain might be criticized but I certainly would have supported Franco in opposition to the murderous, communist republic which effectively became a Soviet satellite. What, in the end, was O'Duffy guilty of other than being a patriotic Irish Catholic who wanted what so many others before and since have wanted but in a very nationalist and conservatively Catholic way? Nonetheless, it seems he will join the ranks of others like Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal, Dollfuss in Austria and others who are considered part of the fascist fold but who were very unlike the more famous but unsavory leaders like Hitler and Mussolini. His complications and the shades of gray of his career may never be fully understood by the public at large.

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