Hidden History - Ireland's Nazi Past
Posted: Wednesday, August 23, 2006
by Peter Newman
Every nation has its skeletons in the closet. The title ‘Ireland’s Nazi Past’ does not refer to the ‘Blueshirts’ affair of the 1930s, which was only a fancy dress party. Prior to that, we had the real thing.
Ireland became a Nazi state in 1922. Germany’s Nazi state lasted twelve years. Ireland’s descent into Nazism was brief, and was localized inside Ireland. For ten months, June 1922 to April 1923, all hell broke loose in Ireland. We can’t blame the British for this one. Irishmen did this to other Irishmen.
We Irish cherish our martyr status as victims of British imperialism. Those ten months, June 1922 to April 1923, stripped us of our martyr status. As soon as the British withdrew from southern Ireland, Irishmen immediately started oppressing other Irishmen ten times worse than the British ever oppressed us.
The same thing happened in other British colonies in Asia and Africa. As soon as the paternal hand of imperial control was withdrawn, the local indigenous factions gave hell to each other, much worse than the British had ever done. We need to straighten out our thinking on this.
Cecil Rhodes declared: “We, the British, are the best people in the world." In view of what the colonized peoples started doing to each other as soon as the British withdrew, we are prompted to ask: was Cecil Rhodes right? I’m not saying he was right. I’m saying there is food for thought here.
The Irish educational system understandably bypasses those ten months of June 1922 to April 1923 in its history lessons.
The massacre at Ballyseedy Cross has come to symbolize those ten months. An account of it was recently circulated on the internet in the following words:
-----------------------------------------------------
BALLYSEEDY CROSS
There is a lonely crossroads in Kerry, south west Ireland.
“Around Kerry in the autumn and winter of 1922 and the spring of 1923, an ominous wall of silence was drawn. The rumours that came through were so terrible that they were scarcely believed. Those rumours were less terrible than the truth."
(Dorothy Macardle, ‘Tragedies of Kerry.’)
On 6 March 1923, five Irish government soldiers, among them a well-known torturer of prisoners of war, were killed when they were lured into a booby trap bomb by anti-government forces near Knocknagoshel.
Late that night, in retaliation, other Irish government soldiers chained a number of prisoners of war around a bomb at Ballyseedy Cross and detonated it under them.
Most of the prisoners survived the initial blast.
The Irish government soldiers then hurled grenades at groaning, half-butchered men to finish them off.
For days afterwards the birds were eating human flesh off the trees at Ballyseedy Cross.
They sent back the wrong number of coffins to Tralee the next day.
There was no way of knowing how many men had been killed.
Eight prisoners of war were murdered by Irish government soldiers that night at Ballyseedy Cross.
Nine coffins were sent back to Tralee the next day.
What were the people of Tralee to do with that ninth coffin?
A mother wailed: “But my son was six feet tall. How can he come home to me in such a small coffin?"
They would not let the mother open that coffin.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Rory, Liam, Richard and Joe were similarly murdered by the Irish Nazi government in Mountjoy Jail on that terrible morning of 8 December 1922, in retaliation for an action by anti-government forces. That set the pattern. From then on, the Irish Nazi government was the direct precursor of Hitler’s Nazis in occupied Europe during World War II. Admittedly the scale was greater in Nazi Germany, but nevertheless the Irish Nazi governement of 1922-23 set the precedent in the twentieth century for the murdering of innocent people in retaliation for military action by anti-government forces. When the German Nazis razed an entire village to the ground, along with its inhabitants, in revenge for the assassination of Reinhart Heydrich by anti-government forces, they were taking their cue from the tactics of the Irish Nazi government of 1922-23.
THE IRISH NAZI GOVERNMENT OF 1922-23 SHOWED THE GERMANS HOW TO DO IT. THE IRISH WERE THE ORIGINAL NAZIS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
It’s all there in the historical record, if we are willing to drop our cherished martyr status and to admit that we Irish proved during those terrible ten months that – once we get going - we Irish are ten times better at dictatorship and oppression than the British ever were, just as nearly all the other former colonies demonstrated too after the British left. Why demonise the British? As soon as the British withdrew, the Irish and nearly all the other colonized nations proved to the world that we can colonize our own countrymen ten times worse than the British ever colonized us!
The Irish demonstrated it most famously at Ballyseedy Cross.
Our tyrants are our own countrymen now, instead of the British. Would it be better if the world were still ruled by Britain? If you become on intimate terms with some Asian and African politicians, they will tell you – at least in private – that the only solution to their country’s ills is to be readmitted to the British Empire! A lot of people in Ireland would have said the same in 1923. A lot of people in Asia and Africa have said it – privately – since 1950.
So those ten months of Irish Nazism are glossed over in Irish history lessons, because the period June 1922 to April 1923 proved that British rule in Ireland was preferable to Irish rule in Ireland. In the context of the twentieth century at least, we can say that the British never hurt us as much as we hurt each other. The same applies to nearly all former British colonies.
-----------------------------------------------------
There should have been an Irish equivalent of the Nuremberg trials. The opportunity came with the change of government in 1932. If we take one example - the massacre at Ballyseedy Cross – there was a witness, Stephen Fuller, who could have identified the government soldiers who set off the initial blast, and then hurled grenades at groaning, half-butchered men to finish them off.
Yet the soldiers were never prosecuted.
Why?
Because Eamon de Valera’s role in bringing about the conflict was such an embarrassment that the whole thing had to be kept under wraps.
If we’d had an honest investigation into the period, Eamon de Valera himself would have been disgraced, and possibly jailed.
Instead of confronting his past, old Dev got his crony Dorothy Macardle to produce an encyclopaedic volume titled ‘The Irish Republic.’ Published in 1937, it had huge influence in the decades that followed. It remains a valuable historical document, but was essentially a whitewash job on Eamon de Valera. Miss Macardle had become Dev’s minister for propaganda.
The role of Eamon de Valera in prompting the civil war of 1922-23, when he could have prevented it, is a matter of huge embarrassment to every Irish person.
THAT TEN-MONTH CIVIL WAR WAS FOUGHT FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN EAMON DE VALERA’S EGO.
Dev rose back to the top in politics because he was all we had left in the early part of the twentieth century. All the half-decent Irishmen with leadership qualities had been killed off in the conflicts of 1916-1923. Dev was all we had left. Dev filled the vacuum. He was our leader only by default, not by merit. He was all we had left.
To write honestly about Dev’s face-saving antics in the months following 6 December 1921 tends to generate hysteria. Perhaps it’s best to refer the reader to the video ‘MICHAEL COLLINS,’ starring Alan Rickman in the role of Eamon de Valera, which is a faithful representation of the historical record - including acceptable composite scenes - and speaks volumes about the character of old Dev. I’m sure the people behind that film were well aware of their historical mission, which was not so much to tell the world the story of Michael Collins – but to cut Eamon de Valera down to size. And that was their achievement. The ghost of Eamon de Valera winced as he saw that film being viewed on the big screen by audiences in Bucharest, Ho Chi Minh City, La Paz….. so that the truth about Eamon de Valera, which we Irish are still unable to process, was paraded on huge cinema screens all over the world.
A type of justice was done. The film was not primarily about Michael Collins, nor about bashing the Brits. It was primarily about cutting Eamon de Valera down to size. Take another look at that ‘MICHAEL COLLINS’ video. It’s all there.
------------------------------------------------------
THOSE WHO CANNOT REMEMBER THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT. That is a law of life. We’ve had a good run lately in Ireland, but we are still contaminated by our Nazi past. The Germans have done well at processing their past. In the 1990s the French belatedly started jailing aged Vichy officials who arranged the deportation of Jews to concentration camps. The Cambodians are honest about the Pol Pot regime. The Filipinos are honest about the Marcos era. The Irish generally are NOT honest about the Irish Nazi era of 1922-23.
It’s time we faced up to two simple facts:
>WE IRISH HAVE NO RIGHT TO CLAIM MARTYR STATUS AS VICTIMS OF BRITISH IMPERIALISM BECAUSE WE PROVED IN 1922-23 THAT WE ARE ABLE TO OPPRESS OTHER IRISHMEN TEN TIMES WORSE THAN THE BRITISH EVER OPPRESSED US.
>THE IRISH WERE THE ORIGINAL NAZIS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. DURING THOSE TERRIBLE TEN MONTHS OF JUNE 1922 TO APRIL 1923, WE, THE IRISH, SHOWED THE GERMANS HOW TO DO IT.
And that is why, when I came up through the Irish educational system, my history teachers never uttered one honest word to me about those seminal ten months, which have contaminated Irish society for the past eighty years.
---------------------------------------------------
And the bottom line is:
WHAT IF THE BOOT HAD BEEN ON THE OTHER FOOT?
If the Irish race had NOT settled on an offshore island where the English suppressed them and contained them, but had instead settled in central Europe – then what would the Irish have done to Europe?
Look for the answer at Ballyseedy Cross.
This Article has been viewed 12,016 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
More commentsi have lived in tralee for 25 years and have never heard this storyVisit the Ballyseedy Cross monument near Tralee. People don't erect a monument like that for no reason.
This sort of atrocity haoppens worldwide but my grandfather left Ireland for Scotland in 1940 as he was ashamed at the pro Nazi outlook of his fellow citizens and government...He and 6 very proud Irishmen joined the RAF to fight fascism and never set foot in their native land again wholely ashamed of their Nazi past....all Ireland was not like that but this fluffy leprechaun image of Ireland is a myth.It would be helpfull if the Irish government came clean and apologised for its shamefull past in relation to it close affinity with the Nazi's during the war and how it has never truly condemned the antisemitism of previous Irish governments. I am sure that most modern day Irish people would prefer to see a proper apology made rather than this grim episode in the nations history buried.Why not bring both out into the open now - the forgotten horrors of the Irish Nazi era of 1922-23, which admittedly was not as bad as the later episode in Germany, but still in a way set the scene in terms of the Irish government executing innocent hostages in retaliation for military action by anti-government forces.......................... And also the ambivalent attitude of Eamon de Valera's government toward the Nazis during 1933-1945, culminating in Eamon de Valera visiting the German consulate in Dublin in 1945 to sign a statement of condolence at the death of Adolf Hitler, in the name of every Irish person.Are Irish people proud of that now? That your "Taoiseach" (?) signed his name on your behalf to express his condolences on behalf of the Irish people on the death of Adolf Hitler?
Reading most of the above,it strikes me that there needs to be a bit of realism adopted when studying history,there were a few,very few acts of such brutality as Ballyseedy,but to compare it to Nazism is to put it mildly school-yard banter,lets get real,yes,we should remember all parts of our history,but please,Hitlers Germany????
When the news of Hitler's suicide was announced in Dublin on May 2, 1945, de Valera paid an official visit to the German ambassador to express condolences over the Fuehrer's death.as he would to any embassy located in Ireland that had there President killed.Its a sign of respect and when a country remains neutral, then respect is shown to both parties.this was no any country this no about to remains neutral because this was end of the war this was adolf hitler responsible for brutal sadistic mas murders of many milions peple meen chirldren women from many nationalities yews poles russian serbs Disabled and many other like concetration camps mas execution burning people alive sadistic medical experiments and de Valera know about that and after war he gave protection for nazis responsible for milions of sadistic mas murders he was disgusting rotten $%&*@$%& not human and this who know that and support this are disgusting rotten $%&*@$%& not human
I do not agree that the new Irish government was NAZI in nature. Historically, NAZIism was a specifically Germanic political and social movement that incorporated elements of Fascism, Populist Jew Hatred, Socialism, and Neopagan Norse Mythology.However, it is true that de Valera was a worm, particularly compared to Michael Collins, and that he started the Irish Civil War for purely egotistical reasons. That he was the dominating figure of Irish politics for so long is a shame, and I agree that he mounted (and kept) the stage mainly by default.That Irishmen did terrible things to other Irishmen in the name of politics during the Irish Civil War simply means that they are like every other human society: imperfect, and too often driven by emotion rather than reason. It's good to self-examine and take stock of your faults, but don't kick yourselves too hard over it.DachtorStrangeThe Bloody McHun
I read utter nonsence,you are basically calling Ireland a nazi govenment style based on a single event at Ballyseedy where some local enforcement officers take out revenge in a tasteless manner. i could find many incidents like that in the 21st century but i wouldnt refer to the country of being run in a nazi style.and dont refer to the word Nazi in another context. Nazi is only an acronym for National Socialist; from the German NAtionale soZIalist.Refers to members of the National Socialist party, or anything to do with the National Socialist party.
I have to disagree with some of your views. The British have been no good in India as they were the reason why this great nation was plunged into poverty and hunger and they did nothing. People were suffering everywhere dying of starvation, hunger and disease while they continued to party and enjoy their aristocracy.There is a very unforgettable event in British India when General Dyre executed thousands of people at Jallianwalabagh in Punjab. At least 14,00 rounds were shot till the ammunition was exhausted. There were people of all ages, and women with babies present over there and the British soldiers mercilessly shot at them, and many people jumped into the well also because there was only one entrance which was also blocked by Dyre. There was a trial, he wasn't punished, but rather transferred back to Britain. Read through the incident and you would realize even if your country had been through a tough ten months, it is much better than being under the British for 200 years, help them plunge your ancestral wealth and push your family into poverty, suffering and racial discrimination. Thank you.DM
British history is littered with the bodies of races it has slaughtered so do not judge the Irish as you have a lot more to be ashamed about. De Valera merely paid respects to a country at the loss of it's leader. And you would hardly expect us to be in alliance in anyway with Churchill who was largely responsible for the atrocities conducted by the Black and Tans.
They, along with Cromwell, were the people who inflicted the worst crimes on the Irish people. So I would look at what your "great" country has done to us before you judge our countrymen.
The great famine --- Irelands Holocaust..Ye should all remember that. This article is pure and utter nonsense! To even suggest that the Irish were worse on ourselves then the british! get real people!
How dare you compare the atrocities of the british upon the Irish race,people have a miss conception that the Irish where in cahoots with the nazis this is an assumption with no basis in truth if you are informed of Irish history ..people get mixed up with pre easter rising and the second world war.history does show Ireland was neutral .The was a number of british and american spy's placed in the republic during ww2 who all came to the same conclusion that Eire was neutral
In fact the opersite is more truthful 130,000 Irish fought hitler within the british army how many people forget how strong also the nazi party was in the england circa 1938 under the leadership of sir mosley ,people tend to get dates and times mixed up when talking about Irish German cooperation which was only ever really present pre 1916 easter rising this was on a arms basis only....
the Irish civil war was Dev's fault history does show this if you read the book's available he sent the big fella Michael Collins to negotiate with churchill because he was frightend he would go back to reading gaol,michael was a genaral not a politician or a negotiator which he told dev before he left for england he was in fact dev's scapegoat.the irish supplied the british with a great amount of produce food raw materials in ww2 when belfast was bombed dev sent 13 republican fire crews to belfast to help them out
The black and tans and aux's led by churchill where responsible for the murder or many an Irish man and women....second only to cromwell in their atrocities, read about british atrocities in india and africa and the 2000 men women and children lined up in a barn and shot in kenya the (mau mau) by the british army in the 1950's every imperialist government in history has ruled by terror of the masses so mr newman do a little reading and research into british atrocities in Ireland and i am sure you would come to the same conclusion..
More comments
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.