Eoin O'Duffy


Book Description

Eoin O'Duffy was one of the most controversial figures of modern Irish history. A guerrilla leader and protégé of Michael Collins, he rose rapidly through the ranks of the republican movement. By 1922 he was chief of staff of the IRA, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's Supreme Council, and a Sinn Féin deputy in Dáil Éireann. As chief of police, O'Duffy was the strongest defender of the Irish Free State only to become, after his emergence as leader of the Blueshirt movement in 1933, the greatest threat to its survival. Increasingly drawn to international fascism, he founded Ireland's first fascist party, and led an Irish Brigade to fight under General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He died in wartime Dublin, a Nazi collaborator, and a broken man. This study, the first ever biography of Eoin O'Duffy, draws on unpublished archival and personal papers to trace his journey from revolutionary republicanism to fascism. It examines the importance of cultural forces, including the legacy of the Irish-Ireland movement, Catholicism, anti-communism, and O'Duffy's ideas on sports, morality, and masculinity to explain his descent into extremism. McGarry peels away the public persona to reveal a complex picture of the motives which drove this extraordinary career. A crusading moralist and advocate of teetotalism, obsessed with the need to counter public immorality, who was at the same time a closet homosexual and alcoholic, O'Duffy's remarkable life was characterised by self-aggrandisement, fantasy, and contradiction. This fascinating biography explores themes as diverse as cultural nationalism, violence, sectarianism, militarism, and masculinity to shed new light on Irish republicanism and the politics of interwar European fascist movements. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of culture, politics, and society in interwar Ireland.




General Eoin O'Duffy


Book Description

Most of the prominent figures from Ireland's revolutionary generation have been endlessly profiled and commemorated but the controversial General Eoin O'Duffy remains a pariah. Despite reaching the heights of leadership in the republican movement during the Irish revolutionary period--and subsequently becoming a key state-builder in early independent Ireland as head of the national police force--O'Duffy's legacy retains a whiff of sulphur. It has been tarnished by his controversial political career in the 1930s, including his leadership of the fascistic Blueshirts and his pro-Franco involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Using a blend of well-charted and previously overlooked or unavailable material, this book examines the tumultuous periods of Ireland's struggle for independence and the early Irish Free State. It foregrounds O'Duffy's place within pro-treaty Irish nationalism. A militarist and supporter of Michael Collins, he became a safe pair of hands relied upon to rescue the pro-treaty regime during crises.The book offers new interpretations on his involvement with international fascism and provides a much needed nuance on the prevalence of crypto-fascist outlooks in the 1930s. It seeks to blow away the cobwebs of mythology and recalibrate our understanding of this most controversial Irishman.




Eoin O'Duffy


Book Description

Autographed photograph Ireland Eoin O'Duffy (Irish: Eoin Ó Dubhthaigh; 30 October 1892 - 30 November 1944) was an Irish political activist, soldier and police commissioner. O'Duffy was the leader of the Monaghan Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) during the successful Irish War of Independence and in this capacity became Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1922. He was one of the Irish activists who along with Michael Collins accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty and fought as a general in the Irish Civil War on the pro-Treaty side.




Crusade in Spain


Book Description




The Salamanca Diaries


Book Description

In July 1936, an army-led coup against the democratically elected republican government ushered in the Spanish Civil War. Father Alexander J. McCabe was rector of the Irish College in Salamanca when General Francisco Franco seized power a few months later and established his GHQ in the medieval city. McCabe recorded the arrival of the nationalist war machine in his diaries, vividly documenting the horror of the repression and his encounters with Franco, Nazi officers and diplomats, British and American spies and journalists, and adventurers and charlatans from around the world who flocked to Salamanca. He also observed the implosion of General Eoin O’Duffy’s ill-fated Irish Brigade, first as one of its chaplains and later mediating between the nationalist high command and O’Duffy. He unsuccessfully attempted to dissuade a disillusioned O’Duffy from returning to Ireland with the Irish Brigade in 1937. Historian Tim Fanning uses McCabe’s diaries to provide a fascinating account of life in Spain before, during and after the war, as well as McCabe’s memories of growing up in Ireland at a time of momentous change. This is the troubling and enthralling story of an eyewitness to one of the most tragic episodes in twentieth-century European history.




General Eoin O'Duffy


Book Description

Most of the prominent figures from Ireland's revolutionary generation have been endlessly profiled and commemorated but the controversial General Eoin O'Duffy remains a pariah. Despite reaching the heights of leadership in the republican movement during the Irish revolutionary period--and subsequently becoming a key state-builder in early independent Ireland as head of the national police force--O'Duffy's legacy retains a whiff of sulphur. It has been tarnished by his controversial political career in the 1930s, including his leadership of the fascistic Blueshirts and his pro-Franco involvement in the Spanish Civil War. Using a blend of well-charted and previously overlooked or unavailable material, this book examines the tumultuous periods of Ireland's struggle for independence and the early Irish Free State. It foregrounds O'Duffy's place within pro-treaty Irish nationalism. A militarist and supporter of Michael Collins, he became a safe pair of hands relied upon to rescue the pro-treaty regime during crises.The book offers new interpretations on his involvement with international fascism and provides a much needed nuance on the prevalence of crypto-fascist outlooks in the 1930s. It seeks to blow away the cobwebs of mythology and recalibrate our understanding of this most controversial Irishman.




The Civic Guard Mutiny


Book Description

On the morning of 15th May, 1922, over 1,000 recruits of the newly established Civic Guard suddenly broke ranks during Commissioner Michael Staines' TD address at Morning Parade in the training depot at Kildare Barracks. The recruits immediately set about raiding the armoury while Staines and his senior officers withdrew under armed protection and evacuated the barracks much to the annoyance of Michael Collins, the Chairman of the fledgling Provisional Government. For almost seven weeks, Collins and the mutineers struggled to reconcile their differences in the midst of the Irish Civil War. Both sides were unaware that their efforts to resolve the dispute were thwarted by a group of anti-Treaty Civic Guards intent on destroying the new force. This book investigates the reasons why the earliest recruits of the Civic Guard took up arms against their own masters and brought about a significant security risk that had direct implications for both the civil war and the future structure of the its successor, An Garda Síochána.




Fighting For Franco


Book Description

During the Spanish Civil War many groups on the European right were galvanised by the Nationalist cause. This book recounts the experiences of a number of foreign volunteers, all of whom saw their engagement in Spain as a means of promoting their own political causes at home.




Crusade in Spain


Book Description

A comprehensive account of the experiences of the volunteer Irish Brigade, founded and led by General Eoin O'Duffy, fighting under the Nationalist flag in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The Brigade comprised Irish nationals who, like their leader, regarded the War as primarily a Christian crusade against Communism, with the very survival of Catholic Spain at stake. General O'Duffy, an experienced political activist, soldier, and ex-police Commissioner, was responsible for recruitment and transportation to Spain where the men were barracked at Cáceres, provided with uniforms and received basic military training. The Brigade of some 700 men remained in Spain for about six months, experiencing front-line fighting at La Marañosa and Ciempozuelos, with losses of fifteen dead and many wounded. By this time new Irish law forbade Irish citizens to join the Brigade, and with Nationalist forces well in control, it was time for the Brigade to return to Ireland. In his book the author reveals a deep concern for the welfare of his men, a patriotic love for his country, and a strong devotion to his Catholic faith. He is proud of the courage and demeanour of his troops, echoing the praise received from Spanish military, civil, and religious authorities. History has been ambivalent in its views on the role of the Irish Brigade, but in the words of O'Duffy: "We have been criticised, sneered at, slandered, but truth, charity and justice shall prevail, and time will justify our motives. We seek no praise. We did our duty. We went to Spain." This republication is enriched with a foreword by noted independent academic Michael McCormack, historian and archivist of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.




In Spanish Trenches


Book Description

Introduction / McLoughlin and O'Connor -- Ireland and the SCW: the setting, Spain and Europe in 1936, clericalism and anti-clericalism in Spain and Ireland, politics in Ireland / O'Connor -- Northern Ireland and the SCW: contrasting perspectives of Unionists and nationalists on Spain / O'Connor -- First actions: Madrid, Lopera, and the defection of the Irish from the British battalion to the Lincoln battalion in January 1936 / O'Connor -- Blood and Boredom at the Jarama: February-June 1937 / McLoughlin -- Frank Ryan and the politics of the SCW in Ireland / O'Connor -- Republican offensives (I): Pozoblanco, Brunete / McLoughlin -- Republican Offensives (II): Aragón, Teruel / McLoughlin -- Retreat and Capture, March 1938: Irish POWs / McLoughlin -- Frank Ryan's trial and imprisonment, 1938-1939 / McLoughlin -- Attempts to Frank Ryan Released, 1939-1940 / McLoughlin -- The Irish volunteers: discipline, desertion and punishment / McLoughlin and O'Connor -- Over the Ebro: Last battle of the Internationals, July-September 1938 / McLoughlin -- Withdrawal, homecoming, and the politics of commemoration / O'Connor -- Conclusion / McLoughlin and O'Connor.