The reasons why Ireland stayed out of the war had more to do with nationalism than Catholicism (I’m Irish btw).
Firstly we never aided the axis powers; any German personnel caught in the republic were interred in a military POW camp till after the war, allied personnel were quietly ferried over the border. In fact London was informed when U-boats were sighted.
Secondly given the very bloody relationship between our two countries, (Britain and Ireland) there were real fears that there would be a second civil war if we joined the allies. extremist groups such as the IRA thought that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ policy was the best way forward and they did collaborate with the Nazi’s. This was NOT the policy of the Irish government of the time and Indeed the IRA were an illegal group by this point.
Lastly in 1939 we could not have defended ourselves against invasion by either side (both allies and axis had devised plans in case the had to invade us) nutrality was our only option.
An enlightening Letter to the Editor of the Sunday Independent, January 9, 2005
RUSSELL, KNAVE OR NAIVE?
Sir - Sean Russell was a man whom de Valera once considered worth making the effort to save from himself. Russell had given sterling service in the 20th century’s first war for democracy - the Irish War of Independence fought to give effect to the democratic mandate of the 1918 Elections. But having failed to persuade Russell to accept the democratic mandate of his later Republican election victories of the Thirties, de Valera was left with no option but to act ruthlessly and with resolve against Russell and his IRA followers.
By all means condemn Russell, as I have always done, for his actions in defiance of de Valera, specifically his 1939 bombing campaign in England, followed by his request for German aid to mount an IRA invasion of the North. If Russell’s plan had materialised it would have had the knock-on effect of either a German or British invasion and occupation of Southern Ireland, bringing to nought de Valera’s skillful safeguarding of this State from both war and fascism.
Condemnation of Russell is one thing; character assassination is quite a different matter. Russell was not the Holocaust-championing caricature painted by the so-called “anti-fascist” gang responsible for the paramilitary destruction of his monument on December 30. Nor is your report by Jim Cusack (January 2) accurate in stating that it had previously “been vandalised by communists in the Fifties” because it originally was supposed to have had Russell’s arm “raised in a Nazi-style salute”. On the contrary, it had originally been a clenched-fist, which was denounced as “communist” by the anti-semitic and clerical-fascist organisation Maria Duce, who then proceeded to amputate the offending Russell arm.
The facts regarding Russell and Nazi Germany are as follows: The UK Public Records Office has released files which show that after intensive post-War interrogation of German intelligence agents at the highest level, British intelligence itself concluded in 1946 that “Russell throughout his stay in Germany had shown considerable reticence towards the Germans and plainly did not regard himself as a German agent”.
In his 1958 novelVictors and VanquishedFrancis Stuart observed of the Russell-based character’s outspokenness in Berlin: “Pro-German when it comes to the English, and pro-Jew when it’s a question of the Germans”. One might be forgiven for dismissing this as another of Stuart’s literary inventions were it not for the fact that this assessment was corroborated by a far more significant witness - the Austrian Erwin Lahousen, the first and most important witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1945. Lahousen had been head of the second bureau of the German Intelligence Service from 1939 to 1943. A devoutly-religious Catholic, Lahousen loathed Nazism and had been the key figure in an aborted pre-War plot to assassinate Hitler.
By common consent, it was Lahousen’s evidence at Nuremberg that ensured that Hitler’s foreign minister Ribbentrop would be sentenced to death.
It was the self-same Lahousen who proceeded to offer the following character reference on behalf of Russell: “The Irishman was a hyper-sensitive Celt who, however willing he might be to use the Germans for his own political ends, regarded the Nazi philosophy as anathema”. Lahousen said that “Russell was the only one of the IRA with whom I dealt who was a real Irish Republican of the old school”: After what Lahousen described as “one of Russell’s fiery denunciations of the Nazi attempts to indoctrinate him”, the IRA leader further proclaimed:
“I am not a Nazi. I’m not even pro-German. I am an Irishman fighting for the independence of Ireland. The British have been our enemies for hundreds of years. They are the enemies of Germany today. If it suits Germany to give us help to achieve independence I am willing to accept it, but no more, and there must be no strings to the help”.
This, of course, was extremely naive. As regards his dealings with Nazi Germany, Russell is to be condemned more as a fool than a knave. But notwithstanding that condemnation, Sean Russell is still entitled to the integrity of his reputation, in death no less than in life.
Manus O’Riordan, Glasnevin, D11
