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Home » Categories » Government » Military / Armed Forces » Hidden History - Ireland's Nazi Past » Reprint Rights » Printer Friendly

Hidden History - Ireland's Nazi Past

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Submitted Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Peter Newman (255)

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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 As soon as the paternal hand of imperial control was withdrawn, the local indigenous factions gave hell to each other, much worse than the British had ever done.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.


Peter Newman was born in Dublin in 1948. As a result of the unique societal aberrations afflicting Ireland at that time, this author is one of a small number of human beings who have retained in their adult consciousness the memory of the authentic emotional states of the Universal Infant. As such he is in a position to contribute to the healing of our tragic civilisation. His main contribution to societal healing is the following series of articles stored in Google Documents and publicly available:



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Comments on this article:


» left by Anonymous (2 years 284 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 1 out of 5
A fine essay, full of self-loathing, displacement, barely suppressed loyalism and a reconstructive interpretation of history that borders on science fiction.
Respond to this comment
» left by Peter Newman (252) (2 years 283 days ago.)
Reply from author:
I don't know who you are, but that essay was intended as a contribution to healing, as we cannot heal fully without remembering and processing our past.
I have no connection with loyalism, suppressed or overt.
To call the events of June 1922 to April 1923 "science fiction" is the Irish equivalent of holocaust denial.
-Peter Newman.
» left by Ploni from Israel (227 days 9 hours ago.)
Heal you should however do you REALLY need to equate it with Nazism? Did someone make lampshades, bookbinding or SOAP out of human remains? Why does everyone equate any inhumane act committed to Nazism? Sorry but you are disrespecting the people who WERE made into lampshades and Soap bars by using the phrase so freely.
Respond to this comment

» left by paul from ireland (2 years 164 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 2 out of 5
This is an absolututely terrible artical .Firstly nazi refers to the the german national socialist workers party a fascist party exiting in germany from years 1920s to 40s.The Civil war was a terrible event in our history but to compare it with the third reich is nonsensical.The Free state government was not a dictatorship , there was no belief in an aryran race ,widespread civilian atrocities etc.I know of Ballyseedy and other such events and the individuals who were responsible for these were wrong and should have been brought to trail.However the country was at war with its self and bad things happen.Many nations have civil wars ,we are not alone on this but i get the impression that you are irish yourself with some deeep seated sense of sel -loathing.You seem to have read a bit about 1920s Irish politics maybe you should read read a little about central european politics between the wars or better still go to Auswitz as I have done and tell me then if the free state was on par with the nazi regime.
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» left by Anonymous (2 years 163 days ago.)
from author: OK then, so the Staters of 1922-23 were not on a par with the German Nazis of 1933-1945. The word 'nazi' has a wide application. It is used to denote a government which has one or more of the characteristics of the German regime of 1933-45. The systematic execution of innocent prisoners to retaliate against military action by anti-government forces is one of those nazi characteristics, which the Staters developed to a fine art. I was born in Dublin but have not lived in Ireland for many decades. I feel that we Irish have not 'processed' our past, and sometimes it's useful to 'raise the stakes' so as to promote further debate. -Peter Newman.




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» left by Anonymous (2 years 65 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Irish people are very decent generally.
The Germans are not Nazis today.
That hugely embarrassing and largely forgotten episode of Irish history is a danger signal, suggesting that it can happen anywhere.
Respond to this comment

» left by Anonymous (2 years 34 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 5 out of 5
Yeah, it does suggest that if even the Irish can do that to each other,I guess it can happen anywhere..........
Respond to this comment

» left by Rooster from Galway (1 year 364 days ago.)
That is the most idiotic piece I have ever read. Filled with blatant lies and racism.
Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (364 days 7 hours ago.)
What lies? Are you suggesting it didn't happen?

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» left by Old Jinglebollocks (1 year 350 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 5 out of 5
That is a very brief comment from Rooster of Galway. Only generalisations without substantiation. It can be admitted that the article has a certain *all-or-nothing polarity* , which excludes full consideration of the context of the Staters' actions.
The anti-government forces at the time were not exactly playing a game of cricket. The Staters had been left rudderless by the death of Michael Collins, the architect of the treaty, and they were then left to fend for themselves, having been saddled with the responsibility of establishing the permitted fledgling Free State.
Apart from that, Kerry was bandit country at the time, and what happened there is best analysed in terms of human psychology.
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» left by Anonymous (1 year 285 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 3.5 out of 5
I have to agree with majority of replies to your 'essay'. While its well written and very prosaic, it twists history, it does not revise, or amend history.

Your method of historical analysis appears to be just flights of fancy rather than a re-appraisal of the events. By your example we could call the Zionist Stern and Irgun gangs, and the Israeli state, Nazis.

Do they not kill/murder/intern their fellow countrymen?. Did they not also kill/murder/terrorise their fellow Jews before,during and after WWII?. Do you know of the SS Patria?.


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» left by IAN from Melbourne (1 year 220 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Sadly I think all humanity has the ability to persecute and murder then own when certain situations arise. I like many other Australians are of Irish descent, my family came to Australia to escape the Potato Famine, and our history and the treatment of local Aboriginals people is a shame we have to live with.
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» left by Anonymous (1 year 213 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 3 out of 5
The lovely old english made dublin the second capital of the empire then all they bloody do is develop a fascist state then commit acts worse or to the same degree as the lovely old english then cover it up, blame the english for everything. despite a few presents such as an economy and all those inventions. winston churchill even offered to grant ireland independence (including northern ireland) years before. Does anybody like double standards?

can't stay mad at ireland for long though really, george bernard shaw, oscar wilde and the other one i always forget are great.
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» left by Anonymous (1 year 28 days ago.)
"he systematic execution of innocent prisoners to retaliate against military action by anti-government forces is one of those nazi characteristics"
 
Refer to the incident in Croke Park, November 21, 1920. 14 innocent people were killed at Croke Park during a match between Tipperary and Dublin by British army auxiliaries

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» left by Anonymous (1 year 27 days ago.)
Reader Rating: 1 out of 5
Grossly exaggerated at best, almost delusional at worst, especially in the assumed connection between events in Ireland and in National-Socialist Germany.

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» left by Anonymous (364 days 7 hours ago.)
But if Irishmen can do that to other Irishmen.... where does that leave us? If it happened in Ireland during those terrible ten months, it can happen anywhere.

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» left by Sean from London (334 days 16 hours ago.)
Reader Rating: 4.5 out of 5
Just back from Cork - my Aunt and Uncle sought to purge me of my "Englishness" by interminable ranting about Black and Tans, famine, etc then I mentioned Hitler and it came out that he was ok! Just us biased English who don't like him, he only wanted his country strong again like the rebels did - someone in the village had wanted their son christened "Adolf" at the time too! I've had so much abuse from the Irish over the years, either just for the accent or for being a "plastic paddy" - why do you think there are less and less of them? Ireland is a bitter small-minded nation, England has it's shames but all in all has 1000 times more to be proud of than Ireland - you can keep it!

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» left by Anonymous (333 days 22 hours ago.)
The Ballyseedy Cross monument says it all.
Irishmen did this to other Irishmen.
It can happen anywhere, if circumstances prompt it.
What does this say about the human condition?  

Respond to this comment

» left by Anonymous (315 days 23 hours ago.)
i have lived in tralee for 25 years and have never heard this story

Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (239 days 9 hours ago.)
Visit the Ballyseedy Cross monument near Tralee. People don't erect a monument like that for no reason.

Respond to this comment

» left by Gee from Scotland (313 days 17 hours ago.)
Reader Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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.

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» left by Anonymous from edinburgh (297 days 10 hours ago.)
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.

Respond to this comment
» left by Anonymous (296 days 7 hours ago.)
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?

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» left by Anonymous (282 days 19 hours ago.)
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????

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» left by Jonathan from Madrid (149 days 1 hour ago.)
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.

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