Book review: A useful lesson from our past

Irish fascist politician and leader of the Blueshirts, General Eoin O’Duffy, who was Garda Commissioner under Éamon de Valera and later president of Fine Gael. Picture: Getty

• Burn Them Out A History of Fascism and the Far Right in Ireland 
• Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc 
• Head of Zeus, €16.99

There is a small comfort in the fact that this pertinent reminder that the Irish are as susceptible as anyone to the blandishments of “men of action” ends describing the disarray sundering the far right in Ireland.

Ireland’s National Party, a name laughably in inverted proportion to its support, once couldn’t agree who its leader was and who should take responsibility for its gold reserves. 

That hopeless cabal’s dilemmas are symptomatic of the division that caused one amalgamation of the far right after another to run into the solid wall of decency, the all-too-often-latent humanity, underpinning this society.

That cultural understanding endured despite the encouragement of one rabid cleric after another. 

Though some lay figures were appalling antisemites so too were many Maynooth alumni trained to make god’s love an active force. 

That they were not curbed by their hierarchy tells its own story, one that resonates today. 

The voices of hard Catholicism were sharpest around the Spanish Civil War. They encouraged those who might want to support Franco’s attack on democratic Spain. 

These adventurers were led by the most pathetic figure in Ó Ruairc’s important recalling of Irish foibles: Eoin O’Duffy.

The founder of the Blueshirts and, unimaginably, the Blueblouses, who were confined to making tea and sandwiches, O’Duffy promised Franco 6,000 men under arms. 

This expedition fell into a drunken embarrassment. This is hardly surprising as O’Duffy, who studiously avoided the front line, was an alcoholic who shot off one of his fingers while drunk. 

It might be kind to think that his addiction provoked his suggestion that Éamon de Valera was the “bastard son of a Spanish Jew”.

His recklessness was aped by his men in Spain, some of whom were found drunk in a brothel, where the prostitutes wore rosary beads as necklaces, rosary beads that had been given to the volunteers as they left Holy Ireland to slay the communist dragon.

Another hero was so drunk he vomited on a Spanish officer.

The Irish far right remains unsuccessful despite the ambiguity of Catholic leadership, but whether today’s online influences — everyone from Steve Bannon to the gob-for-hire Tucker Carlson — can be resisted is open to debate.

The November 2023 riots in Dublin were facilitated by social media. 

The arguments used around the world are echoed in our national discourse, but then when two very real issues — immigration and housing — conflate, the tinder box is primed.

Ó Ruairc points to the affinity between the far right and the harder edges of loyalism in the North, but he reminds us too of the IRA’s position in July, 1940, when defeat of the Allies looked likely. 

IRA leader Seán Russell issued a statement saying that if “German forces should land in Ireland, they will land … as friends and liberators of the Irish people”. 

That puts that generation of the IRA on the very wrong side of history, but points to an unfortunate absence in this history. 

If Ó Ruairc was happy to list loyalist links to the far right, then the provos deserve similar attention.

Nevertheless, the core message of this valuable book is that a party founded by some truly odious bigots — Fine Gael — has evolved into a modernish, socially liberal force. 

Whether that evolution will continue quickly enough to confront immigration and the housing crisis, remains to be seen.

But it must, as Ó Ruairc has shown the consequences of not doing so. Time to put that old saw into action: Learn from history or repeat it.

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