A true collaborator?

The headline over Richard Fitzpatrick’s preview (Arts, Feb 16) of a new film, The Enigma of Frank Ryan appears anomalous: “The ex-IRA man who died a Nazi collaborator”.

The title of abuse “collaborator” can never be awarded to citizens of now-belligerent states. To even qualify as a candidate you must come from a combatant country. This seems self-evident.

True, the role of republican figures (Frank Ryan, Sean Russell) in wartime Germany appears contrary to Ireland’s position of neutrality. Yet Ryan reportedly remained supportive of the Irish neutral policy until his death in Dresden in 1944.