IRA-Nazi collaboration

In the early 20th century, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) was an Irish militant group that fought for Ireland's independence. After Ireland became independent in 1922, the IRA kept fighting what they alleged to be the British occupation of Northern Ireland, where pro-British Protestants made up the majority. The IRA had widespread support among Irish Catholics, who were mostly nationalists believing that Northern Ireland belonged to the Catholic south.

As a result, anti-British sentiment was common among Irish Catholics throughout the 1930s and 1940s, when the United Kingdom was fighting Nazi Germany in World War II. The IRA became pro-Nazi, and collaborated with Nazi Germany, hoping that the Germans would help them "reunify" Ireland within their perceived historical boundaries.

World War II

In July 1940, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) praised Nazi Germany as the "friends and liberators of the Irish people" in a statement, with little to no opposition from the Irish public. Meanwhile, the IRA worked with Nazi spies to plot attacks on British troops in Northern Ireland and circulated materials accusing Éamon de Valera's neutral Irish government of being owned by "Jews and Freemasons".

Image of IRA Chief of Staff Sean Russell, circa 1930s, taken from a magazine published 1942.

James O'Donovan in Dublin after arrest, circa 1941.

Declassified MI5 documents stated that IRA leading figures Seán Russell and James O'Donovan – both veterans of the Irish War of Independence – were the main Irish contacts with Nazi Germany. They got Nazi weapons, plotted joint attacks on British troops and discussed with Hitler a possible German invasion of Northern Ireland to facilitate Irish "reunification". Russell told a Nazi official:

The British have been our enemies for hundreds of years. They are the enemy 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 attached.

After Adolf Hitler's death on April 30, 1945, Éamon de Valera, the Prime Minister of Ireland, mourned the death of Hitler with backing from the Irish parliament. De Valera also denied reports of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp as "anti-national propaganda", reportedly out of refusal to acknowledge that the Jews could have suffered more than the Irish.

Nuremberg Trials

Kurt Haller, an anti-Nazi German diplomat, testified in the Nuremberg Trials:

“

James O'Donovan [...] asked for German support for the occupation of Northern Ireland [. ...] seemed most interested in obtaining delivery of weapons, ammunition and explosives.

”

Erwin von Lahousen, a Nazi German general, also testified:

“

Frank Ryan suggest that the German invasion of Britain would be an opportune moment for the seizure of Northern Ireland [. ...] Ryan had told [Edmund] Veesenmayer that [Éamon] de Valera would support [...] provided he considered it a legitimate risk to take.

”

Related pages

• The Troubles
• The Holocaust
• History of Ireland
• Antisemitism in Europe