This can only be described as collaboration, no matter how many coats of gloss you apply to the IRA’s reimagined past.Īfter the war, Sean Russell was considered so un-Nazi by the IRA’s true believers that in 1951 a statue was erected in his honour, in Dublin’s Fairview Park. They were seeking support from the Nazis and offering to help them in return with their invasion plans for Britain, whilst other countries were toppling like dominoes during the Blitzkrieg. The party line is that the IRA were not Nazis and that there were justifiable reasons for a non-collaborative, no strings attached relationship with Nazis.Īn alternative perspective is that it’s irrelevant if Sean Russell or the rest of the IRA command were card carrying Nazis, or completely uninterested in European politics. We are told their relationship with the Nazi regime was not, repeat NOT collaboration, no matter how much it might look, sound and smell like collaboration. Over the years any Irish Republican commentary on Sean Russell and his merry band of rosy cheeked IRA compatriots, has emphasised how un-Nazi they were. Internalising a nonsensical narrative was better than accepting the disturbing, morally bankrupt truth. The IRA’s support base clung onto the propaganda and didn’t let go. The IRA command had leapt enthusiastically into bed with a totalitarian regime, but later when the Third Reich was in tatters, they opted for a damage limitation strategy, playing down their relationship with Mr Hitler. It’s hard to put a positive spin on Nazism, what with the occupation of numerous countries, a global military conflict and the Holocaust. There has been a mass disconnect from reality. Eight decades later, Irish Republicans are still in deep denial about IRA collaboration with the Nazis.
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