Fascism and the Far Right in Ireland exposed

‘Burn Them Out! A History of Fascism and the Far Right in Ireland’ 

By Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc

Published by Head of Zeus

This is one of the most important books about Ireland in recent times. It confronts the threat of the far right and delves deeply into its history in this country.

Undoubtedly the most significant far right threat in our history was the Blueshirt movement of the early 1930s. Pádraig Ó Ruairc gives a very detailed and damning account of the Blueshirts. It is a record that Fine Gael has tried to erase but the truth is that Fine Gael and Eoin O’Duffy’s fascist bully boys were one and the same. Among the Fine Gael TDs who actually wore the blue shirt uniform in Leinster House was Desmond Fitzgerald, father of Garret, later a Fine Gael Taoiseach.

The record is incontrovertible with figures such as former Government Minister Ernest Blythe among the most vicious of these politicians. Like Fitzgerald and WT Cosgrave, he was in the Free State Cabjnet that presided over the prison executions, the roadside killings and the mass internment of Republicans in 1922/‘23. Anyone who doubts that the Civil War was a counter-revolution need only follow the subsequent careers of the Free State leaders. There was a real possibility in 1932 that Fianna Fáil’s election victory might not have been recognised by forces on the Free State side who were prepared to stage a coup.

That was certainly Eoin O’Duffy’s aim. But his side were not united on this because most realised they could not succeed. O’Duffy’s attempted ‘march on Dublin’ ended in fiasco, with both Fianna Fáil’s government forces and the IRA mobilised to face down the far right threat.

• Fine Gael 1938 election leaflet opposing migration of Irish speakers to form what is now Gaeltacht na Mí, the County Meath Gaeltacht

It is little wonder that Fine Gael has attempted to airbrush O’Duffy from its history. This book also chronicles the shameful and at times farcical Spanish adventure of O’Duffy and his Irish fascists who proved to be an embarrassment both to themselves and to the Franco forces they went out to support. While Brendan Behan was not technically correct when he joked that O’Duffy’s brigade were the only army in history that came back from war with more men than they went out with, his mockery was widely shared and even some of the adventurers themselves later did not want it known that they were in Spain.

Ó Ruairc records the rag tag of far right and fascist groups and individuals that inhabited the fringe of Irish politics from the 1940s up to more recent times. Consistent themes include links with British fascists and with loyalism in the Six Counties, ultra-conservative Catholicism in many cases, and much internal faction fighting and splits.

These themes continue to the present day. The ‘Coolock Says No’ group marched with loyalist paramilitaries at an anti-immigrant march in Belfast last summer. Former UVF prisoner Mark Sinclair boasted of his attendance at the 26 April anti-migrant march in Dublin. That march also witnessed fascist salutes, a black Irishman being told to ‘go home’ and another man being told by Nazi nutjob Justin Barrett that he “does not talk to Jews”.

The far right and the racists have been using the increase in both immigration and international protection applications over the last decade or so to sow fear and hatred. This has been helped by the Government mishandling of the issue of accommodation for international protection applicants. Application processes that take far too long, a shambolic direct provision system, privatised profit-driven IPAS centres often occupying former hotels and other facilities, all have provided fertile ground for the far right to agitate. Sadly many people have been taken in by the online propaganda of the far right, a trend that greatly worsened during the Covid lockdowns as more people went down internet rabbit-holes.

The challenge for republicans and the left generally is how to stop the rot and to prevent more people from being misled. Racism, sectarianism and bigotry have to be exposed and challenged unflinchingly. Real issues and concerns where they exist have to be addressed honestly. Above all leadership has to be given in campaigns that, firstly, expose the fact that the real culprits responsible for the housing crisis, for the healthcare crisis, for the neglect of communities, are successive Fine Gael/Fianna Fáil governments, and secondly, that show there are solutions to these crises and we can build a fairer, better Ireland for all.

We need to show also that the real patriots now, as in the past, are those who fight for justice, equality and freedom. The Tricolour represents the Republican values of liberty, equality and solidarity and it has no place in the hands of bigots of any kind.

Irish publishers should be embarrassed that Pádraig Ó Ruairc, a most prolific and accomplished historian, had to go to a London publisher. They missed out on a book that has already had high sales. It is highly recommended and is required reading for anyone who wants progressive change in Irish politics. Read it, learn from it, use it in the struggle.