Violence, Citizenship and Virility: The Making of an Irish Fascist

Author(s): Fearghal MacGarry

Source: History Ireland, Vol. 13, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 2005), pp. 30-35
Published by: Wordwell Ltd.
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 Fearghal MacGarry considers the forces responsible for the rapidmarginalisation of one of
the most powerful and respectable figures inthe IrishFree State?General Eoin O'Duffy?
and sheds lighton the ideological agenda of Ireland'smost notorious fascist.

Violence, and
citizenship virility:

THE MAKING OF AN IRISH FASCIST

Gael, revolutionary, by President de Valera in 1933, and his figure at the end; a recluse in themidst
soldier, chief of police, ill-fated intervention in the Spanish of society'. When he died in 1944?a
founding president of Civil War on the side of General broken man aged only in his mid
Fine Gael: during his Franco, ensured his legacy as one of the fifties?his obituary in the Irish Times
short and controversial villains of modern Irish history. noted that his name had 'ceased to
public lifeGeneral Eoin O'Duffy played Perhaps all political lives end in failure, mean much to the public'.
many roles. His place in the public but few careers in Irish public lifehave
memory, however, is largelybound up ended so ignominiously. The shadow
Above: Eoin O'Duffy c. mid-1920s?one of
with justone of them: fascist.O'Duffy's of failure, as one of his acolytes recalled,
the many portraits to appear in Garda
decision to lead the Blueshirt hung heavily over O'Duffy's final years of Ireland)
movement as of ill-health and tarnished reputation: periodicals. (NationalLibrary
after his removal
commissioner of the Garda S?och?na 'he was really a pathetic and lonely

30 History IRELAND November/December 2005

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One of the Irish Free State's most crusader for themoral regeneration of was in this period that the Cumann na
admired public figures the Irish nation. Naturally, not nGaedheal government resolved to
The general's lifehas inevitably been everyone was convinced: he remained dismiss him if itwon re-election.
interpreted through the prism of his a hate figure for anti-treaty Where had it all gone wrong? The
final decade of failure, but had events republicans such as Mary MacSwiney, principal cause of O'Duffy's
taken another course he would have who?despite conceding that he was disillusionment was the revival of
been remembered very differently. 'idolised by his men', 'considered a anti-treaty republicanism. The IRA's
Had he managed to avoid dismissal by model Catholic' and likely to prove campaign of violence against the state,
de Valera, he would have remained? the most popular treatyite candidate which resumed in November 1926
and been remembered as?a rather for president?suspected 'that he is with coordinated attacks on twelve
more formidable figure: the playing a very deep game ... I believe police stations, immediately exposed
commissioner who guided the police, he is extremely unscrupulous'. tensions between the government and
and the state, through a dangerous its police commissioner. The
political transition in 1932. Or had he, Loose cannon revelation that gardai in Waterford
as some of his friends advised, spurned Interestingly, by 1931 a number of had retaliated against the death of two
the political career forwhich he was so government ministers had come to of their comrades by beating a number
unsuited, he would have secured a share similar reservations. Following
a of republican prisoners led to
sympathetic legacy as a dutiful servant decade in one of the most powerful O'Duffy's first serious rift with the
of the nation who was harshly positions in the state, O'Duffy's minister for justice, Kevin O'Higgins,
sacrificed in the greater interestsof the independence had developed into when the commissioner refused to
state. volatile insubordination, his self dismiss the men responsible. The
In retrospect, the early 1930s can confidence into egotism and his relationship between IRAviolence and
be seen as the critical period of flamboyant idealism into a disturbing O'Duffy's authoritarian tendencies
transformation. To many observers at zeal. He increasingly opposed was illustrated threeweeks laterwhen
this time, General O'Duffy remained government policies in public, he set out his views on coercion in a
one of the Irish Free State's most particularly those that restrictedpolice remarkably frank report. Observing
admired public figures. Since his powers and resources. In private, he that centuries of British rule had
emergence as the leader of the IRA in harangued the government for its instilled a destructive antipathy to
Monaghan during the War of 'ingratitude and lack of appreciation' civilised government in the Irish
Independence, his career had been of his efforts, repeatedly warning of psyche, O'Duffy argued that the
characterised by success. His his men's 'disillusionment and revolutionary period had reinforced
organisational and administrative dejection', and reminding the cabinet the idea that armed violence was a
skills had resulted in his appointment that their loyalty to the state was relatively safe and effective policy.
as IRA chief of staff by early 1922. dependent on their treatment by the Church and state were also to blame
During the Civil War he commanded government. Once the strongest arm for thismentality: 'civics isnot taught
the National Army in the south-west in the defence of the state, the general in the school, citizenship is rarely, if
of the country, where the worst had become a loose cannon, and it ever, preached in the church, as in
fighting occurred. Above all, however, other countries'.
his reputation rested on his Consequently, O'Duffy believed
performance as commissioner of the Below:The firstknown photograph of that it fell to the police to teach those
Garda S?och?na since his appointment O'Duffy (extreme right) as a young GAA who did not practise 'the duties of
in the autumn of 1922. activist with 1914 citizenship' that violence does not
Monaghan's hurling
As commissioner, O'Duffy proved team. pay. This, he argued, necessitated the
(Monaghan County Museum)
himself not merely a brilliant creation of a force 'capable, not alone
organiser but an astute propagandist.
By emphasising the role of the gardai
as unarmed and apolitical servants of
the people, and establishing their
patriotic credentials by stressing their I
devotion to the Irish language, the ( m
GAA and Catholicism, he established
the legitimacy of his new force,
ensuring the success of its efforts to 2.11U -? ?4?m4,p?
restore order in post-revolutionary
Ireland. It was not only as
commissioner of this idealistic young - ?4v -
force but also as an advocate of the
Irish language, a prominent
for temperance, an
campaigner
organiser of the Tailteann games and
'I
chief marshal of the International
Eucharistie Congress that O'Duffy '/1
established himself as a leading
J4I?4
History IRELAND November/December
2005

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 O'DUFFY

republicans, a demand strengthened

by a surge of violence in the firstpart of
'
Thm_ #* Il J?^, -?e_?^' -i 9________________________________
* *L_- ^ _____> ___=* .__ ^*a? ^4 %rflV__________________^_____l
_lf&H__il_i_i^_P: 3_ ;^^_^P_______9^__8____i the year, which resulted in themurder
*
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_-_-_-_m^I __a__M?-0KJ-^-^-K-^_Bw_;^'_ll^_^-b :#?kmEPPPfw_-H^'?- ^s aK-^H a Garda
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t_HBH__-%;^'__!%:^__t^_i___. of an IRA informer,
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and a witness. The
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^^
openness republican
^^^^ ___^__^__^P _^fe__E -^_S__i__H__^__^__^__^_^^^^V^__^_?- wSsHS^^^^M
challenge?particularly the revival of
public drilling?unnerved the gardai,
whom, O'Duffy claimed, were close to
breaking point.

_-_-H_-_-_-_r^_-_-_-_-_-__k_-_-_V_-_-_-_R^--_-_-9-li:^ I
_fl-k Red scare
____
W"*_____L *^__B__^_^__E^___E____J__r_^_k I Itwas at this opportune moment that
_B
^Hr-?___T_l__________i^^??^^________*''' I the discovery of a new republican
backed socialist organisation, Saor Eire,
" allowed O'Duffy to assert 'a concrete
____-_-_-__t^ ~-^ " I
___^^^_? r ^_____Ri^_-_PGf_-_^_-_t
-^v^_v_^__/ _^_k.'-**ibIB*'T^_P^
W- -^_P^ _^|--- link' between the IRA and
w
_____B____PC? _________!
f___w communism, strengthening his
demand for emergency powers.
Influenced by security and political
considerations?and a certain degree
of shared pessimism regarding the
flawed character of the population?
who
Above:O'Duffy(second left), Statedown ifthey persist in theirweak the government agreed to O'Duffy's
throughout his career was always active in kneed attitude.' Accusing the state of request. Although the red scare
the GAA, enjoys a match in the early 1930s. going soft, he denounced 'the reflected genuine concerns, the
(National Libraryof Ireland) nonchalance and weakness of the authorities exaggerated the communist
judiciary, the almost contemptuous (rather than republican) aspect of the
attitude of people in official positions threat to the state in order to win
and the filling of official and semi ecclesiastical support for coercion.
official positions with persons who Assembling what would now be
of its own defence, but of aggression, had devoted years?several years?to described as a dodgy dossier on the
real ... of demanding and the destruction of the institutions of conspiracy, one that deliberately
aggression
insisting on respect for the law of the the state'. He resented the mounting emphasised the threat to ecclesiastical
land, and the extermination of the criticism of police brutality: as well as governmental authority,
type that is incapable, or unwilling to 'Maintaining the strict letterof the law President Cosgrave successfully
assume the responsibilities of is commendable but there is no use requested a pastoral from the Catholic
citizenship'. He demanded emergency worrying over the varnish ifthewall is bishops in support of the legislation
powers to allow him to enforce the undermined'. But what most frustrated that the Department of Justice and
values of citizenship upon the state's him during this lengthy period of O'Duffy were hurriedly drafting.
recalcitrant population. O'Higgins, escalating violence was the growing The Public Safety Act (1931)
backed by the Department of Justice popularity of Fianna Fail, a party contained most of the measures that
and the cabinet, promptly rejected the which tacitly condoned IRA violence: O'Duffy had demanded, including the
proposal, which must have raised 'Let us make no mistake about it, from establishment of military tribunals
doubts about O'Duffy's suitability for the point of view of their outlook on with the power to impose the death
office. so-called political crime, the Irish penalty (thereby removing the weak
public is rotten. Their sense of links of judge and jury) and the power
Accused the state of going soft citizenship isnegligible.' to proclaim organisations and intern
By 1931, following fivemore years of O'Duffy's response to IRA violence subversives. Heartened by the
was to intensify coercion. Dubious demanded even
republican violence (which counted legislation, O'Duffy
O'Higgins among its victims), tactics, such as the physical abuse and greater powers to enforce it in a
O'Duffy's views had hardened. As repeated arrest of suspects,
were disturbing memo that illustrated his
republicans grew more effective in sanctioned, but a series of rulings increasing extremism. He suggested
undermining the courts through against Special Branch provoked arming all Garda station parties,
intimidation, the judiciary and the further resentment, leading him to doubling Special Branch's personnel,
public became the most frequent question the need for a conventional and deploying the force in heavily
targets of the commissioner's judicial system: 'It is impossible to armed mobile units capable of an
invective, but an underlying even surmise what these juries and 'offensive campaign against
an

disillusionment with the government judges are aiming at; it is certainly an organisation which refuses to take the
and democracy itself also became object lesson on the weakness of field as an army'. He recommended

evident. 'Weak benches', he thundered democratic rule'. In 1931 he that Colonel Michael Hogan, a serving
in one report, 'have brought down demanded permanent legislation to army officer, lead the reorganised
states before and they will bring this remove constitutional safeguards from force, which would recruit 'men who

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are, on the one hand efficient in the with political crime.' As had occurred O'Hegarty observed:
use of lethal weapons and who, on previously, the coercion act sent the
the other hand, would have their IRA to ground, but itwas becoming 'We adopted political
heart in such work'. (Having acquired apparent that Cumann na assassination as a principle; we
a notorious reputation for torture in nGaedheal's rule was
coming to an devised the ambush; we
Kerry during the Civil War, Hogan end. encouraged women to forget
would have met both criteria.) their sex and play at gunmen;
Most disturbingly, O'Duffy argued Canvassed support for a coup we turned the whole thoughts
for the deployment of paramilitary d'?tat and passions of a generation
units of army veterans and civilians in It was against this background that upon blood and revenge and
the most troubled areas: 'such local O'Duffy began to canvass support death . . We
. derided themoral
organisations would be a great asset to among the security forces for a coup law, and said there was no other
the recognised forces of the state, as d'?tat. It is not difficult to see how he law but force.'

they undoubtedly have been in could rationalise such a move. He had

Northern Ireland'. He also demanded little faith in the government, indeed An important aspect of this
a free hand to crush the IRAwithout numerous reasons to resent it,but he mindset of despair was the way in
regard to public criticism: 'these regarded the opposition as unfit for which the political degeneration of
proposals
are somewhat extreme. power. His reports revealed his lack of the nation and the moral decline of
Their justification lies in the fact that respect for the constitution, and a society
were seen as interconnected.
the purpose is to deal with growing belief that the public lacked O'Duffy's pessimism about his
extremists?murder gangs?that the civic virtues necessary for country's future, and his growing
these people are not entitled to the democratic rule. By 1931 his optimistic belief that only radicalmeasures could
protection afforded by the belief in the Garda S?och?na's ability redeem it, was bound up with his
Constitution.' The government did to shape a new moral order had given struggle against anti-treaty
not agree. Such units might have way to frustration. He was far from republicanism. The experience of
proved effectivebut would have done alone in his belief that independence fighting a losing battle against
little for the stability of the state. The had failed to create the nation that his republicans, hampered by liberal
cabinet was only too aware of the generation had fought for. Many judges, ungrateful politicians and an
need to keep its zealous commissioner reactionary treatyites attributed this increasingly critical public, clearly
on a tight leash. A number of sensitive failure to the very experience of shaped his trajectory towards fascism.
issues relating to the use of special revolution and civil war. In his classic But he had long been concerned
powers were placed under political polemic, The victoryof Sinn F?in, P. S. about the 'moral cowardice' of the
rather than police control, and population?his first report as
O'Duffy was warned that any commissioner had declared that the
Below: O'Duffy and followers give the
'unnecessary act of violence by the 'people must be saved, almost in spite
raised-arm salute, c. 1933. (National
police or any unnecessary discourtesy of themselves'?as was evidenced by
will be visited with most severe of Ireland)
Library his support for campaigns against the
punishment. The police now have 'drink evil', 'filthy literature', the 'jazz
ample powers within the law to deal mania' and the 'orgies of dissipation'
that occurred in unregulated dance
halls.

Significantly, itwas also in 1931?

the year of the red scare?that O'Duffy
accepted the presidency of the
National Athletic and Cycling
Association, embarking on a
nationwide campaign to revive
athletics. This crusade to promote
national virility, as he termed it,offers

-* my further insights into his concerns.

Throughout the next twelve months
O'Duffy toured the country endlessly,
addressing priests, schoolteachers,
sports officials and local politicians.
:w ~ ' He always stressed the same theme:
the necessity fora national renewal to
stem the moral and physical
degeneration of a population 'gripped
4 spp in the lure of modernisation'. He
complained of 'a revulsion from
manual and a craze
MI work, for
and leisure . . .
excitement, pleasure
The farms are leftdeserted for life in

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O'DUFFY

the city.' He warned of the dangers of denial' and promotes 'the cleanest physical fitness. There can be little
'national decay' and 'race and most wholesome of the instincts doubt that Baden-Powell's popular
deterioration'. He informed a of youth'. He invariably spoke of the rhetoric?'We badly need some
teachers' conference that 'Young men threat to boys rather than girls, and training in our race instead of lapsing
are going down the ladder. They are described it in gendered terms, into a nation of soft, sloppy cigarette
not taking a manly interest inmanly worrying that 'the effeminacy so smokers'?influenced O'Duffy. While
sport... we are going to be wiped off characteristic of the present world acknowledging the prevailing
the map as a nation.' [was] finding a way to our shores'. Too discourses of the era, Baden-Powell's

Although never made explicit, many boys, he complained, 'failed to biographer, Tim Jeal, has persuasively
O'Duffy's
concerns about sexual keep their athleticism, but became attributed this obsession with the
immorality were central to his weedy youths, smoking too soon, promotion of self-control among
pessimism. His confidential drinking too soon'. In many respects, adolescent males to the sublimation
submission to the Carrigan his preoccupation with thewelfare of of his own repressed homosexuality.
committee on sexual offences, which adolescent males resembled that of his In this context, it comes as no great
detailed the prevalence of rape, incest contemporary Robert Baden-Powell, surprise that the most outspoken
and child abuse, provided further with whom he shared many nemesis of smoking, drinking and
evidence of his belief in the collapse similarities. The founder of the effeminacy in adolescent Irishmales
of the moral order. Crucially, he world's greatest youth movement also was a
chain-smoking, alcoholic
believed that immorality was dedicated himself to the propagation homosexual. O'Duffy fits a well
responsible for the growth of of 'clean manliness', an attribute established profile, one shared by
republicanism and communism, closely bound up with patriotism and numerous zealots who project their
which he saw as products of moral own internal chaos onto a deviant
deviancy asmuch as social or political population in need of redemption.
Below: O'Duffy poses with members of
discontent. But although O'Duffy's remarkable
the Committee of Action for the
campaign was partly driven by
of Rome a 'fascist
alcoholic, personal compulsions, he was also a
Universality (CAUR),
Chain-smoking,
homosexual international' including the leaders of man of his time. In expressing such
O'Duffy's fears were also driven by
the Austrian Heimwehr, the Norwegian cultural and
moral, political
personal concerns. He often spoke of Nasjonal S?mling, Romanian Iron Guard anxieties?and to culture as a
turning
the need to promote the ideal of and Spanish Falange, at a meeting in
potential solution?he was reflecting
'clean manliness'. Sport, he Montreaux in 1935. O'Duffy was discourses that were firmly
repeatedly asserted, 'cultivates in a appointed to its international established in both the Irish
boy habits of self-control [and] self secretariat. republican tradition and interwar

Ol? ? *i"V*.
ft*. #'2?#y

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Europe. Like his contemporary J. Most obviously, the exaltation of
Edgar Hoover, one of the reasons for the male body through physical
O'Duffy's successful career was his training became a defining
ability to exploit the fears of the characteristic of fascism, the ideology
people while identifying himself that most effectively exploited the
with themoral values of the nation. fear that the nation was being
Although now forgotten,his crusade undermined by decadence. Despite
fornational virilitywon widespread the ostensibly apolitical nature of his
approval from journalists, clergy and campaign?'There isno such thing as
other authority figures. politics in this movement'?O'Duffy
deployed the rhetoric of the patriotic
Gospel of moral improvement crusade thatwould become so central
Whether as a young GAA activist to his Blueshirt propaganda. The
before his conversion to NACA, he claimed, would 'create the
republicanism, a leading athletic atmosphere in the home, the
revolutionary, Garda commissioner D?il, and the Senate'. His crusade was
or, subsequently, as leader of the dedicated to nothing less than 'the
Blueshirts, O'Duffy preached a redemption of our country from the
gospel of moral improvement, one national, moral and religious point of
that emphasised the cultivation of view'.

integrity, temperance, patriotism, O'Duffy's campaign, which

citizenship and virility: values which highlighted concerns of central
he summarised as manliness. He did importance within European fascism,
not invent this ideal; itwas central to opens up interesting perspectives on
the propaganda of cultural its Irish variant. Recent scholarship
nationalist movements such as the Above:O'Duffy inthe uniformof the Irish has emphasised the importance of
GAA and the Gaelic League, Brigade, c 1937. (Monaghan County cultural issues, particularly the
movements that shaped the ideals of Museum) concept of masculine virility, in
the revolutionary generation more understanding the nature and appeal
profoundly than republican political of fascism. Revealingly, the general's
theory. During the revolutionary the Irish Free State: the idealism of the first response when asked for advice
period the philosophy of manliness Irish Ireland movement, the by prominent Blueshirts?several
was propounded in pamphlets such moralistic nationalism of Irish months before he would become
as The ethics of Sinn Fan, which urged republicanism and the zealous their leader?was to complain about
republicans to 'make examples of Catholicism of the era. their preoccupation with
your life,your virtues, your courage, Moreover, just as the ideals that conventional politics. The
your temperance, your manliness, O'Duffy praised were widely shared, movement, he suggested in a private
which will attract your countrymen so too were his fears: the unsettling document, would do better to
to the national cause'. Similarly,M? impact of the revolutionary period emulate Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts
F?in urged: 'Each of us is the Irish reinforced a belief that thingswere on than contest elections. They should
nation in miniature. Therefore, we the slide. In interwar Ireland, just as in form athletic and mountaineering
ought to make ourselves as like as Europe, the impact of the Great War clubs, develop a taste for the German
possible to what we think the Irish and modernisation on traditional pastime of walking trips, and instil
nation to be.' O'Duffy took this society, patriarchal authority, gender discipline and habits of healthy living
further than most, creating a self roles and even birth rates had created through compulsory mass physical
invented persona that radically anxiety. Although the rhetoric of training. Having failed to redeem a
diverged from reality. degeneration dated back to the GAA's corrupt and degenerate society
Hence, when considering origins, these fears took on an added through sport,O'Duffy would turn to
O'Duffy's remarkable campaign to significance in the context of interwar fascism as a potential vehicle for the
preach the gospel of national virility, Europe, as pseudo-scientific notions political and moral regeneration of
it is important to bear inmind that such as racialism and social the Irish nation. I
both the patriotic rhetoric of Darwinism gained ground. In his
improvement and the identification celebration of physical culture as a Fearghal McGarry lectures in historyat
of immorality with foreign and potential remedy, and his conflation Queen's University,Belfast.
modern influences were widely of sporting and national prowess,
understood. Many people accepted O'Duffy reflected the broader Further reading:
that the purpose of the Irish discourses of this period. Throughout F.McGarry, Eoin O'Duffy: a self-made
revolution had been not merely to Europe, governments and political hero (Oxford, 2005).
make Ireland a better nation but to movements from all shades of the E. O'Halpin, Defending Ireland: the
make the Irish a better people, political spectrum became Irish state and itsenemies since 1922
physically, morally and culturally. increasingly concerned with the (Oxford, 1999).
O'Duffy's crusade marshalled some health of their citizens and the J.M. Regan, The Irish counter-revolution
of themost influential forceswithin promotion of the healthy body. 1921-1936 (Dublin, 1999).

History IRELAND November/December2005 35

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