Madam, - I write in response to Mary Matthews's letter of February 2nd, not in support of General O'Duffy or his ideals but to reject the implication that O'Duffy helped, or was comparable to, the evil individuals who committed the Holocaust.
Being a moderate Socialist I am naturally repelled by O'Duffy's ideology, but his particular brand of fascism was the least insidious of all the far-right movements in 1930s Europe and surely only the most diehard Marxist could equate the Irish Blueshirts with German Nazism.
In one instance alone could O'Duffy's Blueshirts, who were overtly Nationalist and staunchly Catholic, be accused of anti-Semitism. In 1933 their terms of membership stated that they would refuse to accept "those who did not profess the Christian faith".
It is easy for people to look back now and condemn but in most cases they fail to understand the circumstances that triggered that brief Irish flirtation with Fascism, namely a genuine fear of Stalinist Communism and a desire to maintain the position of the Catholic Church in their lives. O'Duffy's disrespect for Spanish democracy and support of Generalissimo Franco was thoroughly despicable but he was most certainly not an anti-Semite. - Yours, etc.,
MACDARA DWYER,
Ardmore Park,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.