Fine Gael’s first leader Eoin O’Duffy at a rally of the Blueshirts. To his right is Alfred Byrne, the Lord Mayor of Dublin.

26 comments

  1. Does anyone honestly believe that modern FG still have fascist ties? Also, O Duffy was SF before he was FG. Times have changed.

    Maybe, OP, you posted this as just an interesting insight to our countrys history, but given the day that’s in it, a lot of this sub today seems to be politically charged.

  2. He isn’t really fine gael first leader. W. T. Cosgrave was first leader they had for national elections.

    Not sure what the point of this post is, the roman salute wasn’t seen then as it is now and anyone with historical interest in blueshirts knows they weren’t like the italian/german fascists.

  8. This is so wild to see. I’m reading a book by Ian Kershaw, Hell and Back. And he talks about the Fine Gael. So fascinating

  10. Is this another thread we all act like FG was a fascist movement or something? Is it willingly bad interpretations or simply ignorance is the real question

  11. Context is important.

    When your options are support the Brits who you’ve been actively fighting a campaign against, support the Communists or support the Facist.

    O’Duffy might of been a facist but he still fought for freedom for Ireland and he was involved with Sinn Fein much longer than FG.

  12. The guy was such a mess that not even the Spanish fascists and reactionaries wanted him and his drunkards fighting for them in the Spanish civil war

  16. If anyone is interested in James Joyce’s depiction of Alfie Byrne, in his children’s book The Cat and the Devil (Byrne is kind of the antihero of the story in the end):

    [https://imgur.com/a/KcDqZVp](https://imgur.com/a/KcDqZVp)

    I’m not sure what the “knees in his mouth” comment means, maybe just absurdist comedy.

  21. Notice how they styled the garda uniform after his blue shirt outfit the man was years ahead of the times pity he was such a big cunt

  23. The Nazis appealed to male vanity. One of the keys to their success. Just look at the state of the guys in this pic and you can feel it oozing out.

  24. Don’t forget that back then Sinn Fein were also a far right party and their beloved Sean Russell was a notorious Nazi collaborator. They only switched to the left when they thought the Soviets would win the cold war.

  26. He also offered to send people to fight for the Nazis on the Eastern Front. He was commissioner of the Gardai too, hence why their shirts are blue.

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