http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_R...n_World_War_II

wtf is this shit?

explain this to me

this is not meant to be an attack

This did happen. Unfourtunately irish republicanisim has not purely attracted socialists. Sean South is a famous example- while not maybe a member of a fascist organisation, he was well read in blueshirt literature and was supposedly a member of a very sectarian, ultra religous catholic group.

The attempts at collabarating with the fascists shows possibly the worst face of some so call republicans- however many of those willing to collabarate were fascists themselves, the movement was huge during the thirties in Ireland, but fourtunately did not gain as much ground as in germany or spain.

Yeah, it goes back to the involvement in the Spanish Civil War where more of the Irish venturing to Spain were fighting for the side of the Nationalists as opposed to the Republicans, probably more out of Republicans who had religious convictions.

Frank Ryan- which the article mentions- was actually an Irish volunteer for the Republicans (and argued for Irish republicans to support the Spanish republicans), though after the war he ended up in Germany after escaping from Spanish jail. In Germany he was put on as a mission specialist to plan in the event of an Allied invasion of Ireland. But this never happened as Ireland remained neutral, and most of these operatives were deactivated.

It causes some weird things to pop up. I suppose a similar case could be seen with Bose and his Azad Hind group working with the Japanese against the British in India.

The IRA wasn't a communist organization, it was a unity of forces opposed to British Occupation. It had many stripes of organization affliations.

Actually very few of the Irish that fought for Franco were IRA members, the over-whelming majority of the Irish that fought for Franco were members of the Blueshirts led by Eoin O'Duffy.
This group was actually formed to counter the IRA and there were many occasions both groups were in conflict.
While the majority of Irish who fought for the Republicans in Spain were IRA members.

I think Ryan basically went crazy from how he was treated in jail by the fascists.

I believe this was nothing more then a very unfortunate, but beneficial tactical alliance against the British..

this doesnt look good........

My understanding is that Hitler promised the IRA that he would grant a united Ireland on the condition of Germany's victory in the war and the IRA's assistance in helping to beat the British.

Whether or not he would have honoured the agreement by staying out of Ireland, we'll never know.