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IRA plotted with Nazis to invade Northern Ireland
Electronic Telegraph ^ | 19 October 2001 | http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$VK2N3UIAADY21QFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/

Posted on 10/19/2001 6:49:23 AM PDT by aculeus

A PLOT by the IRA to link up with the Nazis to invade Northern Ireland during the Second World War was disclosed in secret service files published by the Public Record Office yesterday.

According to the MI5 records, Germany parachuted a spy into Southern Ireland in 1940 to assess the feasibility of the plan after being approached by the terrorist group.

But the plan was foiled after the spy, Dr Hermann Goertz, aka Heinz Kruse, or just "K", was arrested a year later by the Irish government.

The memorandum, written in 1943, read: "On the 5th May 1940 Goertz landed by parachute at Ballivor, Co Meath, Eire. Earlier that year the IRA had been in touch with the German SS through the intermediary of Stephen Carroll Held.

"Held had visited Berlin with a proposal from the IRA for an attack on Northern Ireland by the Germans to be supported by 5,000 IRA recruited in Eire and Northern Ireland.

"Goertz's mission was to examine this proposal and to obtain. . . the military information on which the joint attack by the Germans and the IRA on Northern Ireland could be based."

The report says that he met Stephen Hayes, then leader of the IRA in Dublin, but the meeting was raided. While money, a radio transmitter and a German airman's cap were seized, along with the manuscript of the plan, codenamed Kathleen, Goertz escaped.

For the next year Goertz, who had been arrested as a spy and deported before the war, lived in a number of IRA safe houses. During that period he was approached by a member of the Irish Army, Maj Gen McNeill, a fascist, the files say.

It is believed he was hoping to resurrect some kind of Fascist "Blueshirt" organisation with the help of the Germans. At first, British intelligence believed that McNeill's involvement meant that the Irish Government was collaborating, but its investigation showed he was acting independently.

The operation and McNeill's attempt to link up with the Nazis came to nothing when Goertz was arrested in November 1941.

9 May 2001: Scots 'tried to set up Nazi alliance'


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Germany; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: historylist
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For you history buffs.
1 posted on 10/19/2001 6:49:23 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: aculeus
The facist blueshirts and the IRA were were arch enemies but never let the truth get in the way of a good story. For an abundance of barmy anti-Irish propaganda, aculeus can always turn to the English Telegraph.
2 posted on 10/19/2001 6:54:45 AM PDT by Colosis
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To: aculeus
I'm sure the Nazis tried. And it's possible the IRA talked to them as well. But the question that occurs to me, is why are the Brits releasing this tidbit of information now? Could it be that they are hoping to take advantage of the "special relationship" at a time of crisis to persuade Bush to take the British side in the ongoing argument over Northern Ireland?

Are the IRA terrorists? Perhaps so. But they have a better record of avoiding the killing of innocent civilians than their Protestant counterparts do. Generally they warn people before they blow up buildings, whereas the Protestants usually just go into the nearest bar or house and shoot whatever Catholic they happen to meet. I trust Bush will not let Blair inveigle him into this one. Blair has already given him some terribly stupid advice concerning the Palestinian question.

3 posted on 10/19/2001 6:57:55 AM PDT by Cicero
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To: aculeus
Old news...I have read about this for 20 years.

Is the enemy of your enemy a friend?

The Germans also bombed Belfast. They also considered dropping packages of weapons and TNT in IRA areas.

4 posted on 10/19/2001 7:01:41 AM PDT by 2banana
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To: aculeus
Somewhere there's a novel I read long ago based on this incident. It's not well known but it's hardly news.
5 posted on 10/19/2001 7:04:40 AM PDT by VadeRetro
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To: Cicero
Apologists for murderers folks. Right here on Free Republic.

Mothers and babies were murdered and maimed in the Harrod's blast set by the IRA with just enough warning time to create maximum panic and terror.

Next you'll be telling us that the IRA bomb makers didn't learn their craft sitting around the same tables as the PLO monsters.

6 posted on 10/19/2001 7:06:51 AM PDT by Harrison Bergeron
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To: Colosis
I hate to break it to you, but your little insult did nothing to disprove the Telegraph story.
7 posted on 10/19/2001 7:10:03 AM PDT by Timesink
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To: 2banana
Right, this is old news. I read about Goertz in a book called The Lost Years: The Emergency in Ireland, 1939-45, by Tony Gray (1997). (I found it in a used bookshop in Dublin, I don't know if it was published in the States.)

The book doesn't detail all that's in this story, but Goertz did meet with IRA members and Nazi sympathizers, including some guy who built his house in the shape of a swastika.

8 posted on 10/19/2001 7:11:58 AM PDT by michaelt
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To: Colosis
The IRA will team up with ANYONE (from Hitler to Fidel Castro) and do ANYTHING (including murdering children) to get power. They do not represent Catholic Irish, and never will. They say they want a free Ireland, but they don't want it if they won't be the ones in charge.
9 posted on 10/19/2001 7:21:35 AM PDT by The Old Hoosier
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To: Colosis
For an abundance of barmy anti-Irish propaganda, aculeus can always turn to the English Telegraph.

Aw, you're trying to hurt my feelings!

And I even left the bit at the bottom about the Scots to assuage the sensibilities of folks like you.

But I'll be nice and not mention DeValera's signing the condolences book at the German Embassy when he heard about Adolf's death.

PS: It's in The Times also.

10 posted on 10/19/2001 7:25:51 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: aculeus
PS: It's in The Times also.

Oh well, in that case, it MUST be true!

11 posted on 10/19/2001 7:37:45 AM PDT by Colosis
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To: Harrison Bergeron
Mothers and babies were murdered and maimed in the Harrod's blast set by the IRA with just enough warning time to create maximum panic and terror.

But those mothers and babies had it coming. Especially the babies. You just can't trust a British baby.

The IRA is a bunch of Marxist revolutionaries, bent on maximum mayhem. An IRA-controlled Irish state would be Hell on Earth. I can just hear the wail from Irish Catholics in the US as the IRA junta outlawed the Catholic Church in Ireland as "the opiate of the masses".

And yet, their true nature is ignored and they are sent out to commit their wanton acts of destruction, because they serve somebody else's purpose. Gee, this is beginning to sound familiar.

The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.

12 posted on 10/19/2001 7:48:06 AM PDT by gridlock
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To: aculeus
But I'll be nice and not mention DeValera's signing the condolences book at the German Embassy when he heard about Adolf's death.

Your too kind. And while your at it, don't mention Oswald Mosley's involvment with the Conservative party and the nazis.

13 posted on 10/19/2001 7:49:15 AM PDT by Colosis
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To: aculeus
Held had visited Berlin with a proposal from the IRA for an attack on Northern Ireland by the Germans to be supported by 5,000 IRA recruited in Eire and Northern Ireland

Well, the Arab terrorists also supplied help and manpower for Hitler. Birds of a feather, even now.

14 posted on 10/19/2001 8:18:58 AM PDT by Cachelot
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To: aculeus
"Hand over your terrorists or we will come for them(read-kill you) and the establishments protecting them"

You have been served notice IRA. You are NOT exempt from the meeting righteous and swift justice.

Evil is Evil and the face it wears has many color, but it cannot mask the blackness of it's soul.

15 posted on 10/19/2001 8:26:05 AM PDT by Freemeorkillme
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To: Colosis
Your too kind. And while your at it, don't mention Oswald Mosley's involvment with the Conservative party and the nazis.

In his political career Mosley was a Tory MP, an Indepndant MP and a Labour MP, rising to a sub-cabinent post in a Labour government. One of the main reasons he split with the Tories was Ireland -- he opposed the measures used to combat Republicanism. That hardly makes him and the Conservative Party fellow travellers.

16 posted on 10/19/2001 8:29:03 AM PDT by Pilsner
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To: aculeus
Yes, very old news and the United States was allied with Stalin who butchered millions and Italy was allied with Hitler. Wars make strange bedfellows. Just look who we are allied with today. China, Russia and Iran. Forty years from now if we are still around history will write about the strange allies America was with. Semper Fi, Mike
17 posted on 10/19/2001 8:29:58 AM PDT by HEFFERNAN2
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To: Freemeorkillme
"Hand over your terrorists or we will come for them(read-kill you) and the establishments protecting them"

These posts are getting better!! US soldiers on Irish soil killing Irish citizens who don't hand over IRA terrorists?? Dream on!

18 posted on 10/19/2001 8:32:55 AM PDT by Colosis
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To: Harrison Bergeron
Oh please. Do you know how many Irish have been murdered and starved to death since the invasion and occupation of Ireland by the Brits over the past 700 years. Millions. So get off your high horse, mister. Because that dog won't hunt. Semper Fi, Mike
19 posted on 10/19/2001 8:33:42 AM PDT by HEFFERNAN2
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To: gridlock
I can just hear the wail from Irish Catholics in the US as the IRA junta outlawed the Catholic Church in Ireland as "the opiate of the masses".

There are plenty of Irish Catholics in the U.S. who completely disapprove of the methods used by the IRA. So what exactly is the point you are trying to make?

20 posted on 10/19/2001 8:37:18 AM PDT by independentmind
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