Architects of the Resurrection Ailtirí na hAiséirghe and the Fascist New Order in Ireland

by R M Douglas (Author)

• New

  Illustrated
  2009

  $27.13

  In 1942 Gearoid O Cuinneagain, a young pro-Axis activist, founded Ailtiri na hAiseirghe ( Architects of the Resurrection ), a fascist movement that aimed to destroy the infant Irish democracy and replace it with a one-party totalitarian state. But Ailtiri na hAiseirghe was no Nazi imitator. Rather, it aimed at something far more ambitious: the fusion of totalitarianism and Christianity that would make Ireland a missionary-ideological state wielding global influence in the postwar era. Supported by idealistic youths and mainstream politicians like Ernest Blythe, Oliver J. Flanagan and Dan Breen-and scrutinised anxiously by British and American intelligence-Aiseirghe won several seats in the 1945 local government elections. Architects of the Resurrection casts an uncomfortable light on the popularity of anti-democratic, anti-Semitic and extremist ideas in wartime Ireland. Students of Irish history and of comparative fascism will find many new insights in this book.