Don’t It Make Your Brownshirts Blue

at

Fine Gael leader WT Cosgrave (in white tie and tails) salutes The Blueshirts in the Mansion House, 1934 colourised from a black and white print in Old Ireland In Colour 2 (top)

Innocent wave?

Heil no.

Sarah Mulhern writes:

I got a copy of Old Ireland in Color II and was really enjoying it until I came to a picture of the Blueshirts. The caption states that the Blueshirts are giving the ‘Roman salute.’ For some time now the far-right and far-right apologists have taken to using the term ‘Roman salute’ to rehabilitate the memory of those who took the side of fascism in 1930s Europe. I was rather taken aback to see the term ‘Roman salute’ in an Irish book that’s published in the 21st century. WTAF. The Irish Times review has the picture and caption too.

Anyone?/Fight!

Old Ireland In Colour 2

Sponsored Link

27 thoughts on “Don’t It Make Your Brownshirts Blue

  1. Zaccone

    It was the Roman Salute long before it was a sieg heil. Sarah should really do even 10 seconds of Googling some basic history before she gets outraged:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_salute

    The Blueshirts were awful for many reasons, but this sort of snowflake kneejerk emotional outrage reaction not based on any historical knowledge doesn’t achieve anything. There are enough bad, actually factual, things about them to highlight.

    1. E'Matty

      Yeah, pretty sure if you were doing the auld ‘Roman salute’ during the 1930s you may have had some common ground with those who were using the very same salute at that time like the Nazis, Mussolinis fascists, Franco’s Fascists, Mosleys fascists and so on. Oh, and let’s all wear the same colour shirts. Brown? Taken. Black, black would be cool? Taken. Blue? Hmmmm, I suppose…

      1. goldenbrown

        yup, aside from Sarah’s detail deficit there, I don’t care if the thing was invented by Phileas Fogg

        Fascist salute is Fascist salute

        end of

  2. Fergalito

    High falutin’ esoteric saultin’
    On that there can be no disputin’
    Though whether Roman or Nazi
    Depends on the paparazzi
    And for which publication they’re shootn’

  3. K. Cavan

    Naw, naw, they’re all just waving to their Mums.
    It could be worse, they could be taking the knee for some sort of psychotic thug or “against all forms of discrimination” as it’s been relabelled.

  4. Francois

    It’s a fascist salute. I’ll never understand why certain Irish people deny that the Blueshirts used the fascist salute. Show this to anyone on the Continent and they’ll know what it is. It was learned by experience. Roman salute is a euphemism too far.

  5. f_lawless

    The guy fourth from left found a clever way of not conforming. Whenever the call goes out for everyone to salute, just reach for your trumpet and claim exemption.

  6. Clampers Outside

    That’s what it is called.

    Rewriting history to suit your agenda serves no one but yourself. That period in history should be remembered for the theft committed by the Nazis.

    Should Hindus drop the swastika too? No, of course not. And recognising where the Nazis took the salute from is no different.
    You are projecting your own associations with the salute and demanding others comply. We’ll, you can go an’ shy with that idea. I want the real history, not some sanitised for the meak horse poo.

    1. Rachel

      The Hindu ‘swastiska’ is not the same as the one the Nazis adopted. The Nazis inverted the symbol. People in the 1930s called that salute the Nazi salute or the fascist salute. Nobody after the late 1920s used the term ‘Roman salute.’

      1. Clampers Outside

        Your comment is confirming what I said.
        If you intended your comment as a correction, you haven’t done that.

Comments are closed.

Sponsored Link
Broadsheet.ie