Among those featured in the BBC/RTÉ series ‘Tomb Raider’, presented by Ardal O’Hanlon, was Adolf Mahr (above), a director of the National Museum  and Ireland’s ‘chief Nazi’

Yesterday.

‘Ardal O’Hanlon can only be as good as the script he had to use on his BBC and RTÉ programme, which deals with politics and the quest for racial identity in 1930s Ireland.

‘It is regrettable to see Adolf Mahr, the former director of the National Museum of Ireland, one of the finest European pre-historians of the age and the person mainly responsible for bringing the Harvard archaeological mission to Ireland, dismissed in such an unhistorical way.

‘Mahr was a German-born archaeologist who was appointed keeper of Irish antiquities at the National Museum in 1927. He was promoted to director in the early 1930s.

‘Instead of consistently reminding the viewer of his contemptible Nazi connections, which are to be deplored, Mahr’s cultural role in Ireland and his contribution to the National Museum and Irish archaeology, which were enormous, ought to have been recognised…’

Pat Wallace, former director of the National Museum.

More to Adolf Mahr than ‘Tomb Raider’ documentary suggests (irish Times Letters, )

Meanwhile…

…this morning:

‘Pat Wallace, claims that his 1930s predecessor Adolf Mahr has been dismissed in an “unhistorical way” in a recent television documentary, and that he made a “major contribution to Ireland”

‘Mahr was head of the Nazi Party here. One of his contributions to Ireland was launching a Hitler Youth group at his home in Upper Leeson Street.

‘Dr Wallace states that Mahr being a Nazi was a “terrible mistake” and that it “damaged his life and health”. The Nazi Party damaged the life and health of many millions with the second World War and the Holocaust.

‘It was a disgrace to Ireland that a senior public servant was the chief Nazi in our country.’

Fintan Swanton, Westport, county Mayo

History shows that Adolf Mahr was a fanatical Nazi (irish Times Letters)

Image via Irish newspaper Archive