Tag Archives: nazi

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

The statue in Fairview Park of former Chief of Staff of the IRA Seán Russell, who died on a German U-Boat in 1940

““We have a few of our own statues we may need to take down. There is a statue in Fairview Park in Dublin of an Irish republican man who was also a Nazi collaborator… I think any statues that come down should come down legally… let’s not engage in violence.”

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar yesterday.

Meanwhile…

Via Irish Socialist Republicans:

‘Seán Russell was not a Nazi. Those that describe him as such do so to attack the Republican Movement. Calls to remove the 1940s IRA Monument in Fairview Park must be seen in the context of the Free State’s War On Republicanism and the ongoing Counter Revolution to suppress the All Ireland Republic.

Anti Imperialist Action have established a daily watch on the Russell Statue and will defend it against any attack. We will not stand by while the Free State attempts to attack the Republican Movement or mislead the Irish People with a Revisionist version of history.

We send a very clear message to the Free State and anti republican elements that would attack the 1940s IRA Monument as an attack on Republicanism today,

Hands off Seán Russell!‘

Fight!

Anti Imperialist Action (Facebook)

Seán Russell?

Statue of IRA Nazi collaborator in Fairview Park may be pulled down (Dublin Live)

Earlier: Antihero

Rollingnews

Featuring this month at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival – director Marshall Curry’s narration-free edit of the 1939 Amerikadeutscher Volksbund Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in New York, attended by 20,000 people:

…an event largely forgotten from American history… A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN uses striking archival fragments recorded that night to transport modern audiences into this gathering and shine a light on the disturbing fallibility of seemingly decent people.

The director explains more in this Q&A with Field Of Vision.

shortoftheweek


From top: irregular shaped swastika and anti-Semitic graffiti in Killiney, County Dublin

Ah here.

MMS writes:

Long time reading, first time interacting.

I was out for a walk on Friday night, c. 10pm, when I encountered virulent and violent anti-Semitic graffiti, in chalk and on a pathway, in Killiney Hill [Killiney, County Dublin]

After taking a few photos, I returned home and came back with a few bottles of water to clear the mess. It was dark, so I couldn’t clearly ascertain what remained, but I think it was more or less removed.

I got the sense that the graffiti had been recently applied, but that path would have gotten a lot of footfall on a fine Saturday morning, so hopefully most were spared the unpleasant surprise I had.

Anyways, I wasn’t quite sure what the best way to handle this situation was after the fact. On the one hand, in removing the graffiti I was hoping to mitigate the desired effect intended by the small-minded culprits, whatever that may have been. Attempting to publicize the photos, then, at first seemed counterintuitive at best, and counterproductive at worst.

But on the other hand, and after reading that the Anti-Defamation League recently reported an 86% increase in anti-semitic incidents this year, I wondered if highlighting – and, hopefully, calling out – the emboldened, if not normalized, racist and bigoted elements in our society was an important act of civic duty.

I don’t know the answer to these questions, but I have come to appreciate the editorial responsibility ye have cultivated here on BS.

PS Pretty sure the numnuts responsible got the orientation of the swastika wrong! Unless we have anti-semite Hindus or Jains on our hands. Numnuts seems more likely.

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Gülp.

Three items among 800 for sale at ‘The Eclectic Collector’ auction at Whyte’s Auctioneers [Molesworth Street, Dublin] at 11am on Saturday.

With over 800 lots, the sale “will cater for collectors into campaign boxes and tribal art, tourist posters, movie posters, militaria, photographs, badges, medals, autographs, sporting memorabilia, coins and banknotes”.

And Nazi stuff.

From top: Waffen SS badge from World War II; a Nazi Commemorative Medal from the 1936 Berlin Olympics and a “very rare” Nazi War Order of The German Cross in gold from World War II.

Video of items on sale here.

(Mark Stedman/Photocall Ireland)