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Eoin O'Duffy
A Self-Made Hero
Fearghal McGarry
470 pages
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12 pp halftone plates
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234x156mm
978-0-19-927655-4
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Hardback
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22 September 2005
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This item is printed to order. Items which are printed to order are normally despatched and charged within 5-10 days.
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- First 'life' of one of the most colourful and controversial figures in modern Irish history
- Explores his transition from protégé of Michael Collins and chief of staff of the IRA to fighter for Franco and supporter of Hitler
- Uses unpublished sources to peel away the public persona and reveal the complex motives of the private man
Eoin O'Duffy was one of the most controversial figures of modern Irish history. A guerrilla leader and protégé of Michael Collins, he rose rapidly through the ranks of the republican movement. By 1922 he was chief of staff of the IRA, a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood's Supreme Council, and a Sinn Féin deputy in Dáil Éireann. As chief of police, O'Duffy was the strongest defender of the Irish Free State only to become, after his emergence as leader of the Blueshirt movement in 1933, the greatest threat to its survival. Increasingly drawn to international fascism, he founded Ireland's first fascist
party, and led an Irish Brigade to fight under General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. He died in wartime Dublin, a Nazi collaborator, and a broken man.
This study, the first ever biography of Eoin O'Duffy, draws on unpublished archival and personal papers to trace his journey from revolutionary republicanism to fascism. It examines the importance of cultural forces, including the legacy of the Irish-Ireland movement, Catholicism, anti-communism, and O'Duffy's ideas on sports, morality, and masculinity to explain his descent into extremism. McGarry peels away the public persona to reveal a complex picture of the motives which drove this extraordinary career. A crusading moralist and advocate of teetotalism, obsessed with the need to counter public immorality, who
was at the same time a closet homosexual and alcoholic, O'Duffy's remarkable life was characterised by self-aggrandisement, fantasy, and contradiction.
This fascinating biography explores themes as diverse as cultural nationalism, violence, sectarianism, militarism, and masculinity to shed new light on Irish republicanism and the politics of interwar European fascist movements. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of culture, politics, and society in interwar Ireland.Readership: General readers of biography; historians of modern Irish history; and those interested in Irish politics.
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Fearghal McGarry, Lecturer in Irish History, Queen's University, Belfast
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"A very good book indeed. McGarry is a talented writer. His exposition is always clear, his quotations and illustrations are always well-chosen and he has an understated and elegant style. This isn't a short book but it is very readbale: nicely paced, packed with illuminating detail and full engaged with its subject." - Peter Hart, Irish Times
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1: Joy to my Youth
2: The Best Man in Ulster
3: War to the Death in Monaghan
4: The Coming Man
5: The Flower of the Young Manhood of Ireland
6: Preaching the Gospel of National Virility
7: Red Terror
8: The Irish Mussolini
9: Hoch O'Duffy!
10: The Third Greatest Man in Europe
11: Ireland's Quisling
Epilogue
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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