David O’Donoghue
States of Conflict. The IRA’s Secret Links to the Nazi Regime, 1938–1945
From the late 1930s, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) saw an ascendant Germany as a natural ally against England, the ‘old enemy’. Later, the IRA leadership in Dublin gambled that a German victory in World War II would bring about their objective of a united Ireland. Dr. David O’Donoghue has recently written a biography of James O’Donovan (1896-1979) who was the IRA’s liaison officer to Nazi Germany. Dr. O’Donoghue’s lecture to the Einstein Forum will examine the strange relationship between the IRA and German military intelligence (Abwehr) in the run-up to WWII and in the early years of the war, as well as the aftermath. Dr. O’Donoghue’s lecture will also cover the activities of Nazi party (NSDAP) members in 1930s Ireland.
David O’Donoghue is an Irish author and historian. He has worked as a journalist for the Irish radio and television service (RTE) and the French international news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), as well as teaching journalism at university level. O’Donoghue currently works for the Irish parliament as a parliamentary reporter. His three published works are: Hitler’s Irish Voices: The Story of German Radio’s Wartime Irish Service (1998); The Irish Army in the Congo 1960-1964: The Far Battalions (2005); and The Devil’s Deal: The IRA, Nazi Germany and the Double Life of Jim O’Donovan (2010).
Markus Pöhlmann ist Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamt in Potsdam.