The Irish Fascist Partisan (Partisans #2)
Irish History Podcast
Fin Dwyer
4.7 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2019
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is the second episode in the series Partisans - Irish Stories from the Spanish Civil War. In this podcast we meet our first partisan Aileen O'Brien, a 22 year old Irish American who moved to Ireland in 1935. O'Brien was always a mysterious figure - her contemporaries were never quite sure what to make of her. Some considered her a fascist, others thought her a naive catholic while intelligence agenices suspected she may have been a covert arms dealer.
Unsurprisingly not long after she arrived in Ireland Aileen's activities attracted the attention of the Irish police and eventually even military intelligence. Using never before seen archives this podcast follows O'Brien's life up until the summer of 1936. Her strange and intriguing life is an insight into far right activism in 1930s ireland and explains why many Irish people supported the fascist coup in Spain in July 1936.
Partisans is created by myself Fin Dwyer and Stewart Reddin.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Attention at all passengers. You can now book your train tickets on Uber and get 10% back in Uber credits to spend on your next train journey. |
| 0:11.0 | So no excuses not to visit your in-laws this Christmas. |
| 0:16.5 | Trains now on Uber. T's and C's apply check the Uber app. Hey this is Paul Russell and you are listening to my single Lil Buthang listen on |
| 0:27.0 | spot. |
| 0:28.0 | But I'm the one. |
| 0:29.0 | You my little Buthang. |
| 0:30.0 | So I'll give a hook what you do say, girl no you a little too tain. I'll be shooting that shot like |
| 0:36.0 | tooth-k girl like no. Tell my time I'm next |
| 0:39.2 | tell them you're fine. Hello and welcome to the Irish history podcast. This is the second installment of the |
| 0:51.2 | series Partisans Irish stories from the Spanish Civil War, created |
| 0:55.9 | by myself Finn Dwyer and Stuart Wren. |
| 0:59.2 | The series began last week with the backdrop to the war, its importance and how Spanish politics in the 1930s |
| 1:06.0 | descended into a spiral of violence that resulted in the outbreak of a civil war in Spain in |
| 1:11.6 | July 1936. If you haven't heard that episode it is an important |
| 1:16.2 | one that sets the stage so it might be worth checking that out first. In today's podcast we take a very |
| 1:22.4 | different tack as we meet our first partisan, a somewhat shadowy even mysterious figure. |
| 1:29.0 | Our contemporaries were never quite sure whether Aileen O'Brien was a fascist, a well-meaning yet naive Catholic, or possibly even an arms dealer. |
| 1:37.0 | However, in this upcoming journey, we are about to follow Aileen O'Brien through her unusual life, and she will help us understand both the international |
| 1:45.3 | and local influences that drove many Irish people to fight in the Spanish Civil War. |
| 1:50.4 | She also brings us deep into what was the clandestine world of far-right politics. |
| 1:55.8 | This includes violent anti-communist protests in Dublin in the 1930s, true to working with the Nazis |
| 2:01.9 | as they began to dominate Central Europe. |
... |
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