For our next class, we'll be investigating the international connections of O'Duffy and the Blueshirt movement.
Please read and watch the following before class, take notes, and print the texts if possible.
"The Italian Corporative State", The Blueshirt, November 24, 1934
Discussion Questions:
This newspaper was established after the O'Duffy/Cronin split (see Blueshirts timeline) by which faction? What is the significance of such an open advocacy of corporatism?
What is the article's attitude toward parliamentary democracy?
Your question or comment for the class.
Discussion Questions:
What was the purpose of the conference? What seem to have been to be some points of disagreement?
How does O'Duffy come up?
Your question or comment for the class.
(RTE Documentary in 5 parts)
Discussion Questions:
Does the filmmaker seem to be sympathetic to a particular side in the Spanish Civil War? Do you think the film treats the Irish who fought on both sides fairly?
What domestic and international considerations motivated fighters on both sides?
Your question or comment for the class.
Eoin O’Duffy, Crusade in Spain (1938), Chapters I, II, IV, VIII
Discussion Questions:
Why does O'Duffy include a brief history of Irish-Spanish relations?
What is the relationship between Catholicism and anti-Communism according to O'Duffy?
What is your takeaway from the descriptions of the men who joined the Irish Brigade? What about those who joined the other side?
Your question or comment for the class.