Irish diplomatic reaction to the rise of Adolf Hitler to power in Germany in the 1930s is a prominent feature of Volume Four in the series Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, published by the Royal Irish Academy in association with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the National Archives. Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, reports.
Edited by Dr Michael Kennedy, Prof Ronan Fanning, Prof Dermot Keogh, Prof Eunan O'Halpin and Ms Catriona Crowe, the new book is a documentary history of the development of Irish foreign policy from March 1932 to December 1936.
It includes a letter to his superiors in Dublin from the Irish charge d'affairs in Berlin, Leo T. McCauley, the day after the burning of the Reichstag in February, 1933. McCauley indicates that the incident will facilitate Hitler's quest for absolute power.
He describes Hitler as "a mystical and mysterious figure: no one knows what his principles and true policy really are". Reporting on a public meeting addressed by Hitler, McCauley writes: "He shouted at the top of his voice, becoming almost inarticulate with excitement before each sentence was well begun, and frequently being quite incoherent before the sentence was ended.
"All the foreign observers who were present and with whom I have spoken, agreed that he simply raved. Yet his speech was received by the audience with the wildest enthusiasm."