Sir, - The debate that fired by the recent RTE documentary on the Blueshirts, has demonstrated what a lively period in the country's history the 1930s were. While I think it is right that there has been a clash over what is meant by the word fascism, and an attempt to understand the possible motivations of the Blueshirts, especially with regard the "march on Dublin", to over-concentrate on the movement itself is to denigrate the real importance of the 1930s.
That the Blueshirts posed a potential threat to the de Valera government is undeniable. However, the fact that both Fianna Fail and Cumann na nGaedheal/Fine Gael were able to chart their way through the change in government a mere decade after the ending of the Civil War should be applauded. The Blueshirts were, in part, a response to this change in government, but their overriding adherence to democratic means in the context of their relationship with Fine Gael, and de Valera's resolute handling of their threat, meant that the institutions of the Free State won. The early 1930s showed that, rather than slipping into the anarchy so common elsewhere in Europe, Ireland was largely successful and smoothly functioning mature democracy. The important legacies of the Blueshirts are that they regalvanised opposition politics, and that their potentially worst excesses were held in check by a range of politicians, both opponents and fellow-travellers, to ensure that the democratic structures of the country were further strengthened. - Yours, etc.,
Dr Mike Cronin, Department of History, De Montfort University, Leicester, England.