Madam, - Seán Russell was a man whom de Valera once considered worth making the effort to save from himself. Russell had given sterling service in the 20th century's first war for democracy - the Irish War of Independence fought to give effect to the democratic mandate of the 1918 elections. When de Valera failed to persuade Russell to accept the democratic mandate of his later Republican election victories of the 1930s, he was left with no option but to act ruthlessly and with resolve against Russell and his followers.
By all means condemn Russell, as I do, for his actions in defiance of de Valera, specifically his 1939 bombing campaign in England, followed by his request for Nazi German aid to mount an IRA invasion of the North. If Russell's plan had materialised it would have led to either a German or British invasion and occupation of Southern Ireland, bringing to naught de Valera's skilful safeguarding of this State from both war and fascism.
But condemnation of Russell is one thing; character assassination is another. Russell was not the Holocaust-champion that Kevin Myers caricatures in his Irishman's Diary of September 5th. The UK Public Records Office has released files which show that, after intensive post-war interrogation of German intelligence agents at the highest level, British intelligence itself concluded in 1946 that "Russell throughout his stay in Germany had shown considerable reticence towards the Germans and plainly did not regard himself as a German agent".
In his 1958 novel Victors and Vanquished, Francis Stuart observed of the Russell-based character's outspokenness in Berlin: "Pro-German when it comes to the English, and pro-Jew when it's a question of the Germans". One might dismiss this as another of Stuart's literary inventions were it not that this assessment was corroborated by a more significant witness - Erwin Lahousen, the first and most important witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in 1945. Lahousen had been head of the second bureau of the German Intelligence Service from 1939 to 1943. An Austrian clerico-fascist by conviction, Lahousen loathed Nazism and had been the key figure in an aborted pre-war plot to assassinate Hitler. By common consent, it was Lahousen's evidence at Nuremberg that ensured that Hitler's foreign minister Ribbentrop would be sentenced to death.
It is true that Lahousen's own ideological prejudices led him to make another set of wild and unfounded allegations, such as that Frank Ryan, whom he described as "a ruffian of a distinctly red complexion", had actually murdered Russell. But it is less easy to dismiss what that Nuremberg star witness said of Russell himself. Under the heading of "No Nazi", Lahousen's character reference on behalf of Russell was published as follows by The Irish Times on June 6th, 1958: "The Irishman was a hyper-sensitive Celt who, however willing he might be to use the Germans for his own political ends, regarded the Nazi philosophy as anathema. To the Austrian Catholic Lahousen, whom he found much more congenial, Russell poured out his private views of the Nazis, their attempts to convert him. . .Lahousen was sympathetic and took a strong and personal liking to the curious Irishman. . .He admired his integrity and honesty."
Lahousen said that "Russell was the only one of the IRA with whom I dealt who was a real Irish Republican of the old school". After what Lahousen described as "one of Russell's fiery denunciations of the Nazi attempts to indoctrinate him", the IRA leader further proclaimed: "I am not a Nazi. I'm not even pro-German. I am an Irishman fighting for the independence of Ireland. The British have been our enemies for hundreds of years. They are the enemies of Germany today. If it suits Germany to give us help to achieve independence I am willing to accept it, but no more, and there must be no strings to the help."
This was extremely naïve. As regards his dealings with Nazi Germany, Russell is to be condemned more as a fool than a knave. But notwithstanding that condemnation, Seán Russell is still entitled to the integrity of his reputation, in death no less than in life. - Yours, etc.,
MANUS O'RIORDAN,
Finglas Road,
Dublin 11.