The ICF failed to use Irish support for Franco to get right-wing social and economic policy implemented at home. One reason is the direction that war in Spain took. As Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy became involved, it became difficult to argue that conflict was a purely religious one. Atrocities such as the bombing of Guernica also undermined the argument that the Nationalists were the more morally correct side. The Irish people became less enthusiastic about Franco, and therefore the ICF.