Eoin O ' Duffy Eoin O ' Duffy ( ; 30 October 1892 – 30 November 1944 ) was an Irish political activist , soldier , and police commissioner , best known for his advocacy of fascism . O ' Duffy was the leader of the Monaghan Brigade of the Irish Republican Army ( IRA ) during the successful Irish War of Independence and in this capacity became Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1922 . He was one of the Irish activists who along with Michael Collins accepted the Anglo - Irish Treaty and fought as a general in the Irish Civil War on the pro - Treaty side . Professionally , O ' Duffy became the second Commissioner of the Garda Síochána , the police force of the new Irish state , after the resignation of Michael Staines . In his political life O ' Duffy had been a member of early Sinn Féin , founded by Arthur Griffith . He was elected as a Teachta Dála ( TD ) for his home county of Monaghan during the 1921 election . After a split in 1923 he became associated with Cumann na nGaedheal and led the security organisation known as the Army Comrades Association ( Blueshirts ) . After the merger of various pro - Treaty factions under the banner of Fine Gael , O ' Duffy was the party leader for a short time . A staunch anti - communist , O ' Duffy was attracted to the various authoritarian nationalist movements on the Continent . He raised the Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War as an act of Catholic solidarity and was inspired by Benito Mussolini ' s Italy to found the National Corporate Party . He also offered to Germany the prospect of raising an Irish Brigade to fight in " Operation Barbarossa " during World War II on the Eastern Front against the Soviet system , but this was not taken up . Early life . Eoin O ' Duffy was born Owen O ' Duffy in Lough Egish , near Castleblayney , County Monaghan . O ' Duffy did an apprenticeship as an engineer in Wexford before working as an engineer and architect in Monaghan . In 1919 he became an auctioneer . O ' Duffy was a leading member of the Gaelic Athletic Association in Ulster in the 1910s . A stand in a ground in Clones , County Monaghan , is named after him . War of Independence . In 1917 O ' Duffy joined the Irish Volunteers and took an active part in the Irish War of Independence . In February 1920 , he ( along with Ernie O ' Malley ) was involved in the first capture of a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks by the IRA in Ballytrain , in his native Monaghan . He came to the attention of Michael Collins , who enrolled him in the Irish Republican Brotherhood and supported his advancement in the Nationalist hierarchy . He was imprisoned several times but became director of the army in 1921 . In May 1921 , he was returned as a Sinn Féin TD for the Monaghan constituency to the Second Dáil . He was re - elected at the 1922 general election . In March 1921 he was made commander of the IRA ' s 2nd Northern Division . Following the Truce with the British in July 1921 , he was sent to Belfast . Following the rioting known as Belfast ' s Bloody Sunday , he was given the task of with liaising with the British to try to maintain the Truce and also to defend Catholic areas against attack . In January of the following year he became IRA Chief of Staff , replacing Richard Mulcahy . O ' Duffy was the youngest general in Europe until Francisco Franco was promoted to that rank . Civil War General and Garda Síochána . In 1921 he supported the Anglo - Irish Treaty . He served as a general in the National Army in the ensuing Irish Civil War and was one of the brains behind the Free State ' s strategy of seaborne landings into Republican held areas . He successfully took Limerick city for the Free State in July 1922 , before being held up in the Battle of Killmallock south of the city . The enmities of the civil war era were to stay with O ' Duffy throughout the rest of his political career . In September 1922 , minister for home affairs Kevin O ' Higgins was experiencing indiscipline within his recently established Garda Síochána ( police ) and O ' Duffy was appointed commissioner . At this stage of his career O ' Duffy was a fine organiser and has been given much of the credit for the emergence of a respected , non - political and unarmed police force . He insisted on a Catholic nationalist ethos to distinguish the gardaí from their RIC predecessors . Following a general election in 1933 Éamon de Valera dismissed O ' Duffy as Garda Commissioner . In the Dáil de Valera explained the reason for his dismissal , " he [ O ' Duffy ] was likely to be biased in his attitude because of past political affiliations " . The true reason , however , appears to have been the new government ' s discovery that in 1932 , O ' Duffy ' s was one of the voices urging W . T . Cosgrave to resort to a military coup rather than to turn over power to the incoming Fianna Fáil administration . O ' Duffy refused the offer of another position of equivalent rank in the public service . Ernest Blythe revealed many years later that the outgoing Government had become so alarmed by O ' Duffy ' s conduct that had they returned to power they would have acted precisely as De Valera did . Leader of the ACA and Embrace of Fascism . In July 1933 O ' Duffy became leader of the Army Comrades Association , which had been ostensibly set up to protect Cumann na nGaedheal public meetings , which had been disrupted under the slogan " No Free Speech for Traitors " by Irish Republican Army men newly confident since the elections . O ' Duffy and many other conservative elements within the Irish Free State began to embrace fascist ideology , which was very much in vogue at that time . He immediately changed the name of this new movement to the National Guard . O ' Duffy was an admirer of the Italian leader Benito Mussolini and his organisation adopted outward symbols of European fascism , such as the straight - arm Roman salute and the distinctive blue uniform . It was not long before they became known as the Blueshirts . In August 1933 a parade was planned by the Blueshirts in Dublin to commemorate Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith , both of whom had died 11 years earlier . This was a clear imitation of Mussolini ' s March on Rome and was widely perceived as such despite claims to the contrary by Blueshirt apologists . De Valera feared a similar coup d ' état and as a result the parade was banned . By September the Blueshirts were declared an illegal organisation . To circumvent this ban the movement once again adopted a new name , this time styling itself the League of Youth . O ' Duffy and some of his men also made an appearance at the 1934 International Fascist conference in Montreux where he argued against anti - semitism . Fine Gael . In September 1933 Cumann na nGaedheal , the Centre Party and the Blueshirt movement merged to form Fine Gael . O ' Duffy , though not a TD , became the first leader , with former President of the Executive Council , ( prime minister ) W . T . Cosgrave serving as parliamentary leader . The National Guard , now rechristened the Young Ireland Association , was transformed from an illegal paramilitary group into the militant wing of a political party . However , meetings were often attacked by IRA men . O ' Duffy proved to be a weak leader – he was a military leader rather than political , and he was temperamental . In September 1934 O ' Duffy suddenly and unexpectedly resigned as leader of Fine Gael as his extreme views and poor judgement became an embarrassment to his party . He went on to form the National Corporate Party . Spanish Civil War . The Blueshirt movement had begun to disintegrate also , so much so that by 1935 the organisation no longer existed . In June 1935 O ' Duffy launched the unabashedly fascist National Corporate Party . The following year the General organised an Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War . Despite the declaration by the Irish Government that participation in the war was ill - advised and unsupported , 700 of O ' Duffy ' s followers went to Spain to fight on Franco ' s side ( around 250 other Irishmen went to fight for the Republicans ) . O ' Duffy ' s men saw little fighting in Spain and were sent home by Franco , returning in June 1937 . Retirement and death . O ' Duffy returned to Ireland from Spain in disarray . He retired from politics completely , apart from a low - level dalliance with Nazism . He is thought to have met with IRA figures and members of the German consulate in the summer of 1939 . ( See main article . ) In the summer of 1943 O ' Duffy approached the German Legation in Dublin with an offer to organise an Irish Volunteer Legion for use on the Russian Front . He explained his offer to the German ambassador as a wish to " save Europe from Bolshevism " . He requested an aircraft to be sent from Germany so that he could conduct the necessary negotiations in Berlin . The offer was " not taken seriously " . By this time his health had begun to seriously deteriorate and he died on 30 November 1944 , aged 52 . He was afforded a state funeral by the government . Following requiem mass in the Pro - Cathedral he was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery . Books . Following his return from fighting for the nationalists against communism in Spain , O ' Duffy wrote a book .