O'Duffy, Eoin

O'Duffy, Eoin (1892–1944), soldier and politician. O'Duffy joined the Irish Volunteers in Monaghan in 1917. He became director of organization on the IRA GHQ staff in 1921 and was deputy chief of staff at the time of the truce. He was also a member of the supreme council of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and sat for Co. Monaghan in the second Dáil (1921–2). He became the first commissioner of the Gárda Síochána, and was appointed head of the army during the army mutiny. Responsible for much of the repression of republicans during the Cosgrave administration, he became one of the people republicans most detested. Dismissed from office after Valera's second election victory in 1933, he became leader of the Army Comrades Association (see blueshirts), which protected Cumann na nGaedheal politicians against the reinvigorated IRA. The organization was banned in 1933 and O'Duffy subsequently became president of Fine Gael. However, his increasingly corporatist and radical anti‐government stance forced his resignation and he left Fine Gael to form the National Corporate Party. In 1936 he organized the Irish Brigade to fight on Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War.

Joost Augusteijn