‘Hitler's Irish Hideout'

This chapter is concerned with aspects of SOE’s SO1 (black propaganda and deception) activities between 1940 and 1945. It touches on features of the thinking and bureaucratic processes underpinning British disinformation, as well as its application in respect of Ireland, whether as the subject (for example to press the line in America that Irish neutrality was a mortal threat to British security), the target (for instance to influence Irish opinion against Germany), or simply and perhaps most importantly as a place where the seeds of deception could be sewn. Examples of such operations aimed at German, Italian and Vichy French sources in Dublin are discussed below. ¹ The intention in this chapter is to use Irish-related material to cast light on the wider question of British management and use of disinformation. Although Irish affairs were only a minor sideshow for British secret agencies once the likelihood of German invasion of the British Isles had faded in mid-1941, as a neutral state sharing a land border with the United Kingdom, and with an Axis diplomatic presence, Ireland continued to present both considerable security worries and potential disinformation opportunities until after the success of the Normandy invasion. ² Discussion and implementation of disinformation policy concerning Ireland at various times involved an interesting cast of characters: Gladwyn Jebb and Gerald Templer of SOE, Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, and at a lower level the Irish historian Nicholas Mansergh of the Ministry of Information and the poet John Betjeman in the British Representative’s office in Dublin. ³