Irish Republican Army – Abwehr collaboration in World War II

Collaboration between the IRA and Abwehr during World War II ranged in intensity during the period 1937–1943 and ended permanently around 1944. The Irish Republican Army (IRA), a paramilitary group seeking to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and unify Ireland, shared intelligence with the Abwehr, the military intelligence service of Nazi Germany.

The Government of Nazi Germany, like all Governments, used intelligence gathering to help inform its decisions. Intelligence gathering is not an exact science and the Abwehr was not a particularly professional organisation until after it was reorganised in 1938.

Conquest of Ireland was not a strategic goal for Germany before or during World War II. The plan that was devised for the invasion of Ireland, Operation Green, was more a diversionary tactic than expression of intent to take over the island. What formed German policy more than anything was the desire to see Éire remain neutral. When German attempts to gain air superiority as part of Operation Sea Lion were repulsed, Ireland largely ceased to be of much interest.

IRA Abwehr involvement throughout the period can be broken up into three phases:

Each phase had similar characteristics – a lack of planning and lack of capabilities of all the organisations concerned. German efforts to cultivate a working relationship with the IRA formed the basis for two wartime missions; that of Ernst Weber-Drohl, and that of Hermann Görtz, but the Abwehr later chose to rely on support mechanisms exclusive of the IRA. Neither strategy proved viable and the entire process was one disaster after another. Below the first phase of Coordination missions are covered in detail, followed by a list of missions covering the two remaining phases.

The Abwehr had German agents in Ireland at this point- Joseph 'Jupp' Hoven was an anthropology student who spent much of 1938 and 1939 in Northern Ireland and the province of Connacht. Hoven had befriended Tom Barry, an IRA member who had fought during the Anglo-Irish War and was still active within the organisation. They met frequently with a view to fostering links between the IRA and Germany. At this time Barry had taken up the position as IRA CS and it was within this capacity that he visited Germany in 1937 accompanied by Hoven, with a view to developing IRA/German relations. While in Germany, Barry won an agreement from the German Government that in the event of a declaration of war between Germany and Britain the German government would assist the IRA.

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Wikipedia