Divided Loyalties: Letters from World War II

During the Second World War Irish Military Intelligence stepped up their activities monitoring potential threats to the Irish state. Their targets included the family of the far right Irish American activist Aileen O’Brien. Through the course of this investigation Irish Military Intelligence collected a unique set of letters that provided a fascinating and unusual insight into this families experience of the Second World War. By 1941 they found their allegiances tested. While they were American citizens they had personal and possible political connections to Nazi Germany. 

The letters were locked in an archive for decades but recently were opened the public by the Irish Military Archives and they give us a deeply personal account of the war, yet one that is at times uncomfortable given the people involved found common cause with fascists.