Seán Russell

Seán Russell (1893 – 14 August 1940) was an Irish republican who held senior positions in the IRA until the end of the Irish War of Independence. From 1922 until his death on board a Kriegsmarine U-Boat in 1940, he remained a senior member and chief of staff of the IRA, while it divided and was outlawed, and removed itself to the political fringe of Irish society.

Born in Fairview, Dublin in 1893, Russell joined the Irish Volunteers in 1913. He participated in the 1916 Easter Rising as an officer in Dublin Brigade's 2nd Battalion, under Thomas MacDonagh. Following the Rising he was interned in Frongoch and Knutsford. After the Irish War of Independence began, he was attached to the IRA General Headquarters Staff (GHQ) and became IRA Director of Munitions in 1920. During the Irish Civil War, he fought against the Anglo-Irish Treaty with the Anti-Treaty IRA. In 1925, after the civil war, he was jailed in Mountjoy Prison but escaped on 25 November in a breakout he helped organise.

Russell was one of those within the much-reduced IRA pushing for more revolutionary activities in 1926. That year, he and Gerald Boland travelled to the Soviet Union on an IRA weapons-buying mission. On his return from Moscow, Russell reported back to Seán Lemass. He was appointed IRA quartermaster general in 1927 and held that position until 1936. From 1929 to 1931, he travelled widely throughout Ireland, reorganising the IRA. Russell was due to give the oration at the 1931 Bodenstown commemoration but was arrested on its eve.

He visited the United States in the autumn of 1932. During the Northern Ireland rail strike of 1933, he organised IRA intervention from Belfast. Russell remained aloof from the IRA's political debates and, following the split of 1934, chaired the court-martial of Mick Price and Peadar O'Donnell who had left the IRA to form the left wing Republican Congress. He met Éamon de Valera, President of the Executive Council of the Irish Free State at Government Buildings during 1934.

While in the United States during 1936, he seems to have conceived, along with Joseph McGarrity, the plan for the bombing campaign in England. In January 1937, Russell was accused by the IRA leadership of misappropriating funds and was court martialled. He had also embarked on his American tour without Army Council permission. He stayed out of Dublin until October 1937, when he approached the IRA leadership in an attempt to convince them that the campaign in England should go ahead. In April 1938, an IRA General Army Convention was held, and Russell and his supporters, including McGarrity and IRA members from Northern Ireland, secured enough support to get a majority on the IRA Army Executive, and to have him re-instated in the organisation and elected to the Army Council. That has been described as a "take over" by historian Brian Hanley. After becoming IRA chief of staff, he put into motion the bombing campaign and forged links with Nazi Germany. During the summer of 1938, the IRA held training classes in explosives throughout the country.

In January 1939, claiming to be the legitimate government of the Irish Republic, the Army Council under Russell's leadership declared war on the United Kingdom in alliance with Nazi Germany. The Sabotage Campaign commenced some days later with bombing attacks on a number of English cities. Russell was also involved in a meeting with German Intelligence (Abwehr) agent Oscar Pfaus.

To pursue the propaganda arm of the S-Plan, Russell travelled to the United States in April 1939. The aim of his journey was to 'show the flag' and place himself in the public mind as the leader of militant Irish nationalism. While there Russell made several public addresses. He was trailed by Federal Bureau of Investigation "G-Men" at the request of Scotland Yard, and then detained by the United States Immigration Service at the Detroit border with Windsor, Ontario during the American visit of King George VI. The incident immediately aroused enormous indignation among Irish-Americans, culminating in a protest by seventy-six Irish-descended members of Congress. They demanded an explanation from President Roosevelt about the 'Russell Case', failing which they would not participate in the Congressional reception for the King.

While in the United States, Russell met with his Clan na Gael host Joseph McGarrity and Robert Monteith, one of Casement's colleagues in 1916 and, at that time, director of Father Charles Coughlin's National Union for Social Justice. Anxious to skip his bail, which expired on 16 April, Russell made contact, through the offices of McGarrity, with German agent 'V-Rex', also known as Carl Rekowski. 'V-Rex' contacted John McCarthy, a steward on the steamer George Washington, berthed in Tampa, Florida. The George Washington then sailed to then-neutral Italy. McCarthy met Abwehr agent, 'Professor' Franz Fromme, in Genoa on 19 and 30 March 1940. That meeting arranged for Russell's journey across the Atlantic, arrival in Genoa on 1 May, and reception in Berlin four days later.

Once in Berlin, Russell was informed of Operation Mainau, the plan to parachute Hermann Görtz into Ireland. Russell was asked to brief Görtz on Ireland before his departure that night, but missed his takeoff from the Kassel-Fritzlar airfield. Russell's liaison officer while in Nazi Germany was SS-Standartenfuhrer Edmund Veesenmayer. This was at a time when the IRA's viewpoint was extremely pro-Nazi and anti-semitic . Veesenmayer (often referred to as "Hitler's coup d'etat specialist" and a "Jew exterminator") indicated particular interest that the IRA had no clear idea of what form an Irish government would take in the event of a German victory.

By 20 May 1940, Russell began training with Abwehr in the use of the latest German explosive ordnance. That training was conducted at the Abwehr training school/lab at Quentzgut near Brandenburg, which specialised in the design of explosives as everyday objects. Russell also visited the training area for the Brandenburg Regiment, the 'Quenzgut', where he observed trainees and instructors working with sabotage materials in a field environment. As he received explosives training, his return to Ireland with a definite sabotage objective was planned by German Army Intelligence. His total training time with German Intelligence was over three months.

On 15 July 1940, Frank Ryan – an IRA man who had fought on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War and was captured by Franco forces – was handed over to the Abwehr and taken to Germany. The capture of the German agents from Operation Lobster I did not prevent Abwehr Chief Canaris sanctioning the transport of Russell to Ireland. Both Russell and Frank Ryan, who had arrived in Berlin on 4 August, departed from Wilhelmshaven on 8 August, aboard U-65 – the mission was titled Operation Dove ("Unternehmen Taube" in German).

Russell became ill during the journey and complained of stomach pains. The crew of U-65 did not include a doctor and Russell died on 14 August, 100 miles (160 km) short of Galway. He was buried at sea and the mission was aborted. Following the return of the submarine to Germany, an inquiry was set up by the Abwehr into Russell's death. The inquiry included the interrogation of U-65's crew and Frank Ryan. The conclusion was that Russell had suffered a burst gastric ulcer and, without medical attention, he had died.

A number of conspiracy theories arose around the subject of Russell's death, including that he was poisoned on board the ship, shot by the British Secret Service in France, or murdered by Kurt Haller. However, Russell's brother, Patrick, confirmed after the war that Russell suffered from pre-existing stomach problems and, as a result, did not drink alcohol.

Russell became the idol of traditionalist republicanism during the 1950s, and a memorial to him was unveiled by Cumann Uaigheann Na Laochra Gael, (the National Graves Association group), in Fairview Park in September 1951.A prominent role in the ceremony was taken by Cathal Goulding and other participants included Brendan Behan and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh (see). The group claims its mission is to "restore, where necessary, and maintain fittingly the graves and memorials of our patriot dead of every generation".

Russell's legacy is deeply contested. Both Sinn Féin and Republican Sinn Féin continue to commemorate him as an Irish patriot. Others condemn him as a Nazi collaborator. It had been said he "cared little for Nazi ideology" and he was accused of being a communist spy. Irish historian Brian Hanley suggests that Russell was not a Nazi but concludes that his letters to his German contacts "betray astonishing political naiveté". In September 2003, then Sinn Féin MEP, Mary Lou McDonald, spoke at a rally to commemorate Russell held at the site of the memorial. The same rally was also addressed by then Provisional IRA Army Council member Brian Keenan who said:

I don't know what was in the depth of Seán Russell's thinking down the years, but I am sure he was never far from Pearse's own position, who said, as a patriot, preferring death to slavery, I know no other way. There are things worse than bloodshed, and slavery is one of them. We are not and will not be slaves.

After the memorial was erected, the raised right arm was broken off by right-wing radicals, who explained the vandalism by claiming the arm had been raised in a communist salute rather than oratorical pose. The damaged arm was replaced posed downward instead of raised. The 31 December 2004 attack saw the decapitation of the memorial by an unnamed group, described by the Sunday Independent as anti-fascist. The memorial's right forearm was also removed. A statement issued to the press in justification of the vandalism read (verbatim):

Six million Jews, thousands of political dissidents, homosexuals, Roma people, Soviet prisoners of war and the disabled were put to death by the fascist hate machine that overran and terrified Europe from 1939 to 45. Sean Russell was one of many nationalist fanatics who looked to Hitler for political and military support in the IRA's quest to reunify Ireland at the point of the bayonets of the Gestapo. At the Wannsee Conference, the infamous Nazi gathering that planned the "Final Solution", the Jewish community in Ireland was marked down for annihilation. Having freed Ireland from British rule, the Nazis expected their collaborators to help them round up Dublin's Jews and ship them off to Auschwitz. That was the price Sean Russell was prepared to pay to end partition.

The missing pieces of the memorial were not recovered. A spokesman for The National Graves Association announced that the memorial to Seán Russell would be rebuilt in more permanent bronze to deter vandals. In May 2009, the plinth was cleaned and the new bronze was erected. Allegedly, the new statue has alarms to detect attempted vandalism, as well as a GPS tracker.

On 9 July 2009, the plinth of the memorial was again vandalised with graffiti proclaiming Russell to have been a Nazi.

• Culleton, Brendan & Maldea, Irina, Seamróg agus Swastica (English: Shamrock & Swastika), Dublin (Akajava Films), 2002. (Broadcast on TG4, 24 January 2002).
• Hanley, Brian, The IRA. 1926–1936, Dublin (Four Courts Press), 2002. ISBN 1-85182-721-8
• Terence O'Reilly, Hitler's Irishmen, ( Mercier Press), 2008 ISBN 1-85635-589-6
• Mark M. Hull, Irish Secrets. German Espionage in Wartime Ireland 1939–1945 2003. ISBN 978-0-7165-2756-5
• Enno Stephan, Spies in Ireland 1963. ISBN 1-131-82692-2 (reprint)
• Carolle J. Carter, The Shamrock and the Swastika 1977. ISBN 0-87015-221-1
• Detroit Free Press, 7 June 1939, page 11, "Irish Chieftain Is Kept In Jail".