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Hitler's Irish Voices: The Story of German Radio's Wartime Irish Service

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Hitler's Irish Voices, The Inside Story of German Radio's Wartime Irish Service helps to fill in a hitherto neglected chapter in the history of wartime propaganda, and sheds needed light on the activities of Irish and pseudo-Irish in the service of the German state. O'Donoghue traces the activities of the German overseas branch of the Nazi Party in pre-war Ireland, and follows the main German characters (Adolf Mahr, et al.)as they fulfilled their curious dream of broadcasting in the Irish language to what was perceived as a willing reservoir of anti-British sympathy. One of the central characters, the Irish expatriate writer Francis Stuart, provides a useful hub around which the stories of other personalities are connected. O'Donoghue paints a vivid portrait of the infighting in Germany betweent the Propaganda Ministry and the Foreign Office, for control of even such a marginal asset as the Irland-Redaktion, and an equally compelling picture of a broadcasting team in crisis: leadership disputes, drunkeness, bombed-out studios, and losses due to incompetence and specious espionage missions.

Hitler's Irish Voices is heartily recommended to anyone with even a remote interest in different aspects of the Second World War, students of journalistic history, Irish buffs, or just to people who enjoy reading an interesting tale which has been told well.