Eoin O'Duffy
Irish politician and soldier
Died when: 52 years 41 days (625 months)Star Sign: Libra
Eoin O'Duffy (born Owen Duffy; 28 January 1890 – 30 November 1944) was an Irish military commander, police commissioner and politician. O'Duffy was the leader of the Monaghan Brigade of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and a prominent figure in the Ulster IRA during the Irish War of Independence.
In this capacity, he became Chief of Staff of the IRA in 1922. He accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty and as a general became Chief of Staff of the National Army in the Irish Civil War, on the pro-Treaty side.
He had been an early member of Sinn Féin and was elected a Teachta Dála (TD) for Monaghan in the Second Dáil find 1921, supporting pro-Treaty Sinn Féin in the split of 1922.
In 1923 he became associated with Cumann na nGaedheal and became the second Commissioner of the Garda Síochána, the police force of the new Irish Free State, after the Civic Guard Mutiny and the subsequent resignation of Michael Staines.
In the 1930s O'Duffy became attracted to the various fascist movements on the continent. In 1933 O'Duffy took control of the paramilitary movement called Army Comrades Association, also known as the Blueshirts.
When the Blueshirts merged with Cumann na nGaedhael and National Centre Party to form Fine Gael, O'Duffy began the new party's first leader, remaining as such for 13 months.
He subsequently raised the Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War as an act of Catholic solidarity and was inspired by Benito Mussolini's Italy to create the National Corporate Party.
During the Second World War, he offered to Nazi Germany the prospect of raising an Irish Brigade to fight against the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front, but this was not taken up.
O'Duffy was active in multiple sporting bodies, including the Gaelic Athletic Association and the Irish Olympic Council.
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