Yarn 19 | How Not to be a Spy — Part II

Episode 2

GARDA VOICE (IRISH ACCENT)
Garda special branch reconnaissance report May 17th 1940

Home of Mr. Stephen Held.
Konstanz house, on the Templeogue Road 23:00 hours.

Five men in attendance.
Stephen Held (suspected IRA supporter),
James (Jim) O’Donovan (known IRA member),
Stephen Hayes (know IRA member and suspected new leader) and two other unknown men.

-

Inside, Goertz was getting his first introduction to the new chief of the IRA — Stephen Hayes.

STEPHEN HAYES
So zee Germans have finally arrived!
Sean Russell said ye’d help us — — but now he’s dead! You wouldn’t have anything to do with that would you?

GOERTZ
Excuse me?

I found it very difficult to understand most of what the Chief was saying if I’m honest.
The combination of his very thick Wexford accent and his slurred Drunken speech made it difficult for even his own men to understand him at times.

Hayes was under quite a bit of pressure and it was beginning to show.

The IRA was in crisis. Not only had its leader disappeared under unusual circumstances but its numbers were dwindling.

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Russell was already struggling to keep the IRA together, as veteran members were growing old and the Irish government were intent on rounding up and executing its members.

IRA membership had further diminished as a result of the much-hyped recruitment drive for the Irish Army and the newly formed Reserve Force (the LDF ), and infighting was making it hard for the organization to stay focused.

Russell’s last great hope was an alliance with the Nazis. Stephen Hayes was sceptical of this strategy, even before the former chief disappeared but now, he was even more paranoid.

STEPHEN HAYES
Now see Herr Goertz, Dev has eyes and ears everywhere!

Special Branch are watching every move we make- -
You’d swear they were walkin’ amoung us — -
And everyone knows the Free state is in bed with the British — — The feckers we all fought off together!
They’ve gone running back to Daddy

And then you show up out of the blue?
How do we know you’re not a spy for the Free Staters?

GOERTZ
I’m here at great risk to myself.
If your government caught me I’d be interred or I may even be shot.

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STEPHEN HAYES
So you’re in the same boat as the rest of us so, Herr Goertz? (Sniggers)

Apologies for my rudeness –
We can’t never be too careful –
There are informers everywhere ya see. We can’t trust no one.

You’re not with the Free state anyway.
They’re desperate to appear neutral in this war and there’s no denying the German head on you..

You’re certainly not a Brit either — Is he lads?

So then.. in my book, you might just be the most trustworthy man in this room.
Go wan Liam.. show him the plan there.

Hayes pointed at a plump 60 year old man in the corner of the room. A former civil servant named Liam Gaynor, originally from Belfast.

He looked a bit flustered to be called upon but quickly composed himself. He unrolled a map of Ireland and began rattling off a pre-rehearsed speech…

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LIAM
Here’s a map with the details.

We’re proposing a German led offensive of the six counties in the north. Supported by IRA forces of course. We envisage a German amphibious landing at the river mouth of Derry. The IRA will stage a simultaneous ground offensive beginning in County Leitrim with a front on the Lower and Upper Lough Erne, here.

Our forces will join together in a pincer movement here, drive on to Belfast and ultimately the liberation of Ulster. Then we can hold the territory while your lads use Ulster as a jumping off point to launch an all-out invasion on Britain.

Now, we think we’d need approximately 50,000 German troops.

We have 5,000 sworn in IRA members. 1,500 are in Ulster. But I can also count on a further 10,000 men in the north and 15,000 in the south, to take up arms with us, should a revolt take place.
But we’ll need arms first.

When Gaynor finished Goertz sat in silence for a second or two while the rest of the men tried to gauge his reaction.

Then finally he spoke up.

GOERTZ
Well, but how will…

Yes, I can send these options back but there’s one slight issue…

I didn’t even dare bring up the most glaringly obvious fault with it. Which, none of them seemed to contemplate, even for a second.

How in heavens name were we supposed to land a German force of 50,000 on the Ulster coast? We’d have to circumnavigate Britain first or go all the way around the other way and It’s very hard to sneak a couple of hundred ships past the enemy.

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The plan was ridiculous. But Goertz couldn’t let on how disappointed he was. He had to keep these men on side.

His main objective was to ensure the IRA focused on British targets in the north of Ireland or to utilise their agents in England for sabotage attacks on British infrastructure.

The Germans were not interested in a near impossible invasion of Ireland, backed only by a few hundred unarmed IRA recruits.

He had to find a way to get word back to Germany fast — In the meantime, he had to humour the IRA…

GOERTZ
Right… It’ll need a code name then, the plan.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE) Plan Kathleen.

That’s what I scribbled down on their scraps of paper. After Cathleen Ni Houlihan, the physical embodiment of Ireland. I’m quite the fan of Irish literature you see.
But my main concern wasn’t the plan. It was getting a radio so I could report back that the IRA were hopeless and if my command could arrange for my return to Germany.

(Bangs) (whistles) (running) The front door burst open.

A group of Garda Special Branch officers filled into the house. They started checking rooms.

Goertz and his IRA colleagues stood up and ran in different directions. Despite the panic Goertz managed to make his way to the back of the house

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GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I ran into the back yard and hid between a wall and a small alley. I could hear the Guards running around the house.
I hopped the wall and walked down the street very calmly.
Mr. Hayes called out to me from a car.
I jumped in and we drove away.

Stephen Held was caught and arrested by the Gardai. His house was thoroughly searched.
The officers couldn’t believe what they found..

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I felt a deep sickening feeling in my stomach.
My coded diary, my US counterfeit currency and my jacket and hat would be surely discovered by the authorities. Not to mention the map for plan Kathleen. I was distraught but
Mr. Hayes seemed strangely resigned to it all.

After the civil war, the gardai launched an intensive surveillance campaign on the IRA. They had identified most of its key members and even had several informants within the IRA feeding them information.

The IRA’s biggest threat at this point came from the Gardai.
When the Gardai interned or executed any suspected IRA members The IRA retaliated in ‘Eye for an eye’ attacks.

Back in Stephen Held’s house, the Gardai quickly realised they hadn’t interrupted a routine IRA meeting.

Goertz notebook’s were full with lines of random numbers and letters. The cyphered diary contained a full account of his movement and interactions in Ireland but it would have to be decoded first.

The map, with the words plan Kathleen sprawled across it, must have been even more intriguing to the authorities.

And who was the mystery man the IRA were meeting with?
The Gardai decided to pass the information on to the Irish Military Intelligence wing — Nicknamed G2.

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Founded in the mid-1920s, G2 spent much of its early efforts combating

the Anti-Treaty IRA

.

During World War II, although Ireland had a policy of military neutrality,

G2 formed secret agreements with the United Kingdom’s Intelligence

Section (MI5) and the United States’ Office of Strategic Services (OSS),

the predecessor to the (CIA).

During this period, G2 intercepted German naval and aerial

communications through listening stations located across Ireland and

shared the information with Allied forces. The exact number of

employees working in G2 at the time is unknown but it was run by

Colonel Daniel “Dan” Bryan.

When Dan Bryan was handed Goertz’ cyphered notebook, he knew the

perfect man to decode it.

Richard Hayes or Doc Hayes, was the Director of the National Library in Dublin but he had a secret second job that no one knew about until decades after the War, not even his family.

Richard Hayes was G2’s head cryptologist. While running the National Library he simultaneously led a small group of dedicated code breakers. Their primary mission was to decipher intercepted German messages but now they had an actual coded diary to work with and with the help of the Gardai they could keep tabs on the movements of an active Nazi spy.

…

After they evaded the Gardai, Hayes dumped Goertz in another IRA safehouse and drove off..

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I didn’t see Hayes for quite a bit of time after that.
He was lying low I suspect. I was moved a new to safe house every few days. It was an awful way to live and the IRA was still no closer
to finding me a radio or even someone who would send messages. But I took the matter into my own hands through a stroke of pure serendipity and cunning on my part.

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I was staying in a safe house in Dun Laoghaire just outside Dublin. I was getting tired of being such a burden on the women of each safe house. Most of whom were widows or spinsters. So I sought out an establishment that could launder my only suit and shirt and thus free up the woman of the house from doing so. Well to my amazement, I found the perfect establishment a five minutes stroll down the road.
It was called the “Swastika Laundry”. I couldn’t believe it.

The Swastika Laundry was an Irish owned business founded in 1912, located on Shelbourne Road, Ballsbridge. The company used electric vans, painted in red with a white swastika on a black roundel, to collect and deliver laundry to customers. Their Swastika logo and name continued in use until the premises closed in 1987.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
When I enquired as to the origins of the name to the clerk inside, she explained it had nothing to do with any affinity to the National Socialist party. In fact the laundry pre-dates the party but that got

us talking. It transpired that the clerk’s brother
was a keen radio transmitter hobbyist. And for a meagre fee he would be willing to send and receive messages for me.
Well, any messages I sent I diligently ciphered and those I received I had to decipher by using the key assigned
only to me my German high command. So I thought.
This was perfect, the radio operator had no way of reading what was being sent or received.

By now, Richard (Doc) Hayes and his team had managed to decipher Goertz diary and they were sharing the information with British MI5.

Then G2 had an idea. If Goertz needed to send messages — why don’t THEY provide him with radio operator. That way THEY could pose as his German handlers and pry even more information out of him.

The Irish government and G2’s highest priority was to quash the IRA. Why not employ Goertz as an informant. The best part about this plan was Goertz would never even know HE was a mole…

He’d just think he was following orders from his superiors in Germany…

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GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I had finally made contact with my command and by all accounts they were very much glad to hear from me. I started transmitting all of my findings.

In fact they were so happy with my progress that they saw it fit to promote me to the rank of Major. My mission was indeed very important to them.

The more messages Goertz sent, the more questions G2 asked him — mostly about the IRA’s structure and movements but they also asked him about any potential threats to the British.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I had hoped that they would request my return but each message they sent back asked me to obtain more information.
So I continued my mission.

The G2 dutifully passed this information on to the British.
The head of MI5, Cecil Lidell even wrote and personally thanked the head of G2, Dan Bryan for all the intel..

VOICE (ENGLISH ACCENT)
British intelligence Communications to G2
Dublin 24 May 1940
Dear Mr. Bryan
It’s with great appreciation that we received today
your latest deciphered communications with the German spy Goertz. It’s quite the master stroke by you chaps
in talking the opportunity to pose one of your agents
as Goertz’s radio operator. We also send thanks for the great work your team has done in breaking the German’s cipher in order to read the messages and send your own back. We all had a bit of a giggle when you decided to promote Goertz. If he keeps this up you’ll no doubt
make him General before the war is out. I look forward
to seeing how this source progresses.
Yours sincerely
Mr. Liddel, MI 5

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The more embedded Goertz became with his IRA ‘captors’, as be began to call them, the more paranoid he was becoming.

He was having more and more near misses with Garda Special Branch and more and more of the IRA’s men were being captured.

Like Stephen Hayes — Goertz now suspected there was an informant working against him.

So he thought he should distance himself from the IRA.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
At the start I was staying in safe houses arranged by the IRA but these seemed to keep being raided so I organized my own lodgings through friends I had accrued.

Friends? What friends?

GOERTZ
They were all good patriots. Most of them had lost husbands or brothers in 1916, the tan war or the civil war.

So they were all women? Unmarried women?

GOERTZ
What does that matter?

Why is everyone’s mind always in the gutter.
They were true Irish patriots. They passed on my messages and drove me to meetings and ensured I was never outside alone.

He may not have been staying in IRA safehouses any longer but he was still in close contact with the IRA’s Chief.

Goertz was trying to carry on with his mission objective — to get the IRA to concentrate on British targets while simultaneously playing down the possibility of organising a German invading force.
Goertz was feeling the pressure…

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GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
The Chief kept pressing me on whether Berlin was going to commit to the plan. I stalled. I told him that the plan was a subject of a lively discussion in Berlin but that they needed more military intelligence about Ulster before the plan could be executed.

The IRA Chief’s appearance seemed to deteriorate more
each time I met him. I think from alcohol and fear.
He insisted on meeting me at another safe house one evening. He brought with him some new recruits. They weren’t much more than boys really…

STEPHEN HAYES
Herr Goertz. What do you think of the new lads? I had to retire a few of the others.
There are rats everywhere!
Whisper, whisper, whisper — They’re all at it. Special branch has our lads running scared..
so the only way is to scare them back.

GOERTZ
Yes, I wanted to talk to you about that.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to concentrate your efforts on Military targets in the North rather than killing Gardai down here?

STEPHEN HAYES
They’re killing us lad — Would ya wake up. We’re not gonna lie down and take it.
It’s my job to hold this army together.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
Then I just put it to him flatly. I had my suspicions all along but dared not say it until now. I’d lost all interest in my own safety and just said it. So his young recruits could hear.

I think you’re the informer Hayes. How is it they haven’t caught you yet. Your sloppy conduct thus far would surely warrant it but you keep evading capture while your men do not.

Suddenly a pure madness appeared in his eyes. He reached for

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one of his men’s revolvers. I ran from the house before he could get a shot off. As soon as I crossed the street I saw a group of Special branch officers close in on the house. I was in no doubt at all who the informant was then.

Goertz’s accusation stuck. It sent a ripple of doubt through the already paranoid IRA ranks. More accusations and apparent evidence of Hayes’ treachery surfaced among the membership. Stephen Hayes was dragged up in front of an IRA court.

He was court-martialled for treason by his comrades, and would have been executed, but he bought himself some time by composing an enormously long confession.

STEPHEN HAYES

I, Stephen Hayes, have made the following confession of facts

concerning my complicity in the conspiracy with the Free State

Government through their agents to wreck the Irish Republican

Army.

I decided on making this Confession after I was made

aware of the verdict of the Court martial. I further affirm that this

Confession of facts is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but

the truth, and has been made voluntarily by me.

He managed to escape in September 1941, and handed himself in to the Garda for protection.

After fleeing a gun wielding Hayes, Goertz was in shock. Who could he trust?

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GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I didn’t know what to do. So I made my way back to Wicklow.
To the woman who’d looked after me that first day in the grand house. I hiked all night, taking cover where I could. I was delighted to see the house again but when I got there I was shocked at the sight of the Gardai trundling past me on their way out of the estate. I hid in the bushes until the next morning when the family dog alerted the children to my presence. They called out for the woman minding them. She was not at all alarmed and calmly asked me to follow her inside.

Helena Moloney was left behind at Laragh House to look after Iseult’s two children. The 58 year old woman was a friend of the family and had probably heard all about Major Goertz, so she wasn’t at all surprised by his visit.

HELENA
So you’re the man who’s caused all this trouble.

GOERTZ
Where is Mrs. Stuart?

HELENA
Did ya not see from your hedge? She’s been taken away by the Guards.

GOERTZ
But what for?

HELENA
For harbouring a spy ya ejit what do you think?

Mrs. Francis Stuart was remanded in custody under the Offenses against the state act 1939. She was taken to Bray Garda Station for questioning.

Items of clothing found during the raid of Stephen Held’s house were traced back to her account at Switzers department store. The shop receipt was left in Goertz’ jacket pocket.

When asked to confirm her name for the record, she stated:

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ISEUL T
You know who I am, everyone knows who I am.

When asked for whom did she purchase the clothes she stated:

ISEUL T
An old literary friend of both mine and my husband.
I did not know of any political connections he may have.
Now that I realise from your questions that there is some suspicion attached to the clothing. I think it would not be loyal of me to divulge his name.

Iseult was released two days after her arrest without charge.

Back at Laragh house Helena Moloney was probably wondering what to do with the German spy. He couldn’t stay at the Stuart residence. That’s for sure but she wasn’t going to kick him out either. Iseult wouldn’t stand for that.

Moloney was a republican, a devote labour activist and a former member of Cuman Na mBan, the Irish Women’s Council.

Known as Emer or Chick to her friends. Moloney was a close friend of Iseult’s mother Maud. It was Maud who activated her interest in republicanism.

HELENA
I saw Maud speak when I was a young woman.
She was so inspiring. I knew I’d follow her anywhere. I was drawn to the struggle from then on.

I stormed Dublin Castle with James Connolly in 1916.
They said women were only good for sending messages and being nurses. They expected us to run out in the open carrying messages. While the men are hiding behind sandbags with guns. A bullet doesn’t care if you’re a man, women or child does it?

No, I stormed in with the rest of them. And I went to prison like the rest of them too.

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When they executed Connolly I was devastated but it felt like it was worth something. What we were doing then ya know?

I was away on holiday when I heard about what they came back with in ’21 — The Treaty.
Rubbish is all it was. I was heartbroken.
It was all for nothin’.

And then came — the horrible war. I wanted no part of it.
We used to march up Sackville street — For prisoner’s welfare. And the big army lads in their new fancy uniforms used to push us around, drive us down the street.
Cowards. On their Bicycles — Piddling Panzers we’d call them.

And now we’ve this shower in Dublin Castle.
All about the new state. They’ve forgotten about what we were fighting for in The Proclamation.
Equality. Respect… Compassion.
Go wan there ladies, get back in the kitchen.
Don’t be gettin’ any more notions.

But now we’re neutral so it’s grand. No more Irish lads are dying. Well that’s a con. Ya need only look at the death notices in the paper. There seems to be a lot local young lads dying in “boating accidents” in the North Atlantic.

That’s all they’re allow say about this war.

We should get you outta here…
I don’t want any more visits from the Guards.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
She decided to take me to a secluded beach hut she knew
off in Brittas bay. But before we set off she insisted
I be disguised as a woman so as not to draw attention.
She further ordered that when I got to the hut, if I needed to take the air outside, that I should don my female disguise so onlookers would assume it was her. It was odd walking along the beach in a frock and ladies hat but it did me some good to take in the fresh sea air. It also allowed me some time to think about whether I should continue the mission here or return home.

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With the arrest of Iseult on his mind, not to mention the capture of Stephen Held and various other IRA members, Goertz decided he had meddled enough. He went about planning his exit from Ireland.

He told the IRA that he needed to get back to Germany so he could argue the merits of Plan Kathleen in person. The IRA agreed to help…

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
They sent me down to Kerry, near Tralee, where they had arranged for a small fishing boat to be at my disposal. The idea was to make a solo sailing to occupied France or Spain.

The IRA men in Kerry were quite the well organized outfit, much better in fact than any I’d encountered in Dublin.

They waved me off from their rowing boat but about a mile out to sea I saw a line of British mine sweepers stretched across the horizon line. Their search lights flickered in my direction. There was no way to avoid them so I had to return to the bay.

G2 wasn’t about to let Goertz leave so once again they contacted MI5 and arranged for the British Navy vessels to be in the vicinity.

Goertz was distraught when he returned to Dublin.
He considered giving himself up. He was on the run for almost 18 months. With not much to show for it.

Against his original orders, Goertz contacted the German Ambassador to Ireland,

Eduard Hempel,

for help. But Hempel, fearing a

diplomatic incident, wanted nothing to do with him.

Hempel offered Goertz the use of his small sailing boat but that was it.

He refused to use any of his diplomatic powers and told Goertz never to

contact the German Embassy again. Goertz was on his own.

Then during his darkest moments. Quite out of the blue.

Goertz received a visitor who offered to completely change his fortune.

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GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
A tall well-presented man called one day, flanked by
two military men. They looked like brothers but in fact
they were cousins. Both high ranking officers in the
Irish Free State Army. The tall man introduced himself first..

O’DUFFY
So you’re the famous spy we’ve been hearing about. I’m General Eoin O’Duffy

Eoin O’Duffy was in his early fifties, with sharp features and piercing eyes. Originally from County Monaghan. He was prominent figure in the Ulster IRA during the Irish War of Independence.

He was one of the Irish republicans who along with Michael Collins accepted the Anglo-Irish Treaty and fought as a General in the Irish Civil War on the pro-Treaty side against the IRA.

After the Civil War O’Duffy became the Commissioner of the recently formed Garda Síochána. He insisted on a Catholic ethos to distinguish the Gardaí from its predecessor. He regularly told members of the force they were not just men working an ordinary job, but policemen fulfilling their religious duty. He was also a vocal opponent of alcohol in the force, instructing Gardaí to avoid it all costs.

When Éamon de Valera became Taoiseach in 1933 he dismissed O’Duffy as Garda Commissioner. Probably because there were rumours circulating that O’Duffy had proposed staging a coup rather than letting Dev Valera and his administration take charge.

O’Duffy became the first leader of the newly formed Fine Gael Party And he established the party’s own private guard.

An admirer of the Italian leader Benito Mussolini, O’Duffy’s guard force adopted symbols of European fascism such as the straight-arm Roman salute and a distinctive blue uniform. It was not long before they became known as the Blueshirts, similar to the Italian Blackshirts and the German Brownshirts.

In 1933 a parade was planned by the Blueshirts in Dublin to commemorate Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, both of whom had

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died 11 years earlier. De Valera feared a coup attempt. He banned the parade and placed Gardaí outside of key locations. The Blueshirts were declared an illegal organisation.

O’Duffy was motivated by his devout anti-communism and a will to defend Catholicism. He organised an Irish Brigade to fight for Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Despite the Irish Government advising against participation in the war, 700 Blueshirts went to Spain.

His Blueshirt movement fizzled out and O’Duffy became a figure of ridicule.

O’Duffy and Goertz were both relegated to the fringe. Both fighting for respect and the restoration of their former glory.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
His flaming passion impressed me right away…

O’DUFFY
We have to stop the disgusting spread of Bolshevism, secularism and immorality!
I have fought my whole life for a Christian free Ireland! And I fought for a free Christian Spain!
The only way we’ll be free is by military dictatorship!

It is not with the IRA that Germany should make a deal — It is with the Irish Free State Army!

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I wasn’t expecting that.

O’DUFFY
These two gentlemen are leaders of thousands of well trained and armed men willing to fight for a free and moral United Ireland! And there are more like us among the members of Dail Eireann, I can tell you.
De Valera won’t know what hit him!

O’Duffy announced his intentions to lead the Blueshirts as an independent movement.

O’Duffy’s men saw

little fighting and were sent home by Franco, returning in June 1937.

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GOERTZ
What exactly are you proposing General?

O’DUFFY
We assemble the whole of the Free State Army and
liberate the 6 counties in the name of God and Ireland.
Then we’ll establish a Christian fascist state. Throw
out Dev and his neutrality and then we ally with yourselves. We can even send a green division over to help you fight the Bolsheviks! What do you think of that?

GOERTZ
Well that’s quite the offer. For something of that magnitude, I’ll need to get back to Germany and propose it in person of course.

O’DUFFY
Right so. The lads here have access to any military airfield in the country. We’ll get you a plane.

GOERTZ
I was delighted. After almost two years on the run I
was going home. And I was going home with something of great influence to the war. I might even meet the
Fuhrer himself. I might even receive the Iron Cross…

But G2 were keeping tabs on Eoin O’Duffy too.

De Valera probably felt the need to keep one eye on the unpredictable character. After all he was still we connected.

They tracked O’Duffy’s every move. Notes taken by G2 include his medical appointments, his unpaid off-license tab, and their suspicions that he was a homosexual.
When G2 learned that Goertz was associating with O’Duffy they finally decided to close in on the Famous Nazi Spy.

Officers raided Goertz’ safe house and arrested him before he could take up O’Duffy’s offer of an airplane.

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GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
This time I didn’t get away.

I suspect a part of Goertz might have been relieved.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I spent the rest of the war in a prison.

Goertz was initially taken to Arbour Hill Prison in Dublin. He was later transferred to Athlone, where he spent the next 4 years.

Goertz’ German commanders had not heard from him since the day he left Berlin. They were totally unaware of his activities in Ireland.

When Adolf Hitler died in 1945, in a further attempt to highlight Ireland’s neutrality, Taoiseach Éamon de Valera signed the book of condolence, and personally visited Ambassador Hempel at the German Embassy.

The Irish government said they were following the usual protocol on the death of a Head of State. No other Western European democracies followed Ireland’s example. The visit caused a storm of protest in the United States and in other allied countries.

De Valera also denounced the emerging reports from the recently discovered, Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany. He called the reports of possible genocide “anti-national propaganda”. This may not have been out of disbelief but rather another attempt to double down on Irish neutrality. De Valera didn’t want to condemn one side’s wartime activity over the others.

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
When the war was over I was released, but I was keen to stay in Ireland.

Goertz moved back to Dublin to stay with the O’Farrells- A pair of sisters who had put him up for a time during his 18 month evasion.

G2 and the Irish Government’s surveillance of the former spy ceased.

But in a stroke of pure coincidence — Goertz started going to the National Library’s reading room every day.

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The workplace of Richard (Doc) Hayes!
The man who deciphered all of Goertz messages.

Richard Hayes couldn’t resist striking up a conversation with Goertz one day. He later wrote a letter to his colleague, Cecil Liddel, the head of MI5, detailing the interaction…

DOC HAYES Mr. Liddel

H. Goertz, who is now free in Dublin has begun to read
all day in the National Library. As was bound to happen sooner or later I walked bang into him yesterday. This morning I took him out for a coffee. Outwardly he said
he was doing well but he seemed depressed. He also mentioned that there were rumours he was to be deported back to Germany. He was distraught at the thought of this. He fears being captured by the Russians. In a chilling tone he said “Whatever happens, they will

never get me.”

Of course he was still none the wiser that I was the lead agent surveilling him for almost two years so in that moment he treated me as a friend. I almost
felt sorry for him. He seems very alone.

Yours ever, Doc Hayes

In the years following the end of the war, as more reports emerged about the Holocaust, the Irish Government was keen to display solidarity with the Jewish people and to show condemnation for antisemitism. On the international stage at least.

Taoiseach’s “anti-national propaganda” comment or his

after Hitler’s suicide.

A proposal to admit 100 Jewish orphans from Bergen-Belsen was

initially blocked, but later granted after de Valera’s personal intervention.

Perhaps this was the

way of atoning for his

decision to visit the German ambassador

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The Government was coming under increasing pressure to condemn

any prominent Irish Nazi sympathizers and to deport any German

nationals that had ties to the Nazi Party.

So once again the spotlight shone on Major Herman Goertz…

GOERTZ (MONOLOGUE)
I will not willingly go back to Germany or into the hands of the communists. I’d sooner join the fate of your great martyrs than leave Ireland.

Aliensʼ Branch detectives rearrested Goertz on April 12th 1947, with six other Germans, and held him in Mountjoy Prison under a deportation order. He was given parole by the Minister for Justice for two days. When he checked in at his local Garda Station he was told that his parole had been extended for another week.

A week later Goertz reported to the Aliensʼ Office in Dublin Castle at 9.50 am — he expected to be granted a further extension of his parole. To his dismay, he was told that he was being deported by plane to Germany that afternoon.

Goertz stared in disbelief at the detective officers.

GOERTZ
I see…

Might I take a minute to smoke my pipe before we go.

He was granted this request by the officers.

Then suddenly, he took his hand from his trouser pocket, swiftly removed his pipe from between his lips, and slipped a small glass phial into his mouth.

One of the police officers sprang at Goertz as he crushed the glass with his teeth. The officer got his hands around Goertzʼs neck but failed to prevent most of the poison — believed to have been prussic acid — from passing down his throat.

Within a few seconds, Goertz collapsed.

49

His body was carried by detective officers down the stairs between lines of people waiting to transact passport business to a motor-car in the street. He died in Mercerʼs Hospital a few minutes later.

On hearing Goertz was dead, Iseult Stuart wrote in her diary..

ISEUL T
I often dream about Major Goertz. I barely knew him at all- but somehow he was the only one who really knew me.
No voice has ever caressed my ears like his, which I will never hear again and no smile has so unveiled me.

Iseult and Francis later formally separated. In Francis Stuart’s autobiography he said he couldn’t compete with the love Iseult had for the ghost of Herman Goertz.

Goertz funeral was held in the grounds of Deans Grange cemetery in South Dublin. The most notable feature in many of the newspaper reports was the large involvement of women in the funeral. Several women in the crowd wore swastika armbands, and one gave a Nazi salute to the coffin.

There were also wreaths from the old ladies who had sheltered Goertz when he was in hiding.

In 1974 his remains were exhumed and moved to the German military cemetery in Glencree, Co. Wicklow. Which is only a short walk from Laragh House.

(Audio recorded at graveyard)

There his bones still lie, buried in the ground of the country he would rather die than leave.

END

This has been a story for Yarn podcast dot com. Written and narrated by John Roche.

With the voice of
Liam Murphy as Herman Goertz

With
Hazel Fahy
Dermot Tobin
Niall Ó Siadhail
Alan Nuzum
Mary Looby
Daithi Mac Suibhne
Dermot Byrne