For neither king nor swastika? Malan’s Afrikaner nationalism and De Valera’s Irish nationalism in the 1930s and 1940s
Abstract
The debate on supposed fascist influences on Afrikaner nationalists,
particularly the mainstream National Party (NP), as opposed to more
extremist groups, has mostly centred around alleged links or parallels with
Nazi Germany, or whether anti-British sentiment was more key. An often overlooked
influence was similarly mainstream, historically anti-British Irish
nationalism. Comparing Daniel Malan and the Purified and later Reunited
NP with Eamon de Valera and Fianna Fáil (FF) in the 1930s and 1940s, this
study addresses similarities in areas such as republicanism, language, religion,
neutrality, and authoritarian tendencies, but argues that constitutionalism
tempered clerical and political authoritarian influence. Malan and the NP
differed in their approach to neutrality from De Valera and FF, who were also
less affected by the era’s antisemitism.