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.