Wasn't it close to that with Dev in power?
No.
Irritating as it might be to Anglophiles and modern-day social liberals, De Valera in the 1930s was the democratic good guy in contrast to the infant Fine Gael's fascination with one-party states. Import substitution and social conservatism are not even close to being the same thing as fascism.
Had O'Duffy and the Blueshirts managed somehow to seize power in 1934, we would probably have creaked along as a tinpot authoritarian cattle and workforce exporter well into the 60s or 70s. With luck, Garret FitzGerald or Declan Costello (both of whose fathers had been enthusiastic shirt-wearers in the 1930s) might have played an Adolfo Suarez role by then, but there's no guarantee of it.
DeValera the democratic good guy?
The Dev who used his thugs from the IRA days to batter the shite out of Cumann na Gaedheal meetings, necessitating the foundation of the blueshirts to protect their meetings?
...
The idea that O'Duffy and the blueshirts were especially antidemocratic is Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil propaganda designed to obscure their own anti democratic skeletons in the closet.
The Minister gave extracts from various laws on the Continent, but he carefully refrained from drawing attention to the fact that the Blackshirts were victorious in Italy and that the Hitler Shirts were victorious in Germany, as, assuredly, in spite of this Bill...the Blueshirts will be victorious in the Irish Free State.
The toothlessness had come earlier with the abolition of the Senate under the Free State constitution. The vocationalism was lip service to Quadragesimo Anno rather than Mussolini and always nominal.Dev who wrote a constitution with the upper house inspired by Mussolini's corporatist ideals, only rendered toothless when it had the gall to oppose him?
Ireland already was seen as a theocratic backwards backwater compared to Europe (until the 90s). Now it becomes the Pakistan of Europe (sans nukes thankfully).
DeValera the democratic good guy? The Dev who used his thugs from the IRA days to batter the shite out of Cumann na Gaedheal meetings, necessitating the foundation of the blueshirts to protect their meetings? Dev who wrote a constitution with the upper house inspired by Mussolini's corporatist ideals, only rendered toothless when it had the gall to oppose him?
The idea that O'Duffy and the blueshirts were especially antidemocratic is Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil propaganda designed to obscure their own anti democratic skeletons in the closet.
Actually to be fair to De Valera he could have become a dicator and did not.
He called elections according to law and in 1948 left office when he lost
Would that be the same O'Duffy who organised an Irish Brigade to fight for Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War?
700 is rather short of a Brigade though and they only stayed 6 months before leaving, kind of shows that they were never a force like mainland fascist organisations.
This comes back to the point about nations having no permanent friends, only permanent interests. The Republic of Ireland is far, far more vulnerable to British power than to German power and there is no realistic possibility of Germany being able to offer it any help whatsoever in the event of a British invasion.
Given those facts, even a Republic of Ireland that worshipped every word of Nazi dogma like the Bible would still refuse to ally with the Nazis, simply out of self-interest; to ally with Britain's enemies is to guarantee a British invasion that will destroy the Republic. The only effect of this on the Second World War would be that considerably more British troops would be stationed in Northern Ireland (to deter any adventures), which might have knock-on effects on the process of the war.
The major stumbling block for the Republic if it went Fascist would have been the buy British policy at the time, sure there was enough rifles for about 2 divisions, beyond that Ireland wouldn't have much of anything. Even if from the mid 30's on Germany started giving Ireland anything they asked for they would still have little to no heavy weapons, air defence, air force or Navy.
Perhaps other fall outs would be none of the "allowances" that the Free State gave to the Allies during the war.
I misspoke, then, yes, of course you're right. But those did not have an enormous impact on the war effort, however noble they were.
While not enormous, what impact could Ireland have if it was sending shipping information to Germany during the battle of the Atlantic or allowing the Axis embassies to operate without restriction? Or if U boats were actually allowed to refuel (or that Ireland didn't notify the UK of sightings?). Or the weather reports for D Day that came from Ireland.
I read somewhere that the UK did a study that suggested that if Ireland had been Allied then shipping loses would have been reduced by 10% during the Battle of the Atlantic, I wonder if it was hostile would it be increased?
While not enormous, what impact could Ireland have if it was sending shipping information to Germany during the battle of the Atlantic or allowing the Axis embassies to operate without restriction?
Or if U boats were actually allowed to refuel
(or that Ireland didn't notify the UK of sightings?). Or the weather reports for D Day that came from Ireland.
I read somewhere that the UK did a study that suggested that if Ireland had been Allied then shipping loses would have been reduced by 10% during the Battle of the Atlantic, I wonder if it was hostile would it be increased?