Some National Socialists today, not too particular to Ireland, but mainly online, and usually either in America or on the European Continent, claim that National Socialism is a religion, and an explicitly anti-Christian one at that. We in Clann Éireann totally reject this concept as foreign to Irish National Socialism. Those who champion this theory, by necessity, are open and self-professed anti-Christians, believing Christianity to be ontologically Jewish and therefore subversive and worthy of total destruction, we in Clann Éireann strongly reject this ahistorical nonsense and agree wholeheartedly with the Programme of the NSDAP and Its General Conceptions when it states: “Expressions such as “Christianity has only done harm” merely show that the man who says them has neither human nor political intelligence”. Those who hold this anti-Christian belief, whenever such individuals are shown anything Hitler himself said that was pro-Christian, will wave it away and state something akin to: “He was merely saying these things in order to keep the Christians on side while in the process of gaining power, he eventually intended on destroying Christianity”. Some people even go so far as to claim that once Hitler had destroyed Christianity he then intended on instilling National Socialism as the new religion of the Third Reich if he had won the war. The historical basis for this belief is, as far as we can tell, extremely scarce to non-existent, and usually relies on inordinately liberal interpretations of some anti-clerical statements that Hitler may or may not have made (due to authenticity issues with many of the claimed Hitler quotes we cannot say for certain that all quotes are genuine).
Clann Éireann does not, never has, and never will consider every word that came out of the mouth of Hitler, or any other NSDAP member, to be some sort of infallible statement that must be followed. We take the racial principles, the economics, the governmental and hierarchical system, the essence of National Socialist ideology, and we apply it to Ireland today. Anything that we consider to be superfluous or irrelevant to Ireland we simply ignore, for example: Lebensraum. We are an island nation, land in the East of Europe has nothing to do with us. Our “Lebensraum” is the 32 County Irish Republic, we do not seek more than what God has already granted unto the Gael.
Clann Éireann does not care about Hitler’s personal religious opinions whatsoever and considers them wholly irrelevant to Irish National Socialism itself. We view National Socialism as a worldly political doctrine based on racial principles, we do not claim it as a religion or a system of metaphysics and never will. To go further, within our ideology we see it as a national obligation to defend the traditional Catholic/Christian faith of our people, something inextricable and indeed beautifully intertwined with Irish Nationalist history. Christianity serves as the bedrock of true Gaelic morality, it is the explicitly claimed religion of our race and we therefore view an attack on the Christian faith itself as an attack on the Irish nation. Anyone who is a self-professed enemy of Christianity is therefore an enemy of Ireland and an enemy of Clann Éireann.
There is another argument that we will simplify here for brevity’s sake but goes something like this: “Paganism is folkish, Hitler called National Socialism folkish therefore National Socialism is inherently pagan”. Hitler did not mean the word ”folkish” as an endorsement of paganism, or any other religion for that matter. In fact, Hitler speaks explicitly against those people who view the word ”folkish” from a religious angle because he believes that to view it from this angle is too ”vague and indefinite”. He states in Mein Kampf: “The situation with the word ‘religious’ also applies to the term ‘folkish.’ This word also implies certain fundamental ideas. Though these ideas are very important indeed, they assume such vague and indefinite forms that they cannot hold greater value than mere opinions until they are integrated into the structure of a political party.” The political party Hitler integrated the word “folkish” into was, obviously, the NSDAP. So then, how did Hitler define the National Socialist interpretation of the word ”folkish”? We quote him here again: ”…the folkish worldview recognizes that basic racial elements are of the greatest significance for mankind. In principle, the State is viewed as a means to an end, and this end is the conservation of the racial characteristics of humanity. Therefore on the folkish principle, we cannot accept racial equality, but rather we recognize their differences.” This is of course purely correct, and it is also the Clann Éireann position, i.e. that National Socialism is a political doctrine based on racial principles.
National Socialism is not pagan, and it is also not Christian either, not because it explicitly rejects or is inherently against either religion but because it explicitly claims to be a political doctrine based on racial principles, not a religion. It is not a religion and never claimed to be. National Socialism does have concepts that are accepted within both paganism and Christianity but to say that it is either one or the other is completely false. Paganism and Christianity make metaphysical claims, Clann Éireann’s National Socialism does not. The concept of Irish National Socialism that we profess in Clann Éireann is completely accepted in Catholic social teaching and many other Protestant sects, they are not at variance with Catholicism/Christianity on an ontological level whatsoever.
Something of historical note here is that Hitler made great efforts to curb the influence of a sect of pagan mystics who were trying to claim National Socialism as an inherently pagan religious concept. It was none other than the Vatican itself, in the document Mit Brennender Sorge, that warned of this mystical pagan sect and their false concepts over a year before Hitler was eventually forced to make a public denunciation of their subversive actions. During this turmoil, at a Cultural Speech in Nuremberg, Sept 6th 1938, he made this statement: ”National Socialism is not a sect or a movement of worship, but exclusively a popular political doctrine based on racial principles … We will not let occultists and mystics with passion to explore the secrets of beyond, to take possession of our Movement. These people are not National Socialists, but something else, in any case something that has nothing to do with us”. For Clann Éireann, this public statement is in line with our accepted form of National Socialism.
Next we shall quote, in long form, from The Programme of the NSDAP and Its General Conceptions.
“This is not the place to discuss all the problems, hopes and desires as to whether the German nation may at some time discover some new form of its religious beliefs and experiences; these are matters quite beyond the limits of a Programme such as that of National Socialism … it must be our principle not to drag questions of religion into statements on general politics; although we may well treat the corrupting influence of the secret doctrines of Judaism as an object for public statements and attacks. The same applies to all the stupid attacks on Christianity. Expressions such as “Christianity has only done harm” merely show that the man who says them has neither human nor political intelligence … The Christian religion has raised and edified millions and millions and brought them to God by the way of suffering. The culture of the Middle Ages stood up in the sign of the Cross; achievement, sacrifice, courageous faith have their roots in Christianity.”
We in Clann Éireann agree with these statements and consider anyone who joins Clann Éireann in order to promote some form of anti-Christianity to be a subversive agent and an enemy of Ireland.
To conclude, we will go back to this article’s title: does Clann Éireann claim National Socialism as a religion? Our answer, if it was not as clear as day already, is a resounding NO! Again, and for the last time here we shall state: Clann Éireann’s National Socialism is a political doctrine based on racial principles.
Finally, we shall reiterate and confirm, that from these racial principles, and an objective understanding of our nation’s history, we realise and happily accept that Christianity is the Gael’s explicitly claimed religion. Therefore, any individual attacking Christianity is, by extension, attacking the Gael himself, and of these enemies of our race we say, in perfect Christian language: let them be anathema!
– Caleb Ó Muireadhaigh
