Anois agus arís
By Peter Berresford Ellis
ON February 1, 1969 in an apartment in a small backstreet in Rome an
81-year-old Irishman was found dead. His Irish passport, which had not
been used since it was issued in 1946, was one of those that listed trade
or profession. The entry bore the extraordinary legend: A person of no
importance.
The man’s name was Charles Henry Bewley, born in Dublin on July
12, 1888 and he had been a person of considerable importance during his
early life. One of the famous family who owned Bewley’s Oriental
Cafés and on his mother’s side owners of Pim’s department
store in George’s Street, Dublin Bewley had grown up in a wealthy
Anglo-Irish environment.
He had been sent to a prep school for boarders in England and then to
the famous English Public School at Winchester before going on to read
law at Oxford University. He was a rising poetic talent, winning the Newdigate
prize for poetry in 1910 and being idolised by Isis magazine. In 1914
he was finished his law studies and was called to the Irish Bar.
In spite of this background Bewley embraced his Irish nationality. He
had been sacked as a prefect at Winchester for criticising England and
ridiculing its national anthem. He spoke up against the evils of Anglicisation
in Ireland, embraced the Irish language, became conversant with Celtic
mythology, converted to Catholciism and changed from Home Rule to Republicanism,
standing as a Sinn Féin parliamentary candidate in 1918.
During the War of Independence he was defending barrister for many Nationalists
and Republicans. He supported the Treaty and Michael Collins sent him
to Berlin to be Irish consult responsible for trade development. During
the Civil War he returned to Ireland to prosecute many of his former Republican
comrades.
Although Republicans such as Seán T. O’Kelly did not trust
him in 1929 the Fianna Fáil government appointed him resident minister
to the Holy See, an ambassadorial post. The Pope knighted him with the
Order of the Grand Cross of St. Gregory the Great.
Being a fluent German speaker Bewley was sent to Germany in July, 1933
as Irish Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary. Ireland still
being in the Commonwealth he was defacto ambassador. Even President Hindenburg
praised his impeccable German.
During this time (1932-38), Britain had declared an economic war on Ireland
because of the Fianna Fáil government’s decision to stop
paying Land Annuities to London. Bewley gave anti-British interviews to
the German newspapers. However with the ending of the economic war and
return to Ireland of the Treaty Ports Dublin wanted to build good relations
with London. Bewley was frequently reprimanded by Dublin for his wilder
statements.
Unfortunately Bewley had become an admirer of Fascism and even tried to
join the SS security agency which was refused. He sent a stream of reports
back to Dublin praising the Nazis and Adolf Hitler. His constant misinformation
confused the Irish Government as to what really was happening in Germany
and especially to the German Jews. He even defended the Nuremberg Laws
which he claimed made the Jews into a legal national minority in Germany
“so they should have nothing to complain of”.
Fewer than 100 Irish visas were granted to German Jews between 1933-38
while Bewley was in charge of granting visas.
Ironically it was his German secretary Frau Kamberg who alerted Dublin
to her concerns. De Valéra consulted his close friend, the Chief
Rabbi of Ireland, Isaac Herzog who had provided safe houses for Republicans
during the War of Independence.
De Valéra also sought help from another friend and Irish Jew Robert
Briscoe who had been IRA quartermaster in 1919-21. Briscoe had first noticed
Bewley’s anti-Jewish attitudes on an arms buying mission in Germany
in 1921.
Briscoe was now a member of the Irish Parliament being a founder member
of Fianna Fáil. Both men used contacts to check on the situation
advise the Irish Government what was really going on in Germany.
De Valéra was outraged when he heard he had been misled by his
ambassador. He removed Bewley and refused him compensation and pension
rights.
In fact acting on information from Herzog De Valéra ordered Irish
ministers in Berlin, Vichy and the Vatican to help Jews fleeing Nazism.
In 1942 he was able to help a group of German Jews being held at Vittel
in Vichy France to get to South America on Irish visas.
Bewley had not returned to Ireland in 1939 but remained in Berlin writing
propaganda for Goebbels Propaganda Ministry. In 1944 her published a volume
of short stories in Berlin.
At the end of May, 1945 he was arrested by Allied troops in Merano, Italy
and held in Terni. He was interned with John Amery son of Churchill’s
Wartime Cabinet Minister Leo Amery who had organised the British Freekorps
in the SS. Amery was executed for treason.
As an neutral Bewley was released and the Irish Department for External
Affairs issued him an new Irish pasport in which the Secretary Joseph
Walsh insisted should have the entry against profession — a person
of no importance.
Bewley never left Italy. He published a biography of Hermann Goring in
1956 and wrote for some newspapers and his biography Memoirs Of A Wild
Goose published after his death.
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