blackisthelight

One of the earliest formal manifestations of fascism in Ireland was the establishment of official branches of the Italian National Fascist Party in the North following Mussolini’s rise to power in 1922. Two branches of the Fascist Party operated in the interwar period in Derry and Belfast formed by Italian immigrants. Italian craftsmen had come to work in Belfast in the late nineteenth century and a small community had established by the 1920s.

The Belfast club was founded in 1924 and the Derry branch was founded six years later in 1930 and both lasted until the declaration of war between Britain and Italy in 1940. The Belfast branch claimed about 50 members while the Derry branch had about 14. The Italian immigrant community in the North was relatively small, perhaps 300 in Belfast at the time, and tended to work in or own cafes, restaurants and ice cream parlours. The fascist clubs served social and business purposes as well as overtly political ones. Considering only adult males were eligible to join, the 50 members represent a significant proportion of the local Italian community. A similar situation existed in Scotland where 40% of the 3000 strong community were enrolled as members of fascisti clubs and these clubs were established across the rest of Britain and in cities worldwide with Italian communities, such as Montreal and Melbourne, during this period.

The fascisti groups, as advised by the Italian leadership, avoided involvement in local politics but were prominent in Remembrance Day celebrations in both cities. Despite the Catholic nature of the immigrants, efforts were made to show respect to the Unionist tradition and to portray the Italian community as upstanding citizens. The party used the overseas branches both as propagandistic vessels to advertise Italian fascism as a legitimate political movement abroad, and to keep tabs on emigrant communities.

The Derry branch was led by a café owner, Victor Fiorentini and the Belfast branch by Joseph Forte. In 1934 Fiorentini was invited to meet Mussolini in Rome. In 1933, in one of the largest displays carried out by the groups, Fiorentini led a group to meet a visit by a flotilla of 24 Italian air force flying boats en-route to an exhibition in Chicago. The flotilla was led by General Italo Balbo and drew large crowds of onlookers, along with a festive celebration by the local Italian community as a point of pride in the fascist state and its prowess. In 1934 Fiorentini was invited to meet Mussolini in Rome. Fearing internment after the outbreak of the war in 1940, Fiorentini fled the city to Inishowen in Donegal and avoided arrest.

Training camps for boys called Balilia took place in Italy and at least twice boys from the North participated in these events. Students learned patriotic songs and drilled with dummy rifles. The fascist clubs were tolerated and deemed a low priority by British government and security officials until the approach of the Second World War. This tolerance was possibly due to its limited size as the groups were only open to Italian males and the much larger groups led by Oswald Mosely were deemed to be of a higher priority for security concerns. However, as tensions grew between Britain and Italy, this attitude shifted. In 1937 the head of MI5 ordered all Italian fascist clubs to be placed under warrant. After the outbreak of hostilities in 1940 a blanket internment order called Defence Regulation 18B was issued for all Italian males between the ages of 16 and 70, resulting in many people with a tenuous association with fascism being imprisoned without trial as well as anti-fascists who had left Italy due to persecution. 60 Italian males were interned in the North. In tandem with the internment order, Italian businesses in Belfast were targeted by rioters, who were offered some legitimacy by the government actions to target a minority community.

Many of the internees, including Joseph Forte, drowned on the Arandora Star tragedy. The ship was a former cruise liner engaged to carry a large number of internees of Italian and German descent (including some Jewish refugees) along with some prisoners of war to St. Johns in Newfoundland. The ship was torpedoed off the coast of Donegal by a German U-boat in July 1940 resulting in 805 deaths, roughly half the total number of passengers.

Sources:

Crangle, Jack (2016) The Italian Fascist Party in Interwar Northern Ireland: Political Hub or Social Club? Queens Political Review Volume IV, Issue 1, pp1-13

Derry Journal, July 1933: When Derry went Italian for six memorable days, 30 March 2022

Fisk, Robert (1983) In Time of War -Ireland, Ulster, and the Price of Neutrality, 1939-45, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press

Haydon, Laura (2003) The Irish ‘Si.’ The Guardian 11th June 2003

Pistol, Rachel (2019) Internment During the Second World War London: Bloomsbury

Scott, Garry (2017) The forgotten story of Scotland's Italian fascists The Herald 10th June 1017