Adolph Hitler. Benito Mussolini. Francisco Franco. Eoin O'Duffy?

For some, it is a stretch to link all four men together, with O'Duffy being the odd man out. For others, it makes perfect sense.  O'Duffy did admire all three, and even fought for Franco. But to write him off as simply Ireland's wannabe Fascist dictator is to diminish a man who was arguably very much reflective of the era in which he lived.

For some Irish people, O'Duffy was a man who tried to keep the peace at a time when various competing groups, including the IRA, were trying to hold sway in Ireland.

For others, as the likes of author T. Ryle Dwyer contend, he came close to becoming Ireland's answer to the Fascist strongmen of Europe during the dark days of the 1930s, trying to take over the duly elected government in 1932.

Regardless, he remains one of the most interesting figures of Irish history during Ireland's first two decades as a nation, and a reminder that, no matter which way one cuts it, Ireland's fledgling democracy at the time was still fragile indeed.

Eoin O'Duffy was born Owen O'Duffy in Lough Esigh, near Castleblayney, County Monaghan on October 20th, 1892. He apprenticed as an engineer in Wexford before returning to work as an engineer and architect in Monaghan. In 1919, he became an auctioneer. During the 1910s, he was also a leading member in the Ulster branch of the Gaelic Athletic Association.

In 1917, O'Duffy joined the Irish Republican Army, and took part in the fighting of the War of Independence. In February of 1920, he took part in the first capture of a Royal Irish Constabulary barracks in Ballytrain, County Monaghan. He was later imprisoned several times but eventually became a director of the army in 1921.

In May of 1921, he was elected as a Sinn Fein TD for Monaghan in the second Dail Eireann. By January of 1922, he became the IRA's Chief of Staff, replacing Richard Mulcahy, making him the youngest general in Europe until Spain's Francisco Franco - for whose cause he would later take up arms - was promoted to that rank.

During the Irish Civil War in the early 1920s, O'Duffy supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty, and served in the Free State Army. He took Limerick City for the Free Staters in July 1922. When the Irish Free State was declared in 1922, O'Duffy was appointed Commissioner of An Garda Siochana (as bearla, the Civic Guard) the national police force, guiding it through its first decade of service in protecting the peace.

Following the General Election of January 1933, Eamon de Valera, now the President of the Executive Council, dismissed O'Duffy as Garda Commissioner. De Valera told the Dail that he made the move because O'Duffy "was likely to be biased in his attitude because of past political affiliations."

However, some historians allege that O'Duffy was one of the voices urging the previous council president, W.T. Cosgrave, to support a military coup rather than turn over power to de Valera. O'Duffy refused de Valera's offer of another position of equivalent rank in the public service.

In July of 1933, O'Duffy became the leader of the Army Comrades Association. He soon began to embrace Fascist ideology. That very same year, Adolph Hitler had been elected as the German Chancellor, and his fellow dictator Benito Mussolini continued his reign in Italy. After taking over the ACA, O'Duffy changed its name to the National Guard, which soon adopted symbols associated with European fascism, including the straight armed Fascist salute from Italy. They also used a distinctive uniform, granting them the name The Blueshirts, a name still used to belittle members of Fine Gael.

In August of 1933, O'Duffy was in the midst of planning a parade of Blueshirts to march on Dublin to commemorate the deaths of Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith, who had died 11 years previously. However, de Valera feared that O'Duffy was trying to emulate Mussolini's famous March on Rome, which he felt could lead to an O'Duffy coup d'etat. As a result, the parade was banned. The next month, the Irish government declared the Blueshirts to be an illegal organization. To get around this, the group's name was changed to the League of Youth.