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Adolf Hitler, the Irish folk music fan

By
PATRICK ROBERTS,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Thursday, January 28, 2010, 7:54 AM
Updated Monday, April 19, 2010, 4:26 PM

 

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Adolf Hitler

Newly released historical photographs reveal that famous Irish musician Sean Dempsey played for Adolf Hitler in 1936, and the Nazi dictator loved his music.

Dempsey, an uileann piper, was invited to play for Hitler and propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels during a visit to Berlin in 1936 after being told that Hitler was an Irish folk music fan.

When he arrived to play however, there was no room for him to sit, which he needed to do to play, and it looked like it would be canceled.

however, Hitler jumped up and demanded that an S.S. member get down on his hands and knees and that Dempsey sit astride him while he played.

Dempsey played what was described as a 'haunting air' as Hitler listened with rapt attention. After he performed, Hitler presented him with a gold fountain pen while Goebbels clapped wildly.

The bizarre scene was revealed for the first time in a new exhibition of Irish photographs from that era called 'Ceol na Cathra.' The exhibition opened in Dublin and was collected by legendary fiddle player Mick O’Connor.

Also in the exhibit are rare photographs from the early days of The Chieftains and Sean O'Riada, the father of modern Irish folk music.

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Posted by Jeffery on Nov 12, 2010, 10:24 PM EST
Hitler has good taste in music
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Posted by downinthebasement on Oct 05, 2010, 09:06 PM EDT
Sir Nathan Landsford... Since you appear to be a Nazi...Irish or English...I am not sure...let me ask you... Isn't a Final Solution a good thing? Why would you be against something that your kinsmen support? I am curious...
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Posted by RealGreen on Apr 23, 2010, 11:50 PM EDT
I find it appaling that a great publication like this one would report such absurd. propaganda about Hitlers meeting with the Irish Folk singer.Every good biography of Hitler would refute such incredible drivel about his conduct.Hitler commanded an advanced state He a was a politician reliant on the personel loyality of his subordinates,the powerful,and the German public.He was of c for his leadership skills and good manners,and this is not neccesarily endorsement of any of his deeds,or misdeeds,just good history,not monstrous nonsense from a hostile Hollywood production.Hitler was surrounded by intelligent and armed men,if he would of acted in that manner reported he would of never gotten anywhere.And what planet does Mr VA live on saying Churchill wanted a deal with Hitler .It was Hitler who wanted peace with Britain and even an Alliance!So before posting drivel from a comic book,go get some good books:John Tolands biography HITLER,or David Irvings HITLERS WAR CHURCHILLS WAR,and Pat Buchahans newest courageous and brilliant book:CHURCHILL & HITLER,THE UNECCESARY WAR.
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Posted by moishepipitz on Apr 22, 2010, 09:48 AM EDT
Irishandproud I do wonder? In place of compelling evidence you have the chutzpah to expect reasonable people to believe the fantasys of those who years after the event try to out do each other with unbelievable tall tales. I require compelling evidence not a convoluted long winded tale parroting the uncorroborated party line. Have you ever heard any of these bizarre claims? There is one that claimed to have somehow survived at least three gas chambers. Another one claimed that he could tell whether Hungarian or Polish jews were being cremated by the colour of the smoke emitted. Aside the ridiculous part crematorum are designed not to smoke. Get real.
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Posted by IrishAndProud on Apr 21, 2010, 06:06 PM EDT
I might add...have you never seen or heard ANY of the innumerable photo's, newsreels, and personal experiences and eyewitness accounts (from victims AND those who liberated the camps)? Questioning this stuff is like questioning if there ever even was a WW2...which is why it's a waste of time even pursuing it, with the deniers. Which of course, is PRECISELY why they do it; it's the ultimate passive aggression, to deny reality, no matter how factual and overwhelming it is...after all, it frustrates the opposition to no end, and how can they possibly respond to it, right? Meanwhile, Holocaust deniers such as Ahmadinejad verbally (and physically) threaten a 'real' one, all the more.
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Posted by IrishAndProud on Apr 21, 2010, 03:11 PM EDT
No, 'moishe'...YOU'RE typical. You gave the EXACT response I thought you would. Millions of people (Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Catholics, etc) get snuffed out and BURNED TO ASH -- with every last trace of their existence destroyed -- and then pond scum like you come along and chirp 'See? There's no evidence that it ever happened!' No compelling evidence would EVER satisfy you, moishe (like we need to, anyway), because of your ATTITUDE...AGAINST...JEWS. That's what's driving your train, moishe...I've seen this time and time again.
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Posted by moishepipitz on Apr 21, 2010, 09:36 AM EDT
Tipical. You can't answer the questions asked so you just wing it by making more unsubstantiated claims based sole on supposition. It may be good enough for the blindly faithfull but doesn't cut it with those who require compelling evidence.
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Posted by IrishAndProud on Apr 20, 2010, 03:15 PM EDT
Six million fewer Jews (not to mention the millions of others who've simply 'disappeared') is fairly ample evidence in itself, wouldn't you say?
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Posted by moishepipitz on Apr 20, 2010, 10:32 AM EDT
Instead of whining on about holocaust sceptics present some contemporanious documentation or forensic evidence for the alleged gas chambers and that will end the questioning.
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Posted by battlefront on Apr 19, 2010, 03:48 PM EDT
like Irishandproud I read this article because so what if Hitler did like irish music at least he had some taste not much mind you but a little. I have heard this story before but I thought it was a myth. What he did at that time was cruel and unjust to the Jewish people and and should be looked on with absolute abhorrence for ever more
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Posted by murphy66 on Apr 19, 2010, 10:32 AM EDT
Sure now, why is the world so down on O'Hitler and O'Goebbels?
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Posted by IrishAndProud on Apr 19, 2010, 12:32 AM EDT
Jeeeezzz...I originally went to this article to make the simple point of 'So what if Hitler liked Irish music, bad people sometimes like good things'...and then I see the Holocaust Deniers have already set up camp, here. Good lord, out of the woodwork they come. (sigh)...one of the problems we all live with.
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Posted by NathanLansford on Feb 22, 2010, 01:30 PM EST
The Final Solution is a term taken from early 20th century Zionist literature--it referred to Jewish emigration, which was also part of official Nazi policy. The Zionist Party collaborated with the Nazis via the Hava'ara (Hebrew for "transfer") Agreement, and this enabled many European Jews to emigrate elsewhere. The formation of a Jewish state was openly discussed by both the Nazis and the Zionists, in accordance with this policy. Madagascar was considered for this, in fact, as was Palestine. Again, these are things not typically brought up by Holocaust historians nor cited on TV documentaries on this subject. The tendency is to deny that this official policy was not the actual policy--that that is part of the "myth." Yet, they are facts that have been confirmed time and time again, even by Jewish sources!
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Posted by NathanLansford on Feb 22, 2010, 01:12 PM EST
You didn't comment on what I actually posted. I quoted what Yehuda Bauer, the former head of Yad Vashem, has gone on record as saying--and I cited how he and Dr. Franciszek Piper also brought the death count total down at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1989 and 1990. Incidentally, as late as 1979, the International Red Cross reported that less than 300, 000 people--both Jews and non-Jews--had died in all of the concentration camps combined. The causes of death were listed as typhus and malnutrition brought on by lack of food and medical supplies, due to the Allied bombing campaigns, which disrupted the delivery of these supplies via trains. NOT ONE cause of death at the camps was listed as from mass shootings or gassings. These facts are all on record! Yet they are almost never cited or brought up by Holocaust historians, or on TV documentaries...and I have to wonder exactly why?
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Posted by downinthebasement on Feb 22, 2010, 10:24 AM EST
nathan...lansford...I think there were more killed... Why do you deny the Final Solution's impact...the Reich was quite proud of what they thought was a divine plan...?
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Posted by NathanLansford on Feb 15, 2010, 01:51 PM EST
In response to Realist, what evidence do you have that the Wannsee Conference had anything to do with anyone being "ear-marked for extermination?" Even Yehuda Bauer, former head of Yad Vashem, dismissed the "code-phrase" aspect of that with the following words: "The public still repeats, time after time, the silly story that at Wannsee, the extermination of the Jews was arrived at..." He said this and more in the Canadian Jewish News, January 30, 1992 issue. Bauer was, along with Dr. Franciszek Piper one of those who had brought down the death toll numbers at the Auschwitz State Museum & Archives from 4 million to 1.5 million, around 1989.
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Posted by downinthebasement on Feb 15, 2010, 10:54 AM EST
Hitler was more of a Joe Fudgepack...
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Posted by downinthebasement on Feb 15, 2010, 10:46 AM EST
siegheil... Hitler was most definately a fairy..."Hidden Hitler" Hitler's most trusted advisor was Ernst Rohm...a notorious twinkle-toes...Hitler loved the opera, wore leather pants, was never married, never had children, was an artist, and spend his years in Vienna in a gay flop house... Hitler was a gay...
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Posted by Realist on Feb 14, 2010, 06:43 AM EST
One might have thought the Irish would be ashamed of a known Nazi collaborator like Sean Russell. Apparently not - there is a bronze statue of him in Dublin's Fairview Park erected by the National Graves Association. Sinn Fein lead a commemoration there each year.
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Posted by Realist on Feb 14, 2010, 06:38 AM EST
Were they the same Nazis who convened the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, hosted by SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, where some 4,000 Irish Jews were earmarked for extermination? Were they the same Nazis that trained and financed IRA 'General' Sean Russell to attack the UK during the London Blitz?
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Posted by Haole3000 on Feb 13, 2010, 08:50 PM EST
Irish, Hitler, Europeans have alot in common, not just Irish music. Europeans are almost all socialist, jew haters and anti Americans. Hitler was actually just a "Joe Sixpack" of Europe. The Irish are more the twelvepack kind of european.
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Posted by siegheil88 on Feb 13, 2010, 07:37 AM EST
Great that the Fuehrer loved the Irish music. An earlier poster "downinthebasement" said Fuehrer Hitler was gay. HE WAS NOT!! I suggest you stay in your basement and don't come out.
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Posted by kickstar on Feb 12, 2010, 05:43 PM EST
I spent a couple of years in Germany in another life and I see how the Germans love the Irish groups that tour over there they really are crazy for the music. The Germans are also big fans of Kerry....They own it.
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Posted by dan Breen on Feb 12, 2010, 02:59 PM EST
If it was a fast number hitler would have done the goose step.............
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Posted by downinthebasement on Feb 12, 2010, 09:48 AM EST
Well, why woundn't Hitler like it? He was into folk music... Hitler was also gay...and probably would have liked to hear show tunes... Didn't the IRA/Sinn Fein have contacts with the Reich? Does anyone know about the Sinn Fein/Nazi alliance? I am curious
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Posted by ciarrai on Jan 30, 2010, 12:15 PM EST
Bono should write a song about it. And an editorial in the New York Times.
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Posted by IrishEddy on Jan 29, 2010, 09:56 PM EST
Hitler should have went down to Monto Monto Monto, take him down to Monto Langeroo....to you
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Posted by IrishEddy on Jan 29, 2010, 09:53 PM EST
Karl Rove biggest influence was Joseph Goebbels,
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Posted by jacersisityourself on Jan 29, 2010, 03:04 PM EST
Music has no political boundaries. why ICentral writers even mention Hitler in the same sentence as Irish music beats me. Probably trying to stir up stuff... so they can have thunderous comments on their pages. Gutter press stuff.
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Posted by TexasGal on Jan 29, 2010, 02:48 PM EST
Hey we have Beyonce she sang to the libya dictator and to that Hitler want to be Obama


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