The furore over a very young Queen Elizabeth giving the Nazi salute at the behest of her uncle, a notorious pro Nazi, should be no surprise. Let us not forget who Queen Elizabeth's uncle was - oh yes, the Nazi-loving Edward VII who married the divorcee Wallis Simpson also a Happy Heiler of Hitler. 

In 1937, the Duke and Duchess visited Nazi Germany, against the advice of the British government, and met Adolf Hitler at his Obersalzberg retreat. The visit was much publicised by the German media. During the visit the Duke gave full Nazi salutes.

Good show. The Royal Family Nazi sympathies were well known. Prince Philip, Elizabeth's husband, had sisters who married German Nazi sympathizers and he was suspected of liking them too.

In the present generation Prince Harry thought nothing of dressing up as a Nazi at a fancy dress party in more recent times.

But let’s not get too high and mighty here. The Irish and US had pro Nazis in key positions too, Charles Lindbergh in the US most notably and in Ireland none more than Charlie Bewley Irish Ambassador to Berlin in the key period leading up to World War 2.

Bewley made "no attempt at hiding his virulent anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi outlook,” saying  "they exist in any quantity, the Jews are regarded as an alien body." He blocked any efforts to have Ireland take in Jewish refugees. He told the Irish government that he was unaware of any cases of "deliberate cruelty" towards Jews by Hitler's government or any episode that "could even be remotely compared with the atrocities" of the Communists in Spain or Russia, the English in Palestine or the Black and Tans.

Bewley justified  Kristallnacht  saying Hitler had little choice but to teach Jews a lesson Speaking of jews he said "when the interests of the country of their birth come into conflict with their own personal or racial interests, (they) invariably sacrifice the interests of their birth to Jewish interests.

"It is thus claimed that during the War (WWI) German Jews in the vast majority acted against the interests of Germany, and that, as soon as England had definitely espoused the cause of Zionism, they worked for Germany's defeat in the War."

German anti-Semitism was "comprehensible" he wrote when it was found that "the Jew had not only succeeded in avoiding military service but also in enriching himself during the agony of the country."

Charming. So Ireland has its own Nazi skeletons rattling around too.