Partie 28 - Letter from John Codd to Margaret Mary Pearse

A letter from John Codd to Margaret Mary Pearse. Codd outlines his struggles to find work and refers to his impoverishment since his return to Ireland having spent the war years in Germany. Codd had enlisted in the British Army prior to the war. He saw action in the Battle of France (1940) during which he was wounded and was captured by the Germans. As a prisoner-of-war, he was recruited by the Abwher (the German Military Intelligence Service) and later worked for the Sicherheitsdienst, the foreign intelligence arm of the SS.

In his letter, Codd draws a parallel between his involvement with the German military’s attempt to establish a force of Irish volunteers during the Second World War with Roger Casement’s attempt to raise an Irish Brigade during the Great War. Codd’s letter also mentions the fate of James Brady, another Irish-born former British Army soldier who was captured by the Germans and later recruited into the Waffen-SS. Codd notes that Brady was detained by the Allies following the cessation of hostilities and was subsequently court-martialled for aiding the enemy. He was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment. Codd laments the fact that ‘nobody from here has made any effort to secure his release or to help him in any way’.