"Fascism" is government at the service of big business ~ that is, the corporate state. Mass murder and anti-Semistism a la Hitler are not incompatible with Fascism, which is of course basically anti-human, but they are not necessary elements of Fascism (although I suppose they are essential to Nazism).

The article just posted by McGrath is interesting and extremely plausible. Irish nationalists also sought the help of Imperial Germany during WWI, when Germany was England's enemy but the Nazis did not yet exist; it is reasonable to believe that the overtures made during WWII were of the exact same nature ~ an effort to make a temporary alliance with the enemy's enemy, with no promise of future fealty.

Irish Republicans (Nationalists) are not nearly as open to charges of "fascism" as the leaders of the US Republican party, who so openly promote the interests of the Military-Industrial Complex and of mulitnational corporate interests in general.