Paul Rea's stall in Balbriggan, Co Dublin, sells all sorts of Third Reich memorabilia including Nazi uniforms, helmets, swords and imitation firearms

Nazi memorabilia, including swastikas, ashtrays and anti-semetic DVDs, are being openly sold at a market in Bal­­briggan, north Co Dublin, the Sunday Tribune can reveal.


Labour TD Ruairí Quinn has called for a full investigation into the Outpost Militaria stall at Balbriggan market which specialises in Third Reich material.


Owner Paul Rea, from Northern Ireland, stocks German Nazi uniforms, helmets, swords and daggers, as well as prints of Nazi leaders and imitation firearms.


Nazi ashtrays bearing the face of Jewish caricatures and DVDs, including the notorious The Eternal Jew, which displays shots of Jews scavenging for food with rats, are also on sale.


Quinn, who is also the chairperson of the Holocaust Educational Trust Of Ireland, said of the controversial stall: "I am absolutely shocked by this information from the Sunday Tribune and I would call on the owners of Balbriggan market to fully investigate whether the merchandise being sold is not in breach of any civil or criminal legislation, specifically incitement to hatred. Items of this nature are most alarming."


Nadav Cohen, counsellor at the Israeli embassy in Dublin, is also angry about the anti-semitic material.


"The Embassy of Israel in Dublin strongly condemns all forms of anti-Semitism in­cluding the sale of materials which insult and stereotype the Jewish people or belittle the memory of the Holocaust and the crimes of the Nazi regime.


"Anti-Semitism, just like racism and xenophobia, is not only a Jewish problem or an Israeli problem, but is a sickness which eats at the core of humanity.


"If as a society we tolerate hate material, we will find ourselves gradually tolerating verbal violence and that eventually could lead to anti-Semitic acts of violence. Therefore we need not only to take all these acts into consideration, but to take action together against them," he added.


Stall owner Paul Rea, who says he is not a Nazi supporter, has no apologies for what he is selling. Based in Co Down, he said he was getting more and more business in the Republic.


"Some people come up and go nuts when they see all this Nazi stuff but to be honest with you I don't care. The Romanians are the worst because the Germans weren't that kind to them during World War II. Other people complain about what happened to the Jews and the Holocaust but, you know, the Germans went through far worse after the war ended from the Russians. All their women were raped.


"I am not a Nazi myself. This is just a way of putting food on the table."


Rea, whose stall was arousing interest from Sunday morning shoppers, claimed all his stock was original, with most of it coming from the US. "That's where most of this Nazi stuff ended up. The GIs brought it back to America with them after the war and now it's finding its way onto the market. Some of it comes out of Germany too, with families getting rid of family artifacts."


The Nazis are nothing new to Balbriggan. In his 2007 book, Dublin's Nazi Number No 1, The Life Of Adolph Mahr, biographer Gerry Mullins revealed that in the 1930s Adolph Mahr, the then German-born director of the National Museum and the head of the Nazi Party in Ireland, ran Hitler Youth Camps in nearby Hampton Hall.


While this Nazi material is not illegal in Ireland, a spokesperson for the German embassy told the Sunday Tribune that according to German criminal law, it is illegal to use Nazi symbols, including Nazi memorabilia. The production, stockage, import or export of objects containing such signs with the purpose of their distribution or use in Germany or abroad is an offence with punishment of up to three years imprisonment or a fine.


The owners of Balbriggan market did not return calls from the Sunday Tribune but Paul Rea said his stall would be back at the market next Sunday.