An Irish auction house has defended a sale which includes a number of items of Nazi memorabilia.

The auction, by Wicklow-based Mullen's Auctioneers, also includes items such the cutlery Michael Collins used at this last meal, and a blanket from H-Block used by Republican prisoners.

Stuart Purcell from Mullen's Auctioneers told The Pat Kenny Show this is for collectors.

"It's a sale of historical memorabilia, militaria, sporting memorabilia," he said.

"We call it the Collector's Cabinet - we're catering to collectors.

"We sell their collections and we offer their collections for sale to other collectors.

"We're the middle man between them".

Split image shows an Adolf Hitler cast iron plaque, and a red cloth armband centred with a swastika. Picture by: Mullen's Auctioneers

When asked if there was an ethical issue with selling Nazi-related items, Mr Purcell said these are important.

"I would consider them to be historical memorabilia, first and foremost," he said.

"I think they tell a very important story; in particular when you're talking about - not necessarily the war era, but the period before the war - the rise of fascism.

"[This] is probably the most important historical event of the 20th century, and these items all tell a story," he said. "The alternative is to ignore them [and] pretend it didn't happen".

'It doesn't mean we're Nazi supporters'

Mr Purcell said he does not believe these are encouraging any rise of the far-right.

"The idea that there are neo-fascists out there, amassing collections to worship at the shrine - I think that's fictional, really," he said.

"Maybe there are those people out there, but they'd be finding the stuff no matter how available it was or not.

"I don't know any of them coming to bid at auction.

"Just because we're selling some German memorabilia from the 1930s doesn't mean we're Nazi supporters.

"If we're selling a Manchester United shirt it doesn't make us Manchester United supporters, thank God".

'Academic collectors'

Mr Purcell said the Nazi memorabilia is from two separate collectors.

"One who is a big collector of militaria, and another whose principal interest was collecting photographs," he said.

"He collected photograph albums of German soldiers; there are a couple dozen albums of photographs that these soldiers took when they were in the field or on-duty during the war.

"Collectors in their nature tend to be quite academic".

Hitler moneybox for auction. Picture by: Mullen's Auctioneers

He said a Hitler moneybox up for auction was likely produced to make fun of the Nazis.

"That would probably [have] come from the other side... probably made in Britain or America" he said.

"You put your coin in Hitler's mouth and then you press the button and he salutes.

"It was making a mockery of Hitler, rather than trying to aggrandise him," he added.

Listen back to the full interview below:

The auction takes place on March 11th at 10am

Main image: Split image shows an Adolf Hitler cast iron plaque, and a red cloth armband centred with a swastika. Picture by: Mullen's Auctioneers