Colonel Albert Bachmann didn't exactly blend in, in West Cork.
He was a very softly spoken man.
But he certainly made a big impression around here.
It didn't make any difference to me. What he was really.
There's always a surprise with a lot of people that come here.
He cut a sort of slightly unusual dash.
West Cork has long been a haven for pirates and smugglers.
Its rugged coastline hiding those who did not wish to be found.
West Cork is a little unique, little piece in itself.
There has been very special people living around here like.
This unique isolation and beauty attracted a peculiar mix of characters.
Unlike anywhere else in Ireland.
People were very conscious of privacy. And you could be as public or as private as
you want to be.
I probably shouldn't call them hippies. But they were self-sufficient people, I think.
You would have a good laugh with them.
We've had some non-desirables as well, but they don't last very long here.
The one thing about West Coast people, they are very shrewd.
And along with those hippies, Europeans hoping to escape the danger of nuclear bombs, rather
than the pressure of suburban life.
It might seem very strange, now, but if you're living in that time, you would understand
it.
We were all a little bit worried about the third world war like.
But Cork was different.
Esquire magazine even listed it as one of the safest places in the world.
It suggested that because of the prevailing winds blowing from the southwest, that this
was the safest place in Europe to be.
You'd last maybe a few days longer.
And then that cast of characters, Colonel Bachman wouldn't have raised many eyebrows.
I remember present the early 70s.
And I remember doing the deal with him on a Good Friday.
My recollection is that I actually bought Liss Ard on his instructions, on his behalf.
Liss Ard is a unique property. It's completely private. With its own lake of 50 acres.
I thought it was family money and he was buying it to, to develop it in some way.
I think I may have opened the hotel.
I remember being there as a great New Year's Eve party one time when we're dancing up and
down the hall was a great night.
While the whole town appreciated parties, there was something a bit unusual about this
place.
A lot of military types came to stay, but Bachmann's past could explain that.
There was a lot of money being spent but not a lot of money coming back in and we were
wondering, all wondering, how was this happening?
Aside from the money, people wondered what was happening inside. Rumours of steel reinforcements,
military grade radio equipment, and bunkers began to spread.
Whispers of Swiss gold were in the air.
We're led to believe but I never heard the from Albert like that it was the Swiss government
that paid for it.
There's never been a denial on behalf of the Swiss government who wanted a bolthole in
the southwest of Ireland in the event of a nuclear war.
It did add up to me.
So who was the Swiss Colonel Albert Bachmann was no ordinary officer.
He was one of the top spymasters in the Swiss Military Intelligence Service.
He never quite fit in there. And he claimed to be the only officer with a moustache and
a forearm tattoo.
Bachmann's quirks influences spy work, too.
He spent a lot of time in Biafra during the Civil War, disguised as an English gentleman
named Henry Peale.
Then came to Prague Spring.
The citizens of Prague knew the whole meaning of occupation by force.
The Russians, while supposedly their allies were not wanted.
Soviet tanks rolled into the city, Backman was already writing Switzerland Civil Defence
book.
He called on the Swiss people to build bunkers create a Resistance Army and accept a militarization
of daily life.
His book was delivered over 2 million Swiss households, and it was controversial to say
the least.
This controversy didn't hinder Bachmann's career progress.
His hawkish views were a hit, and he was quickly promoted.
While Bachmann ran Liss Ard as a hotel, he was also running a spy operation across the
continent and creating a highly secret trained paramilitary back home.
In a way, if it were true, it kind of made sense.
It was all very well to be defending invading troops on the ground but defending yourself
from a nuclear attack are the effects of the nuclear attack.
In 1978, Bachmann's world fell apart.
The Austrian army was participating in a huge military exercise.
An older man named Curt Schilling had checked into the hotel, Weissenberger and it was setting
up his camera in the window, while troops marched below.
As the shutter clicked, the police stormed the room.
There was nowhere for Curt Schilling to run.
The police had been tailing Schilling, presuming that he was a Soviet agent.
But then Schilling started talking.
He claimed he was a Swiss spy.
But the Swiss government knew nothing of this operation, which would have meant spying on
their friendly natural neighbour.
A spy master had gone rogue, and that particular spy master was holed up in West Cork.
It was didn't just explore out it's slowly seeped out that maybe he was trying to justify
his job or something.
I don't know. It certainly is the international press anyhow.
The whole scandal was so odd that many assumed Bachmann was a double agent.
He wasn't, but he was recalled to Switzerland to answer questions from a government committee.
Shortly after this hearing, a copy of Der Spiegel made its way to West Cork.
While the Austrian scandal was interesting, there was one paragraph that stood out.
It revealed that the Liss Ard estate had been bought as a bolthole for the Swiss government
in exile.
But no one knew about this plan. It was all Bachmann.
He didn't tell the Swiss government or the Irish authorities.
He just used Swiss funds and started creating this bunker in his favourite part of the world.
His intelligence career never recovered from the Schilling affair. He was out.
He still hold on here like. So he wasn't afraid of anything really.
But Bachmann wasn't finished.
In Switzerland his most controversial legacy, the secret army, would remain hidden until
1990.
Unknown to the government, a highly trained guerrilla force was lying in wait for a Soviet
invasion or left-wing coup.
But in West Cork, Bachmann isn't remembered for his controversies but as one of the many
unusual characters who make this area unique.