Hermann Görtz (also anglicised as Goertz; 15 November 1890 – 23 May 1947) was a German spy in Britain and Ireland before and during World War II, liaising with the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

Few details are available about his service in World War I, but it is thought he fought on the Eastern Front against Russia before being wounded around Christmas 1914, later receiving the Iron Cross first class for valour.

The most notable moment in Görtz's first military career seems to have come after the Armistice – it was said he was responsible for persuading Göring not to burn the planes in his squadron before the enemy forces impounded them.

There they befriended British airman Kenneth Lewis and through him began to collect information about the RAF Manston air base.

Near the end of their six-week tenancy, Görtz visited Germany and telegraphed his landlady Mrs Johnson that he would be gone for two days, asking her to take care of his belongings in the outhouse, including his ‘bicycle combination’.

On 5 May 1940, Görtz parachuted into Ballivor, County Meath, Ireland (Operation Mainau) in an effort to gather information.

[5] In May 1940, the Gardaí raided the home of an IRA member of German descent, Stephen Carroll Held, who had been working with Görtz, at his house at Blackheath Park, Clontarf.

They confiscated a parachute, papers, Görtz's World War I medals, and a number of documents about the defence infrastructure of Ireland.

When IRA member Pearse Paul Kelly visited Görtz's hiding place in Clontarf, Dublin on 27 November 1941, police arrested them both.

[5] Görtz was interned in Mountjoy Prison then in Custume Barracks, Athlone where he remained with nine other German agents until release until after the war.

Then suddenly, he took his hand from his trouser pocket, swiftly removed his pipe from between his lips, and slipped a small glass phial into his mouth.

The officer got his hands around Görtz’s neck but failed to prevent most of the poison, believed to be prussic acid, from passing down his throat.

Within a few seconds, Görtz collapsed.”[8] He died an hour later at Mercer's Hospital[9] Görtz was buried three days later in Dean’s Grange Cemetery (Plot - St. Nessan G/12), his public funeral, which had a swastika flag draped over his coffin, was attended an accompaniment of Irish mourners including Dan Breen and Charles McGuinness.