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The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War threw Irish politics, north and south of the border, into turmoil. Ireland sent large organised bodies of men to fight on opposite sides in the Spanish Civil War, essentially enemy crusades.
A comprehensive account of the experiences of the volunteer Irish Brigade, founded and led by General Eoin O'Duffy, fighting under the Nationalist flag in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The Brigade comprised Irish nationals who, like their leader, regarded the War as primarily a Christian crusade against Communism, with the very survival of Catholic Spain at stake. General O'Duffy, an experienced political activist, soldier, and ex-police Commissioner, was responsible for recruitment and transportation to Spain where the men were barracked at Cáceres, provided with uniforms and received basic military training. The Brigade of some 700 men remained in Spain for about six months, experiencing front-line fighting at La Marañosa and Ciempozuelos, with losses of fifteen dead and many wounded. By this time new Irish law forbade Irish citizens to join the Brigade, and with Nationalist forces well in control, it was time for the Brigade to return to Ireland. In his book the author reveals a deep concern for the welfare of his men, a patriotic love for his country, and a strong devotion to his Catholic faith. He is proud of the courage and demeanour of his troops, echoing the praise received from Spanish military, civil, and religious authorities. History has been ambivalent in its views on the role of the Irish Brigade, but in the words of O'Duffy: "We have been criticised, sneered at, slandered, but truth, charity and justice shall prevail, and time will justify our motives. We seek no praise. We did our duty. We went to Spain." This republication is enriched with a foreword by noted independent academic Michael McCormack, historian and archivist of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
This distinctly personal elegy was written during the early days of the Spanish Civil War by a writer whose future was indelibly marked by a year of travelling in a unique and changing country. A series of reminiscences, impressions and vivid insights, Kate O'Brien's thoughtful journey offers something unique at every stage, and captures perfectly the spirit of a lost place and the experience of travel and memory.
One of the enduring myths of the Franco state was that the Nationalist forces that won the Civil War consisted of patriotic Spaniards while the Republic was defended by a rag tag army of foreign 'reds.' During the Spanish civil war, however, many groups on the European right were galvanized by the Nationalist cause. European fascists, conservative Catholics and those uneasy with liberal democracy in general rallied to the figure of Franco, who appeared to be holding the line against secularism, modernism and Bolshevism. This book recounts the experiences of a number of foreign volunteers, including the brigades of White Russians, Romanians, Irish and the French volunteers in the Jeanne d'Arc battalion, all of whom saw their engagement in Spain as a means of promoting their own political causes at home. As well there were individual women and men, from the New World and the Old, who were moved by religion, politics or simply adventurism to join up with Franco. Fighting for Franco reconstructs their motivation and the mind set which took them to Spain. It thus casts a new light on Nationalist Spain and on the specific concerns of a wide variety of right-wing movements between the wars.
There were 230 Irish-born among the volunteers in the International Brigades fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. This book focuses on the six volunteers from Limerick. It uses Russian files to paint a general picture of the involvement of the Brigades, especially in the British battalion of the 15th Brigade. The book commences with the persecution of the Irish Left in the 1930s and explains the reasons why Frank Ryan led a contingent to Spain in December 1936. It examines the tension between Irish and British leaders in Spain, the major battles of 1937, the imprisonment of Frank Ryan in Spain and his role in German exile. The final chapter is the first attempt to describe in detail one of the most gruesome episodes that occurred in the British battalion: the semi-judicial murder of a Limerick volunteer, the machine-gunner Maurice Emmet Ryan during the Ebro battle in August 1938. Finally, 60 pages of statistical data of all the Irish participants in the Brigade's history.
International Communism and the Spanish Civil War provides an intimate picture of international communism in the Stalin era. Exploring the transnational exchanges that occurred in Soviet-structured spaces - from clandestine schools for training international revolutionaries in Moscow to the International Brigades in Spain - the book uncovers complex webs of interaction, at once personal and political, that linked international communists to one another and the Soviet Union. The Spanish Civil War, which coincided with the great purges in the Soviet Union, stands at the center of this grassroots history. For many international communists, the war came to define both their life histories and political commitments. In telling their individual stories, the book calls attention to a central paradox of Stalinism - the simultaneous celebration and suspicion of transnational interactions - and illuminates the appeal of a cause that promised solidarity even as it practiced terror.
Introduction / McLoughlin and O'Connor -- Ireland and the SCW: the setting, Spain and Europe in 1936, clericalism and anti-clericalism in Spain and Ireland, politics in Ireland / O'Connor -- Northern Ireland and the SCW: contrasting perspectives of Unionists and nationalists on Spain / O'Connor -- First actions: Madrid, Lopera, and the defection of the Irish from the British battalion to the Lincoln battalion in January 1936 / O'Connor -- Blood and Boredom at the Jarama: February-June 1937 / McLoughlin -- Frank Ryan and the politics of the SCW in Ireland / O'Connor -- Republican offensives (I): Pozoblanco, Brunete / McLoughlin -- Republican Offensives (II): Aragón, Teruel / McLoughlin -- Retreat and Capture, March 1938: Irish POWs / McLoughlin -- Frank Ryan's trial and imprisonment, 1938-1939 / McLoughlin -- Attempts to Frank Ryan Released, 1939-1940 / McLoughlin -- The Irish volunteers: discipline, desertion and punishment / McLoughlin and O'Connor -- Over the Ebro: Last battle of the Internationals, July-September 1938 / McLoughlin -- Withdrawal, homecoming, and the politics of commemoration / O'Connor -- Conclusion / McLoughlin and O'Connor.
The Spanish Civil War was the curtainraiser to World War II and involved a complex collection of forces, particularly on the Republican side. This title illustrates how diverse the Republican forces were, drawn from loyal elements of the Spanish army that rejected the appeal of the rebel generals, a wide range of volunteer regional units and political militias, and supported by volunteers from many other countries, including Great Britain, France and Germany, in units known as the International Brigades. The wide range of equipment and uniforms worn by these troops is revealed, as is, the organization of militias into conventional brigades and divisions. Featuring specially commissioned full-colour artwork, this second part of a two-part study depicts the fighting men of the Republican forces and examples of their foreign comrades.
