The Irish Times, February 9, 1996
Mick O'Riordan
Old soldier remembers young Cork docker who sailed to Spain
to fight for democracy
The Spanish recall an Irishman who fought for their liberty and an old
man talks to Patsy McGarry about those who fought and those who died
MICHAEL O'Riordan is an old soldier who served on the losing side
in an
unfashionable war. A former general secretary of the Communist Party of
Ireland,
he was never afraid of taking unpopular stances.
His communism now looks like a lost cause, but history has been
kinder to the
idealism which led him and others to fight in Spain for democracy in
the 1930s.
Late last year the Spanish parliament unanimously supported a motion
advising
their government that "Spanish citizenship should be given to all
people who
asked for it and had been accredited as part of the International
Brigade".
It is hoped that the Spanish government will approve the motion in
time for
the 60th anniversary celebrations in November this year of the
brigade's part in
the Spanish Civil War.
Michael O'Riordan fought with the International Brigade in Spain.
He was one
of 145 Irishmen to do so, 61 of whom were killed. Five of the survivors
are
thought to be still alive.
In February 1938 he joined up to fight for the Republican government
against
the rebel Gen Franco, who was backed by the Catholic Church. He was
"gone 19"
and had been working on the docks with his father in Cork. Recruitment
was
organised through the Communist Party.
The Spanish government, elected in February 1936, was presented to
the Irish
people as a "group of blood thirsty Bolsheviks, persecutors of
Catholic: priests
and nuns".
An Irish Christian Front was formed under Eoin O'Duffy, leader of
the
"Blueshirts". Huge rallies were held and large amounts of money raised
to help
the "fight for Christianity in Spain".
This movement organised 700 volunteers to fight for Franco and
enjoyed the
vociferous support of the Catholic Church. Not so the International
Brigade, or
its Irish unit, formed in September 1936.
By December the first Irish contingent left for Spain. Michael
O'Riordan
travelled there via Dublin, Liverpool, London and Paris. All of which
was
illegal as it was against the law to volunteer for the International
Brigade.
He got into France using an English name and address, and arrived at
the
hotel there, where Marshal Tito of the former Yugoslavia headed
operations. For
four days he and, other volunteers underwent an intensive orientation
course.
They were then brought to the Spanish border at the foot of the
Pyrenees,
which they crossed using a smugglers route. The crossing took 12 hours.
He was
the only Irishman among 30 volunteers.
In June they took part in a major assault against Franco forces at
the Ebro
river. They had no aerial support and were being bombed heavily from
the air.
They had no artillery or anti tank guns. They numbered 35,000 to
Franca's
45,000.
But the element of surprise was theirs, as was victory. O'Riordan
was wounded. A piece of shrapnel from a trench mortar hit his right
shoulder and he had to be taken to a field hospital.
Conditions there were so bad there was no anaesthetic. He was
returned,
injured, to the reserves and saw no further action before the brigade
withdrew
in December.
By then they had served their function. A Spanish army had been
built up,
which replaced them. There was a formal public farewell from the
Spanish people
at a parade in Barcelona on October 29th that year. Thousands lined the
streets
and threw flowers to their departing hermanos (brothers).
And in Dublin they (about 30) marched from Westland Row (now Pearse)
railway
station to O'Connell Street, where that turbulent republican priest,
Father
Michael O'Flanagan, greeted them from the back of a lorry.
On his arrival in Cork Michael O'Riordan was "ostracised", with the
pious
"blessing themselves and crossing to the other side of the road"
whenever they
saw him.
In February 1940 he was among the first three men interned in this
State as a
"security risk" and when he stood for election in 1951 the Archbishop
of Dublin,
Dr McQuaid, had a message read at all Masses forbidding votes for him
under pain
of mortal sin.
Then in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell. "History has its own way," he
says,
agreeing that mistakes were made in the past but insisting "communism
is not
dead". He instances recent elections in Poland, Russia and Hungary as
proof.
Then he predicts that "what will come will not be the same as
before. It will
be a more flexible form of communism". And he moves away into the
winter
evening, slowed only by history and arthritis. Semper fidelis.
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