Sources
Irish papers on SCW - The Worker, 1936
Irish Labour Movement and the SCW - Newspaper articles.This section will reprint articles from the Worker, for October to December 1936. This was the paper of the Communist Party of Ireland.
The initial reports from
Reports from The Worker for January - March 1937
Other material from that period is in the Irish Democrat starting in early 1937 and The Workers' Republic from 1938, the Left papers. Home Page.
3rd October 1936 - A Crime Against Spain
10th October 1936 - They would have condemned St Ambrose
10th October 1936 - O’Duffy’s ‘real object’
10th October 1936 - The Cold Shoulder at Kilkenny
10th October 1936 - Dublin Suspicious
10th October 1936 - In Search of a Policy
October 17 1936 - Out of the past into the present
24 October 1936 - Behind the ‘Christian Front’ Mask
November 7th 1936 - What is Fascism?
November 7th 1936 - Archbishop doubts atrocity stories
21 November 1936 Basque Priest exposes ‘Independent’ Lies
21 November 1936 - Non-Political, Moryah!
21 Nov. 1936 - Alec McCabe in Short and trousers
28th Nov.1936 - A Fascist Crusade
28 November 1936 - Sean Murray on Spain at TCD
28 November 1936 - England abets the murderers of Spanish Children - Madrid Still Stands!
5th Dec.1936 - Dublin Communists Meet
12th Dec. 1936 - Father O’Flanagan and Spain
12th Dec. 1936 - Republicans Trounce Belton and Fascists
19th Dec. 1936 - Spanish Priest Attacks Rebels
19th Dec. 1936 - Irishmen’s Reply to Franco and O’Duffy
19th Dec. 1936 - Old IRA repudiate O’Duffy clique
19th Dec. 1936 - Irishman at the Spanish Front
19 December 1936 - Hitler Non-Intervenes at Galway!
26th Dec. 1936 - The International Column in Spain
26th Dec. 1936 - Irishman killed in Madrid: Another reported missing
26th Dec. 1936 - The Church and Politics
26th December 1936 - Xmas: An Appeal
Worker 3rd October 1936
A Crime Against Spain
The greatest crime in history is being committed against the heroic people of Spain. They are being shot down in thousands by the artillery, bombs and machine guns of Hitler and Mussolini. Not only this, but the airplanes and other instruments of death are manned by officers of Hitler and Mussolini. This and nothing else explains the recent gains of the Spanish Fascists and the present threat to Madrid.
Lack of arms on the side of the Government forces against an enemy armed with all the latest instruments of war: this is the obstacle in the way of victory for Spanish democracy. Who is responsible for this crime? The British National Government is primarily responsible.
That Government wants a victory for the Spanish Fascists. It is therefore encouraging Hitler and blackmailing France. Because the British Government refuses to stand with France and the League powers against Fascist Germany’s and Italy’s intervention on the side of the Fascists, the scandalous and bogus agreement was drawn up between the powers for ‘non-intervention’. This meant depriving the lawful Government of Spain of the right to buy arms and munitions from other countries. As Litvinoff on behalf of the Soviet Government stated at the League of Nations meeting, such treatment of the Government of a country has no precedent in the law of nations. But the simple fact is that the agreement is entirely one sided. Portugal has placed its territory at the disposal of Franco and his generals. Armaments of every description are pouring across the Portuguese frontier to Franco and his Moorish and Foreign legions. The Spanish Government’s Foreign Minister at the League of Nations (Senor del Vayo) put the position squarely when he said that the blood of every Spaniard killed fighting for the Government was on the head of those foreign powers, whose weapons and bullets were doing the foul work. The Spanish people are being murdered by world Fascism with the permission of the democratic Powers, headed by the British National Government.
The Fianna Fail Government also takes its share of responsibility. It is following in the wake of the British and French bogus neutrality and it is giving free reign to the Fascist gangsters at home and Murphy’s blood-stained newspaper to organise open support for the destruction of the Government and democratic institutions of a sister nation.
The Free State Labour Party and trade Union leaders still maintain silence in face of this crime and in face of the now open efforts of the Lombard Murphy ‘Christian Front’ to disrupt the Trade Unions. Yet Fascism’s chief aim, here and everywhere, is to destroy the Trade Unions, and to the Fascists the Labour Party is ‘Bolshevik’. Hitler destroyed every party and every organisation – Labour, Liberal and Conservative – in the name of crushing Communism.
Irish workers and friends of freedom: The Spanish people’s fight is your fight. The attack on Communism by the ‘Independent’ – ‘Christian Front’ is an attack on you and your organisations. These agencies of the money lords want to keep you in poverty and slavery. Join the fight against fascism. Force your leaders to stand up to this attack. ON to the Workers’ and Farmers’ Republic of Ireland!
The Worker, 10th October 1936
They would have condemned St Ambrose
Murphy’s ‘Irish Catholic’ (‘what a misnomer,’ said James Connolly of this rags name) devoted a long editorial last week to proving that Christ was not a Communist. Apparently this paper wants to portray the founder of Christianity as a capitalist!But even the ‘Irish Catholic’ must admit that its ‘Christianity’ is a kind that the Early Fathers would not have recognised. Listen to Saint Ambrose:
‘Nature furnishes wealth to all men in common. God beneficently has created all things that their enjoyment be common to all living brings, and that the earth become the common possession of all. It is Nature itself that has given birth to the right of the community, whilst it is only unjust usurpation that has created the right of private property.’
Listen to Saint Gregory the Great:
‘The earth of which they are born is common to all and therefore the fruit that the earth brings forth belongs without distinction to all.’
And here is St Chrysotom on the people the ‘Irish Catholic’ backs: ‘The rich man is a thief.’
Finally, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, in 1848, on Communism and private property:
‘We Communists have been reproached with the desire of abolishing the right of personally acquiring property as the fruit of man’s own labour. But does wage Labour create any property for the labourer? Not a bit. It creates capital, i.e. that kind of property that. Capital exploits wage labour. Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society. All that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labour of others.’
The Worker, 10th October 1936
O’Duffy’s ‘real object’
The Belfast News Letter commenting on O’Duffy’s ‘Irish Brigade’, says:‘The Free State Government has been placed in a position of some embarrassment. It is a party to the non-intervention pact and yet if it should place obstacles in the way of those volunteers (O’Duffy’s Spanish brigade) it may be accused of lack of enthusiasm for ‘the Faith’, a charge which might be most damaging at a General Election. AND THAT PERHAPS IS THE REAL OBJECT WHICH THE RAISING OF THE O’DUFFY BRIGADE IS INTENDED TO SERVE.’
The Worker, 10th October 1936
The Cold Shoulder at Kilkenny
The deepest sympathy will be felt for Lombard Murphy’s ‘Christians’, Paddy Belton, the Coroner and the young lady from California-South Africa-Geneva, on the state of the ‘Front’s ‘ health in Kilkenny. The worthy allies of Franco’s Moors, inveigled the Mayor of Kilkenny into agreeing to preside at a meeting. It seems the Mayor discovered after wards the true character of these ‘Christians’ and backed out. Nothing daunted the bould Hayden and Belton; they turned up for a meeting but nobody was there; the townspeople were all at a hurling match, so Lombard Murphy’s crusades packed their tents like the Arabs, their allies and retired!
The Worker, 10th October 1936
Dublin Suspicious
The Dublin Corporation seems to be extremely suspicious also of Lombard Murphy’s circus. One of them, JJ Byrne offered to give a show last Monday night, condemning ‘Reds’ in Spain and calling on the Government to sever trade relations with that country. Alfie, for reasons best known to himself, refused to allow his namesake to put the last part of the resolution and choked him off when he attempted to speak.
The Worker, 10th October 1936
In Search of a Policy
The ‘Independent’s’ ‘Christians’ are now wondering what to do about Murphy’s other paper, the ‘Irish Catholic’, which is neither ‘Irish’ not ‘Catholic’, but which advises the ‘Frontists’ to keep out of politics or if they can’t do that to get all politicians in with them! It has also advised these worthies to start expounding ‘Catholic Social Principles’. Messrs Belton and Corr will, no doubt, raise their employee’s wages to a real Christian standard and give up taking interest and profit. In their dilemma the ‘Frontists’ are advertising tenders for a social policy, and we learn they are likely to give Social Credit a trial. These playboys are without any principles, hacks of the ‘Independent’ trust prepared to try anything and resort to anything to deceive the people. But the mask is being torn off and the working class of this country will shortly relegate these playboys into their well-deserved obscurity.
The Worker, October 17 1936
Out of the past into the present
The Irish Bishop's statement this week will come as a shock to every working class Catholic. In effect, a statement has been issued aligning the whole Catholic people of this country behind a political struggle in another country and behind Murphy's 'Christian Front' campaign on behalf of Fascism here. Their Lordships' statement makes no mention of the world menace of fascism, which is threatening humanity with another war, which is persecuting priests and laymen in Germany, and which was directly responsible for the 'Civil War' in Spain. Only 'Communism' is attacked, and by 'Communism' is evidently meant not only the Communist Party but every attempt of the working people to improve their terrible conditions of life.But such statements are not new. We had them also in Land League days and at every other critical stage of our fight. In the Land League times, however, there was at least one member of the Hierarchy who stood for the people and refused to side with their oppressors - the aged and brave Archbishop Croke, a founder of the GAA.
The story of how Archbishop Croke was hounded and persecuted even at Rome for his stand is almost forgotten now. This week we give some extracts fro Michael Davitt's 'Fall of Feudalism in Ireland', telling how the Vatican denounced the appeal for a 'Parnell Testimonial Fund' and what happened.
"The name of the sovereign pontiff was so used as to assert a power to permit or refuse the right of the people of Ireland to seek redress for grievances or to assert their right to such reforms as their country required for its progress and prosperity. The language of the letter was likewise insulting in its terms towards 'Parnell himself and his objects', and this was hotly resented.
"It was bitterly remembered ,too, that this was no less than the third interference of the same or similar kind made in the politics of Ireland under the guise of a moral concern for our spiritual welfare since the Land League movement began. In 1881 we were admonished 'to obey the laws', while one thousand of us were in prison without trial. In 1882 instructions from the Sacred Congregation of the Propaganda ordered the entire Hierarchy of Ireland to assemble and to issue admonitions against the Ladies Land League and the participation of curates in meetings without due permission from their superiors, and otherwise to discourage clerical support of the agitation which had already won the Land Act of 1881. The 'Qualacumque de Parnellio' document was worse still, from its assumption of a sovereign right to determine what Ireland's political weapons and concerns should be and the contemptuous allusions made therein to the leader of the Irish nation and his followers.
"The whole country took fire. There was a spontaneous outburst of indignant protest from all quarters of nationalist Ireland, and the word went round, 'Make Peter's Pence into Parnell's Pounds.' Instinctively this was done. People who had subscribed already doubled their donations. Numbers who probably not thought of aiding the testimonial came forward to do so in obedience to the national sentiment, which rebelled against England's attempt to have her purposes served in Ireland though the loyalty of the Catholic Irish to the head of the Catholic Church. The feeling that was stirred up among even the peasantry by the intrigue which had produced this letter was well illustrated in the remark made by an old Tipperary woman to Archbishop Croke.
" 'Arrah, your Grace,' said the old lady, 'it it true that the English are trying to make a Protestant of the Pope?'
"The Parnell testimonial had reached a sun of about £12,000 when the Propaganda manifesto was issued. It looked as if the fund would barely touch the figure of £20,000, the amount which the promoters had anticipated being able to raise. The mortgage on the Avondale estate was some £13,000, and it was expected that £7,000 above that figure would make a generous presentation to Mr Parnell for his services. Nothing could have been more fortunate for the languishing fund then the attack from Rome. Subscriptions rushed in from all quarters, until, finally, a sum of £39,000 was obtained.
"Before, however, the success of the testimonial has been completely achieved, in a manner thus doubly creditable to a Catholic people, Archbishop Croke, who had been conspicuous in his support of it, was summoned ad audiendum verbum to Rome. The English Press commented upon this summons with outmost satisfaction...
"Dr Croke gave me an interesting account of his experiences in Rome shortly after his arrival back in Ireland. His Holiness Pope Leo had received him in a most unfriendly manner. He examined him with reference to his advocacy of the movement led by Parnell and the attacks which he (the Archbishop) had made upon Dr McCabe after the head of the See of Dublin had censured the Ladies Land League, winding up with the charge that he (Dr Croke) had been complained of to his Holiness as a 'kind of Irish Garibaldi against law and authority.'
"this last shot roused the fiery Goat in the accused Archbishop, who at once flung back this crushing rejoinder: 'Well, Holy Father, all I need say, in that connection, is this. If Garibaldi had the same amount of support from the priests and people of Italy behind him that I have had in this stand I have taken against landlordism and English injustice in Ireland, it no longer surprise me to find your Holiness a prisoner in the Vatican.' This retort went home. Pope Leo had a real liking and admiration for the Irish people, and did not fail to recognise the honesty of character and purpose which lay behind the courage of this reply. Dr Croke was then invited to offer his views, and to give information upon the situation of Ireland, and the interview which began in a threatening storm ended without any mark of censure or humiliation being inflicted upon the stouthearted Irish prelate. He returned forthwith to Ireland, and took the first available opportunity after landing to declare, both to England and Rome, that he came back 'unchanged and unchangeable;' in all his convictions on the Irish question.
"The interference of Rome in Irish affairs of a non-religious nature have been invariably antagonistic and injurious, either in their direct motives or indirect consequences. Ireland, in fact, has been treated as if she stood in relation of a semi-temporal fief to the Holy See."
The Worker, 24 October 1936
Behind the 'Christian Front' Mask
Paddy Belton, the he-man from the midlands, is the acknowledged leader of the 'New Christianity' in this island. A real Saint Patrick the Second. He and an Englishman, named Noone, from Merseyside and a young lady who hails from somewhere in North or South America, started a 'Christian Front' to crush Communism. In their spare time the trade unions are having their attention. The present unions are not to the liking of Lombard Murphy - no more than they were to that of his father, William Martin Murphy, in 1913 - Belton, Miss O'Brien and the gentleman from the Mersey, Noone. Unions do not conform, it would seem, to the Belton-Murphy standard of Christianity. The whole matter is coming forcibly before the unions; it came up at the last meeting of the Dublin Trades Union Council.The worker's are now learning what is the real motive behind the so-called Christian Front ramp. Lombard Murphy and his newspapers are interested in the 'Christian Front' and the ant-trade union drive for very obvious reasons. The Murphy front fears that the rise of a militant trade union spirit would compel it to do justice to its employees in the Dublin Tram and Bus services, and its slave conditions in its other concerns, including Clery's. The people might be roused against the swindling service at extortionate rates which Murphy's trust palms off on the citizens as a transport service. The Murphy gang are pushing the 'Christian Front' in so far as they see in it a useful tool to wreck the working class movement, including the trade unions, and make the city safe for the 'Christian bosses.'
But what is Mr Belton's interest in the racket? He answers, 'Just concern for the Christian Faith.' The people cannot, however take this without a pinch of salt.! For Patrick Belton, TD, TC, has many interests other than a concern for religion. He was expelled from the Fianna Fail Party in 1927. He lost his seat at the following election. Cosgrave then picked him up and he was returned to the Dail at the last election as a Cosgraveite. He was in the Blueshirts under O'Duffy and was expelled by Cosgrave from the Fine Gael when the split with O'Duffy took place. He was the one TD of the Cosgrave Party that stood with the Fascist leader, O'Duffy. Belton is now 'on his own' once more. He naturally wants to get back to the Dail at the next election. He has no chance as an 'Independent' and none of the parties will touch him - except his pal O'Duffy. We are therefore justified in asking: Has Patrick Belton's interest in Christianity anything to so with the coming general election and the danger of him losing his seat?
But that is only one side of the many-sided Mr Belton, the 'Christian' leader. He is the owner of a substantial housing estate (Called Belton Park), Dublin. He is a big farmer. He is a building contractor. He is the owner of a number of shops, including a Pharmacy on his estate. In fact, Mr Belton is 'to to make good' as the saying goes. Has his spiritual fervour anything to do with his more worldly interests as a builder, a farmer, a shopkeeper, the drawer of rent from house property?
According to the trade unions, Mr Belton is far from being a disinterested defender of religion. It was asserted at the Dublin Trades Council that this distinguished 'Christian Front' leader had built his houses with labour paid under the rate; that he paid 1/- an hour to his labourers instead of the trade union rate of 1/3d![5 instead of 6p!] And it further appears that before Mr Belton can get the Government house building subsidy he must refund the labourers a sum in the neighbourhood of £2, 000 for wages! A trade union leader said: Before this man starts a Crusade of Christianity in distant lands, he should practice a little of it nearer home.
The 'Christian Front' is thus shown to be a political racket. Belton must get back to parliament. Secondly, the 'Front' is a Fascist racket: Belton is and was with O'Duffy in the Blueshirts and the 'Front' is busy trying to disrupt the trade unions, as well as supporting the Fascist militarists in Spain, whose declared policy is to destroy all Labour organisations. Thirdly, the 'Front is a capitalist-employers' racket, to further the business interests of its immediate heads. It is a racket of businessmen and political careerists, composed of aliens and natives. Its attack on Communism and loud professions of Christianity is simply a smoke screen behind which the Fascist game is played for the destruction of the whole working class movement in this country. This Fascist game must be stopped by the united action of all sections of the Labour and progressive movements.
The Worker, November 7th 1936
What is Fascism?
A correspondent writes to ask us for a definition of what Fascism is and wants to know if the revolt by Franco can be ‘really described as Fascism.’ His queries deserve an answer.First of al there is the definition of Fascism by the Communist International as ‘the dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic elements of finance capital.’ This can be easily amplified.
To get a clear view of the matter you must separate economics from politics. The question arises: is Fascism a new economic system? Is there a different social system in Germany and Italy from that in England and France? The answer is NO. Germany, Italy, England and France are all capitalist countries. They have the same social-economic system. That is to say, the people who own Germany and Italy’s land, factories, warehouses and control finance are a small class of capitalists. Two hundred families run the economic life of France according to the Popular Front. It’s the same in England, Ireland and all capitalist countries.
The economic system is Germany and Italy does not differ from that in France and England. What difference then has Fascism brought? The answer is: it has brought about an important political change. It has changed the form of the capitalist state.
Fascism has abolished democracy in Italy and Germany. Why? Because free speech, free trade unions, workers and Liberal parties were a danger to the continued rule of the finance magnates. In Italy and Germany the working class has suffered a temporary defeat at the hands of finance capital. In England, France, Ireland, etc., the workers are not defeated. It depends on the strength and leadership of the workers what the outcome of the battle is to be.
Is Franco and his gang Fascist? Of course they are. They are out to set up a dictatorship in Spain over the workers and peasants. They are out to destroy the Labour organisations, the freedom of the press and of meeting, In whose interests? In the interests of the millionaire financiers and landowners. But Franco doesn’t call himself a fascist; he calls himself a ‘nationalist.’ Yes, and does not Hitler call himself a ‘socialist’ – a ‘national socialist’. It is not what these adventurers call themselves that matters; it is what they have done, are doing and propose to do that decides what they are. Belton and Aileen O’Brien call themselves ‘Christians’, but that doesn’t say they are in any more interested in Christianity than Hitler is in Socialism. They are out for Fascism.
The reason for the victories of Fascism where is has gained power lies in the weakness of the working class leadership. The split in the working class is at the bottom of the difficulty in the fight against fascism. This split arises from the outlook and conduct of the official Labour leaders, who abandoned Socialism during the war and joined in an united front with the capitalist parties. The task of the revolutionary workers is to compel these leaders to break from this untied front with the capitalists and form a united front with the workers. In Spain this has been done and in consequence the middle class parties have also been drawn into a People’s Front with the Communists, Socialists and Anarchists.
It is our duty in Ireland to learn quickly the lessons of Germany, Italy and Spain. The first thing is to get a united workers’ front for the defence of democratic rights, the protection of the Trade Unions and the advancement of the daily needs of the workers and workless. This is the first step to the final crushing out of the Fascist plaque in this country and the growth of a powerful , vigorous labour movement.
The Worker, November 7th 1936
Archbishop doubts atrocity stories
The Church of Ireland synod, on the suggestion of the most Rev. Dr. Gregg, Archbishop of Dublin, last Tuesday decided not to press a ‘resolution of sympathy with alleged victims of the Church in Spain.Dr Gregg said “until we have some information we can rely upon it would be difficult to pass a useful resolution, although information of a kind exists that certain terrible things have happened IT IS NOT INFORMATION WHICH I MYSELF AM PREPARED TO ACCEPT AS ABSOLUTELY RELIABLE.”
This means the Archbishop and the Synod are automatically excommunicated as unbelievers by Belton and Miss O’Brien from the ‘Christian Front.’
The Worker, 21 November 1936
Basque Priest exposes 'Independent' Lies
A letter to the Irish people from the Rev. Ramon de Laborda, the Basque Nationalist leader, which George Gilmore has brought back from the Basque Country, completely demolishes the lie campaign of the 'Independent' machine, and shows how the truth has been hidden from Ireland.Fr Laborda is well-known in Ireland, He was in Dublin during the Eucharistic Congress in 1932 when he presented the Basque flag to Miss Eithne Coyle at a Republican Ceilidhe and was given the Tricolour in return.
Fr Laborda tells how with other priests and nuns, he had to flee for his life when the Foreign Legion criminals and Moors reduced Irun to a heap of ruins. Other priests, he says, failed to escape, and were slaughtered.
George Gilmore gave an interview and Fr Laborda's letter to the 'Evening Mail', 'Irish Press', and 'Irish Times'. Only the 'Mail' published the interview. Why did the 'Press' and 'Times' suppress both the interview and Fr Laborda's letter? Because a priests letter would expose the whole dirty campaign.
Here are some extracts from George Gilmore's interview:
"Catholic Nationalists, Socialists, Communists and many minor parties have," he said, "banded themselves together to maintain their newly won autonomy.
"The Basque Nationalist Party, by far the strongest party in the Provincial Government, is intensely Catholic and supported by the clergy almost without exception.
"I have been over the entire Basque Province. Not a single church has been burned or priest or religious molested.
"At the outset of the war the Basques were so badly equipped that they could not defend either Irun or San Sebastian. If Franco's Moorish Legions had marched on they could have taken Bilbao just as easily.
"Now, however, the Basques are well equipped. In one battery alone I saw 30 modern tanks collected. Up-to-date guns and millions of rounds of ammunition have poured in from outside sources.
"I was entertained by President Aquirre and members of his United Front Government. A crucifix occupies the most prominent place in his office. He is intensely Nationalist, but is Catholic as well. Priests and nuns walk about the streets of Bilbao, as they have always done."
The Worker, 21 November 1936
Non-Political, Moryah!
Murphy's newspapers are trying hard to keep the blood circulating in the 'Christian Front'. It gave them a great show over the weekend. It didn't say that their Rathmines meeting was a complete flop. True, thanks to the obliging policy of the Labour Party, Mr Keyes, 'Labour' TD for Limerick, spoke with the 'Front'. But it is clear to all men that the 'Front' is a stunt of Murphy's newspapers for political ends and in the words of Goldsmith it is like a 'flaring taper brightening as it wastes.'The speakers swore by all that is holy that there is nothing political in the Christian Front, despite all The Worker says, Belton and Corr are just a band of God-fearing men and for the spiritual good of the less-good living among the population. And they have nothing to do with Fascism. No, No! But Belton is a colleague of O'Duffy and stood with the Blueshirt leader when he split with Cosgrave. And who and what is Mr Bell, the acting secretary of the 'Front.' Was he not the leader of the Blueshirt Fascists in the National University? Are not Messrs Belton and Corr very ambitious capitalist-business men, drawing profits from the employment of labour? And is not Lombard Murphy's 'Independent', the howler, for Connolly's blood, a notorious enemy of the working class and the real agency behind this 'Christian Crusade'? And are they not hand and glove with the Fascist gangs in Spain out to destroy constitutional government. Abolish the Labour organisations and establish a Fascist-military dictatorship?
The truth bits sore and the people are finding out these crusaders for what they are; the agents of the money lords against the poor, the enemies of freedom, Fascists disguised in a religious cloak. But the masks are being torn off!
The Worker 21 Nov. 1936
Alec McCabe in Short and trousers
Alec McCabe, ex-Cosgraveite TD and present leader of the ‘Independents’ Christian Front was in anything but a Christian mood at a ‘Front’ meeting in Roscommon last Sunday. ‘There are other weapons than brains and talk,’ roared Alec. ‘I am ready to take off my coat and adopt those other means.’ So Alec is going to pelt Lombard Murphy’s ‘Christianity’ into the folk of Roscommon with bare knuckles!The latest victim of the ‘Independents’ Christian Front is an international philanthropic society called the ‘Save the Children Fund.’ The ‘Front’, through Murphy’s paper, stated there [are] Communists connected with the headquarters of this organisation in Geneva and that there were no guarantee monies would reach the Spanish children.
Mrs K Monaghan, Irish Secretary, wrote to the ‘Front’ demanding proof of this calumny on October 17. No answer from the ‘Front’. Mrs Monaghan again wrote to the ‘Front’ on October 25. Again, no answer. She wrote to Belton on November 3rd and got a reply saying the gentleman dealing with the matter was in Liverpool. Wrote again asking for an answer by November 13, but so far no reply. Mrs Monaghan says the ‘Save the Children Fund’ is for children rendered homeless regardless of the politics or religion of their parents, and that the pope and Bishops of all denominations have at various times assisted it. Murphy’s ‘Christians’ have their own ideas even about this ultra-respectable charitable body. ‘Communism! Communism!’
Worker 28th November 1936
A Fascist Crusade
The first batch of O’Duffy’s Fascists have sailed for Spain to join with Franco’s Moors and Foreign Legionnaires in the slaughtering of the valiant Spanish people.The Irish people and the international workers of all lands and Spain in particular will not fail to note who these ‘heroes’ are. Every one of them are of the Blueshirt Fascist brand, and took part, under O’Duffy, in overthrowing the Irish Republic following the Treaty. A large number of them are ex-officers of the Free State Army. There is not a single man of Republican, Labour or even Fianna Fail connections among them. They are the assassins of Irish Liberty and will be quite at home with Franco and the Foreign Legion – the would-be assassins of Spanish Liberty.
Murphy’s ‘Christian Front’ organ (the ‘Independent’) gives them a great boost. Nothing charms the bear of the ‘Independent’ like the scent of working men’s blood.
Having tasted this in 1913 and 1916 in Ireland, Murphy’s press now goes into ecstasies over the prospect of dipping its hands in the blood of the Madrid Republicans. O’Duffy is boosted as the hero who commanded the South-West Division of the Free State Army against the Republicans in 1922-3. The massacre of Ballyseedy took place in this area. Eleven prisoners were tied to a land mine with electric wires and blown to pieces. These are the gentlemen who are gone on the ‘Christian Crusade’ to Spain.
It is only fair to state that these Fascist ex-officers do not represent the views of the great bulk of either the officers or rank and file of the present or ex-National Army men, the majority of whom are strongly opposed to Fascism and its agent O’Duffy.
It is now the duty of the Labour and Republican masses of Ireland to wipe out this stain on the honour of our country, by redoubling all efforts to fight the Fascist menace and assist the Spanish workers to smash the Franco-O’Duffy–Moorish-Foreign Legion combination.
The Worker, 28 November 1936
Sean Murray on Spain at TCD
Dublin University League of Nations Society heard the Murphy press propaganda on Spain exploded last week, when Sean Murray moved the vote of thanks to Mr L T Fleming, 'Irish Times' Correspondent in Spain. The leader of the Irish Communist Party dealt in withering terms with the Irish pro-Fascist propaganda. 'The Irish people,' he said, 'are being suffocated with Fascist lies about Spain. But the facts are penetrating through the poison gas of Fascist propaganda. Few believe now that the battle of Madrid is between angels and devils over theological doctrines. It is between a corrupt dying class defeated in constitutional battle at the polls and the toiling people of Spain standing for Republican liberty.'Irish Fascism, too, was born out of the imperialist defeat in the General Election of 1933. O'Duffy, Cosgrave and Co., tried to stage a gentleman's rebellion in answer to the democratic victory of the masses. Irish Fascism in now on hire on the continent in the hope that for service rendered it will get the sinews of war from the Fascist Powers the next time it tries is hand for imperialist dictatorship here. The Irish workers in alliance with Republican Spain will spoil the Fascist game.'
The Worker 28 Nov. 1936
England abets the murderers of Spanish Children
Madrid Still Stands!
The Junker and Caproni bombers have spread death upon women and children. The moors and Foreign Legion mercenaries have been hurled daily at the beleaguered city. But the people of Madrid are unconquered. The capital of the Republic holds out. Spanish democracy, with its back to the wall, is writing an epic of human courage and endurance. Men – and even women – who a few months ago were ordinary citizens, factory workers, tramway men, teachers, professional men, with no military knowledge, are defying professional soldiers and the Army pilots of Germany and Italy.Franco and the men of property in Spain and elsewhere are learning how men can fight when freedom is their cause. Lombard Murphy’s lie machine should have remembered 1916 and 1919-24 before it rejoiced prematurely over the victory of fascism in Spain.
Spanish democracy is fighting though it has been betrayed. While Hitler and Mussolini ‘recognise’ Franco and openly aid the traitor to slaughter his country’s children, the Spanish Republic is deserted by the democratic Powers of Europe. Only the workers of the world, and particularly of Socialist Russia, are giving that support which Spanish democracy has the right to demand.
Britain, the ‘impartial’, ‘well-meaning’ Britain, is aiding Hitler and Mussolini to turn Spain into a chaos of blood. Look at the dastardly record of British imperialism in this struggle; (1) By refusing to sell supplies to the legally established government, Britain broke all established International law and gave Franco’s hordes the same status as the Government forces. (2) Britain’s chairman of the so-called non-Intervention Committee ‘acquitted’ Portugal, Germany and Italy of intervention, when Franco himself was publicly thanking them for their aid. (3) Britain has now responded to Franco’s insolent blockade threat by announcing that ‘neither side’ will be accorded belligerent rights, and a Bill is to be rushed through forbidding British ships to carry arms to Spanish ports. Britain thus gives Franco (and German and Italian submarines) the word to go ahead with their blockade of Barcelona. Had Britain stood with France and the Soviet Union in warning Franco, the blockade threat would have proved an empty bluff. Britain hopes to make the bluff a fact.
The British workers are not lying down to this Tory government policy. They are demanding that the Spanish Government be granted the elementary rights accorded to every government. They are demanding that the British Government stop opening the road to another Fascist victory and world war. Six-County working class organisations should play their part in this campaign.
Hitler and Mussolini are openly helping their puppet Franco. Britain is helping covertly. Murphy’s press, Murphy’s ‘Christian front’ and Murphy’s UIP are doing their part in Ireland.
Democracy and world peace are at stake in Spain. The Spanish people must get the support of all Irish trade Unionists, Republicans, Labour and Communist workers, ex-servicemen and democrats.
‘No parallel,’ says the London ‘Times’ correspondent in Spain, ‘can be found in the 1914-18 war for the ordeal Madrid is experiencing. At any moment people of all ages going their way and children playing may be confronted with tragedy.’ Bombing children, that’s how Fascism fights!
The Worker December 5th 1936
Dublin Communists Meet
A successful Aggregate Meeting of the Dublin members of the Communist Party was held last Saturday, Sean Murray presiding. Comrade W.H. McCullough, Belfast District, made a report on behalf of the Central Committee on the present issues facing the Irish Workers and the steps taken by the C.C. for the re-establishment of the revolutionary workers’ press. McCullough strongly stressed the growing menace to the working class of Fascism in its various disguises whose purpose was to keep the workers in the hunger and misery of the present system. To wage the fight of the Irish workers a strong press was needed. The heroic deeds of the Spanish workers was the shining example and inspiration to every Irishman to play his part in the great struggle for emancipation of the people.The members present showed their appreciation of Comrade McCullough’s report by signing pledges for the sum of £30 towards the press fund.
An inspiring message from Comrade Bill Scott, now serving with the International Column in Spain, was read to the meeting and received with great enthusiasm.
The Worker December 12th 1936
Father O’Flanagan and Spain
In the course of a powerful indictment of Fascism at a great meeting in the Engineers Hall, Dublin, on December 3rd, the Rev. Michael O’Flanagan, the distinguished patriot priest, said:“The fight in Spain is a fight between the rich privileged classes against the rank and file of the poor oppressed people of Spain. The cause being fought for in Spain was near us than was realised. The Foreign legion and Moorish troops were to Spain what the Black and Tans were to Ireland. The Spaniards didn’t send any people to join the Black and Tans here and they didn’t make collections in their churches to help the Black and Tans in Ireland.
“The Government of Spain was elected by the votes of the people and on the other side was a body of rebels, mostly the old Army. They were just the same type as our own General Gough and Carsons at home. The people who were calling the Spanish rebels ‘patriots’ had proved to be very bad judges of Patriots in Ireland.
“When we had real patriots fighting in Dublin they were called looters and it was said they were in the pay of Germany. We had an editorial in one newspaper (an allusion to Murphy’s ‘Independent’) asking for the death of two of the noblest Patriots in the history of Ireland, James Connolly and Sean McDermott.
“It was in the Red Republic of Russia that nationalities similar to the Basques, got their fullest freedom.
“We have had the experience here,” Fr. O’Flanagan continued, “of men being refused the rights of their Church because they were real patriots. Even clergymen who were true to their country, such as father Murphy and Father Murphy in ’98, were spurned by the ecclesiastics of their time, who were hand and glove with the British government. Now we have monuments erected to these patriot priests. I hope the Irish people will see through the hypocrisy and sham of their enemies and rally to the cause of truth and justice.” (Loud applause greeted the conclusion of Father O’Flanagan’s speech.)
George Gilmore, Republican leader, just back from a visit to the Basque country, gave the names and addresses of up to a score of priests killed by Franco’s Fascists. He stated the Bishop of Vittorio had to fly from the persecution of Franco. It was a lie to say that the fight in Spain was a religious one. It was between a Fascist rebellion and a democratic Government, between monarchy and Republicanism, between landlords and farmers, between the rich and the poor.
Other speakers at the meeting were: Mrs H. Sheehy-Skeffington, Frank Ryan, J Thompson, and a Republican from the Six Counties.
The Worker December 12th 1936
Republicans Trounce Belton and Fascists
“Bolton is back from his beer drinking expedition to the Bay of Biscay,” said Mr Tom Powell, at a Republican Meeting last Sunday in Dublin, presided over by Madam McBride. “He had the audacity to compare Franco with Padraig Pearse. That was an insult to the Irish people. Franco was simply a fascist who was exploiting the workers and using the Church for his own ends to overthrow a Republican government.”Mr Patrick Hogan said: “Franco was a Fascist and he was being supported by the ‘Independent’ which called for the blood of McDermott and Connolly I 1916. Murphy was never a friend of the workers and anything his paper supported should be looked on with suspicion.
“The country can ill afford sending £40,000 to the rebels in Spain,” declared Miss Maura Murphy. “It was needed much nearer home.”
The meeting was held at Cathal Brugha Street, Dublin.
The Worker 19th December 1936
Spanish Priest Attacks Rebels
Below are extracts from a radio address by the Rev. Juan Garcia Morales, from Madrid, to the people of Spain. This address was given just before the Pope issued his recent statement on Spain. The address is reprinted from ‘Catholics and the Civil War in Spain,’ a penny pamphlet issued by the Labour Party Publications Department, London.“Comrades of the world, and my brothers! You must know that many Spanish priests are on the side of the people and with the people’s cause, that they wear the honoured uniform of the popular Militia, and that they stand opposed to their brothers in the priesthood who have left the Body and Blood of Christ Jesus on the altars, have taken up rifles, and have trampled underfoot the commandment’s of God’s Law, to hurl themselves like tigers on the working people of Spain.
“All we Spanish Catholics are anxiously waiting for the words of our Holy father in Rome. In these moment’s of our country’s agony the voice of the representative of Christ on earth will be like the voice of the angels at the birth of the Messiah: ‘peace on earth to men of good-will.’
“The Holy Father in Rome must be well informed of the rebellion. There are plenty of people in Rome who will advise his Holiness on whatever occurs in Spain. Nuncios who have dealt only with Dukes and Marquises, and know nothing of the people. Directors of Catholic Social Action in Spain, who have drawn blood out of stones to assure the triumph of diplomacy. All these things lead nowhere: useless actions and scraps of paper. Diplomacy serves no purpose: Your Holiness is the Representative of God Who was a carpenter and a poor man - and in the name of this God Who died on the Cross for just men and sinners, you must condemn those military chiefs and clergy who have taken up arms against a legally constituted Government.
“On my knees, making my profession of Catholic faith, I wait for the voice of Your Holiness, hoping that tomorrow it will prove itself a light to lighten the understanding of the rebels, so that they may be convinced of their crimes, and laying down those arms which they have taken up against the people, they may smite their breasts and say a solemn ‘Misere.’
The Worker 19th December 1936
Irishmen’s Reply to Franco and O’Duffy
Interviewed by The Worker representative before his departure for Spain to take command of the Irish section of the International Column, now commanded by General Kleber, Frank Ryan, the outstanding Left-Wing Republican leader said:“The Irish contingent is a demonstration of revolutionary Ireland’s solidarity with the gallant Spanish workers and peasants in their fight for freedom against fascism. It aims to redeem Irish honour besmirched by the intervention of Irish Fascism on the side of the Spanish Fascist rebels. It is to aid the revolutionary movements of Ireland to defeat the Fascist menace home, and, finally, and not the least, to establish the closest fraternal bonds of kinship between the Republican democracies of Ireland and Spain.”
This is the reply of the Irish workers from Belfast to Cork to the shame brought on Ireland’s name before the world by O’Duffy, Belton and the ‘independent’ and their intervention on the side of Franco, with his Foreign Legionnaires and Moors.
Frank Ryan has had a distinguished career in the Irish Independence struggle, both in the Black and Tan and post-treaty periods. He was a member of the Executive of the I.R.A. for years, editor of ‘An Phoblacht’, the victim of innumerable jailings under the Cosgrave regime – the last under the notorious Coercion Act. Ryan has for several years been one of the most consistent champions of the United Front in Ireland, the union of Republican and Labour movements in the fight against imperialism and fascism.
With him are outstanding figures in the Communist Party, the republican and working class movements. Amongst these are Kit Conway, of Tipperary, Jack Nalty, P Duff, Donal O’Reilly, Seamus Cummins from Dublin, Frank Edwards of Waterford. All active revolutionaries in the National and Labour movements. On the completion of the Irish Column we hope to be in a position to give a complete list of its members.
Meanwhile the example of these soldiers of Liberty must act as a spur to all workers for freedom at home to press ahead with the struggle against fascism in all its disguises.
The Worker 19th December 1936
Old IRA repudiate O’Duffy clique
The following letter was published in the daily press of December 9th, from Mr. Thomas P Irwin, on behalf of the Old Dublin Brigade, IRA.“A report appeared in the ‘Irish Independent’ of the 1st December of a function held in the Hotel St. George by a body calling themselves the Old Dublin Brigade Flying Squad IRA. Mr J Dolan proposed, and Mr J Foy seconded a resolution pledging their moral support to the youth of the country who had gone to Spain, and generally supporting General O’Duffy in his sacrifice to the cause of General Franco. The Dublin brigade Old IRA Executive Committee repudiate in the strongest possible terms the actions of Messrs. Dolan, Foy and Coughlan in affording their support to General O’Duffy. When they speak as if representing the Old Dublin brigade; and furthermore, they wish it to be known that that particular group have no connection with the Old Dublin Brigade IRA, and that some of them never had any connection with the ASU of the Dublin Brigade IRA.
The Worker 19th December 1936
Irishman at the Spanish Front
Below we give extracts from an inspiring letter from Bill Scott, a Dublin man now serving with the 5th Regiment of the International brigade of the Spanish Republican Army.“Albacete is a small town about sixty miles from Toledo. We arrived here on Monday. The night before we arrived there was an air raid on the town, at least, the Fascists spent tow hours bombing a field outside the town. They must be ‘good’ shots.
“A friend of mine named Julius, a Londoner, was killed in the 8th of October. He was leader of a Column although only twenty-four. He was leading an attack on a machine-gin nest and was killed in the fight that followed. I was talking to him three days before he died. He was on leave in Barcelona and went back to the front of his own accord. He said he wanted to be with the boys when they captured Huesca.
“ A Centuria of a hundred men went to Huesca the same time. They returned with 63, most of them stone-deaf from the roar of German artillery. The war in Ireland was only a game of draughts to what this is. This is a real war and it looks as if it were going to be fought to the bitter end. The Fascists are not going to win. That is certain. For a long time they have been armed to the teeth. They don’t want any more arms, they have enough for all their men. On the other hand our men have not started to arm yet. And if we get arms now, there are thousands of men only too willing to use them.
“You needn’t mind who knows I am in Spain. I won’t be ashamed to go back to Dublin when it is over for I am convinced now that we’re going to win, and it’s the most sacred cause in history to defend Freedom.”
The Worker 19 December 1936
Hitler Non-Intervenes at Galway!
O’Duffy, Hitler, Franco – one Fascist dictator and tow would be dictators – this was the link up at Galway last Sunday, when 700 Blueshirts and Greenshirts were embarked on the German liner ‘Urandi’ (of the Hamberg-American Line) for Spain.The ‘Independent’ and its flock of propagandists who are trying to make out that the Spanish rebels are ‘nationalists’ and ‘patriots’, tried to hide the fact that Franco was the hireling of Hitler and Mussolini. They tried to deny that the Fascist dictators were intervening in Spain.
Let them deny it now! Here is Hitler at work on our own doorstep. O’Duffy didn’t pay for that liner. Neither did Franco (and even if he did, it would still be a breach of international law.) It is clear that the Nazi Government ordered this vessel to Galway.
And Murphy’s ‘Christian’ Front was to the fore at Galway, putting medical supplies aboard the ‘Urundi’. The ‘non political’ Front which had no connection with O’Duffy (even if Paddy Belton is O’Duffy’s best pal) is shown to be O’Duffy’s Commissariat.
What is the Fianna Fail Government going to do about this Hitler-O’Duffy
alliance to being Irishmen into Spain to overthrow a legally elected Government?
The Worker December 26th 1936
The International Column in Spain
By Hugh Slater (in Madrid)General George Kleber, Commander of the international Column under General Maja, commander-in-Chief of the Spanish Republican Army, is a Canadian of Austrian birth. While a prisoner of war in Russia, he was released when the Revolution came, and fought in the Red Army against Kolchak. Later he fought brilliantly with the Chinese Army during the war of independence.
The International Column is organised for practical purposes into language groups. All kinds of anti-Fascist views are represented: Socialist, Communist, Liberal and Republican. The communists are the biggest single political group. In the front lines yesterday I spoke to an earnest German Catholic, who ahs made a big reputation for bravery as a machine gunner and also for bringing in wounded.
There are already innumerable stories of heroism and self-sacrifice to be told about the column. The following is a description of an action (by a participator) in the University City which gives a very vivid picture of courage and toughness:
"This is the Casa de Labor. It was under a withering fire. Just as the men were hesitating because two enemy tanks were approaching, someone began to sing the 'Internationale' and we and the Asturians of the Heredia battalion rushed forward. There was someone in front with a red banner. We sang the 'Internationale' in four languages, and we took the house. The Asturians, the Germans, the French and the Poles gave shouts of fraternal encouragement to each other since they could not communicate in words.
"The Edgar Andre battalion remained guarding the house; or more exactly the part of the house we had conquered; for some rooms were still occupied by the fascists, Moors and legionnaires. From where we were we could hear the Moors talking; we couldn't understand them, but the legionnaires, yes. The language of these was sometimes familiar. For this reason whenever a legionary was speaking we put our ears to the wall so as not to lose a word. Sometime they were insulting us in various languages; others were threatening to burn the house so that we should all die inside. We then called them traitors or anything else that occurred to us; and we asked them: 'Are you growing rich by assassinating workers?' They replied with blasphemies and other insults. We lost patience and with a pick we opened a gap in the partition. Immediately, as soon as there was room to put a machine gun through, we fired into the next room till there was not a man left standing.
"'At other times,' another comrade told me, 'we heard them talking quietly through the walls. One night I heard two legionnaires conversing. They were talking of Tangier, where one of them lived by gambling, and one said to the other. 'This house is a rattrap. From this war not one of us will escape alive, and if anyone should he will be treated the same because there will be no profit left.' His companion agreed, but I heard him say that there was no way out of the dilemma.'"
The drive through the outskirts of Madrid into the part of the University City where there is the worst fighting and where the Thaelmann Brigade is stationed, was inappropriately beautiful yesterday. The sun was intensely clear in the very cold atmosphere. Only some of the grey winter trees are broken by the artillery fire, leaving huge jagged splinters. The Sierras in the distance looked bright blue with sparkling white snow-blanketed peaks. Machine-guns seemed to be rattling from every direction but none of them near us. We left the car under a bridge and walked on to the frontline in single file, each man about twenty feet from the other. We passed the small reservoir surrounded by low iron railings where Hans Beimler was killed (our men had made some advances since then), and sat down behind a back with a group of the Thaelmann Brigade.
The group included Germans, a Swiss, three Czechoslovaks, an American, an Australian, some Englishmen, and two or three others who spoke a language like Russian. They offered us American cigarettes (which are unobtainable for civilians in Madrid). They were all very well clothed and equipped. While we were talking the whole group was issued with formidable looking helmets. Everybody, in spite of having been in the front line for ten days, was in good spirits. They said that the enemy had begun to build trenches - which suggested that they were being forced to think more in terms of defence than of attack. One of the Englishmen said the Moors were excellent snipers, but that they were not a patch on our Germans for hand-to-hand fighting. The fair-haired Swiss told us the story of an American who, in charge of six Yugoslavs (whose language he did not understand), made a surprise attack on a very strategically important red brick hen-house fifty yards behind the most advanced enemy positions. The night before they had crept along a ditch, bombed the Moors out of the hen house with hand-grenades, occupied it and turned a machine gun on to the backs of the fascists in their front line. At the same time our main frontal attack began. Of the seven who went out only the American leader was wounded.
It is such incidents as this that have made the International Column famous for their ability to carry into practice Danton's splendid slogan - Audacity! Audacity! And again Audacity! It is for this reason that the international Column has earned the most unqualified enthusiasm of the whole Spanish people.
The Worker December 26th 1936, p3.
Irishman killed in Madrid: Another reported missing
It is reported than an Irishman, named Barry, a member of the famous International Column, has been killed in a recent engagement on the outskirts of Madrid. Another Irishman, Tommy Patten, of Achill, Co. Mayo, is reported missing.These two Irishmen, it is reported, volunteered to hold off attackers with rifles, while other members of the Column were dismantling and escaping with a battery of machine-guns in danger of being captured.
The two Irishmen held the attackers at bay, but when the Government forces re-entered the position there was no trace of Patten and Barry was found dead with his rifle still clasped in his hands.
Hopes are held that Patten may have succeeded in escaping capture by the Fascist enemy, and has been only temporarily cut off.
A correspondent of a London newspaper, who recently had a talk with Tommy Patten asked him why he - a Catholic from County Mayo - is fighting with the Spanish Government when the newspapers spread about stories of anti-religious atrocities supposed to have been committed by the Government forces. To this Tommy Patten replied:
"I know, and you know, the stories are untrue. Also, I would like to remind you, and as many of my fellow Catholics as my voice will reach that many of the foremost and noblest of the Spanish Catholics have publicly declared their support for the Spanish Government, and proclaimed the duty of good Catholics to combat the Fascist barbarians.
"And what about those Catholics fighting for the Government, many of them murdered by the Fascists because they were loyal to the Republic?
"I, as an Irishman, understand why the Spanish people are forced to fight even for the right to live. I have seen the terrible conditions they live in, their miserable homes and their terrible poverty.
"As to atrocities, I will tell you the whole story of something that happened to a comrade of mine in this country.
"It was out in University City the other day. We were holding a very rough line during the night when one of out French comrades was separated from us in an advanced position. It was a quiet night and he slept like the rest of us, except for those on guard.
"In the night Moors crept forward, found him sleeping there, and first gouged his eyes out as he lay there helpless.
"I am happy to be fighting here for the Government, because I am an Irishman and a Catholic. We know what we are fighting for - we are fighting for a freer and better world."
Every Irishman and woman who believes in freedom and hates tyranny will feel proud that men like Patten, Frank Ryan, Bill Scott and many others have willingly gone to Madrid to let the world know that O'Duffy and his 'Black and Tans' do not represent the real people of Ireland - Republican, Labour and Democratic Ireland. The Irish Unit of the International Column will avenge the death of their Comrade Barry by striking a hard and quick blow to the Fascist enemy.
The Worker December 26th 1936
The Church and Politics
Mrs. McGovern, wife of John McGovern, M.P, walked out of St. Michael’s catholic church, Glasgow, last Sunday, as a protest against a political attack by the officiating priest on a recent speech by John McGovern, M.P., backing the Spanish Government against the Fascist rebels. Mr McGovern had criticised the political domination of the Church in Spain and its attitude in supporting the rebellion against the Republic. ‘I had no option but to walk out’, said Mrs McGovern. Mr McGovern then got in touch with the Vicar-General of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and asked him if the priest had been instructed to deliver the political attack from the pulpit. The Vicar-General’s reply was: No, far from it. The Vicar-General stated: ‘The whole thing is regrettable. The pulpit should not be used for that purpose.’The Worker, 26 December 1936
Xmas: An Appeal
The Fascists are halted before Madrid and Irishmen are playing a noble part in the great battle to save liberty in Spain. An Irish section now takes its place in the International Column, which is delivering shattering blows against the Fascist invaders. Fascism is unable to conquer Spain. The spirit which animates the Irish section under Frank Ryan in common with the anti-Fascists in the International Column from Germany, France, Italy, Britain and all countries, makes certain that the Fascist plague will never plant its bloodstained banner over the Spanish people.We in Ireland have a particularly important duty to shoulder in this struggle against the conspiracy to assassinate the Spanish Republic. The Blueshirt-Christian Front-Independent playboys have stained Ireland's name before the whole world by advertising this country as a kind of second Morocco for the recruitment of mercenaries to fight against the liberty of Spaniards. Because of this, the Irish section of the International Column is carrying out a great historic feat, which calls for the enthusiastic support of every Irishman and woman.
Money is needed to send them medical aid, supplies of clothing, cigarettes, etc. Committees to take up this work are being organised in Dublin and Belfast. Meanwhile there is no time to lose. The Irish section must have New Year greetings. We ask every 'Worker' reader to cut his or her Xmas expenses and forward c/o 'Worker' office donations to enable this work to be started immediately.
DON'T IGNORE THIS APPEAL: SUPPORT IRELAND'S DEMOCRATIC FIGHTERS!