Sources


Some Miscellaneous Material

Updated 1st August 2008

Labour History material

Searching across the site it becmae obvious to me that some of the articles, letters, etc, would be of interest to anyone looking at Labour History, material about the international Lenin School, the attacks on the CPI headquarters in the 1930s, a few early letters from Mick O'Riordan. Check them out here.

Cork and the Spanish Civil War.

Extract from: Song for a Poor Boy. A Cork childhood, by Patrick Galvin.

Land and Freedom - 6 differing views

I was recently sent a press statement by Peter O'Connor and Mick O'Riordan from 1996 giving their opinion on Ken Loach's film, Land and Freedom. I decided to see what else I could find on this and have ended up with a collection of 6 articles, 3 opposed to the politics of the film, 3 supportive.

Along with the statement from Mick and Peter is an article by Bill Alexander, who served as Political Commissar of the Anti-Tank Battery and then as Commander of the British Battalion in the SCW.

This compilation is not intended to start a debate on this site, it's presented here as a part of the historical record and is to allow people to make up their own minds.

Read the Land and Freedom reviews here.

Ireland: Monuments to the Connolly Column

Added, May 13th 2007 This article appeared in the Volunteer, newsletter of the American veterans. More here ... Follow the "Memorials" link in the left hand margin to see some of these images.

Leopold H. Kerney - Irish Minister to Spain 1935 - 1946

Review by Manus O'Riordan of this website written and compiled by Eamon Kerney (www.leopoldhkerney.com)

University dissertations on Ireland and the SCW

I've brought together 6 dissertations/extracts which are well worth reading. More here ... CC, 29/4/7

70th Anniversary trip to Spain

Retracing the exploits of the Irish volunteers in the Spanish Civil War as we mark the mark the 70th Anniversary. Pol McAdams with John Quinn and others travelled to Spain.

This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the Spanish Civil war, which was probably of one the most defining events of conflict in the 20th Century, yet it is a war very few people know the importance of in relation to the shaping of modern history. Read the rest of this report from the South Belfast Post, August 2006 here ...

Danny Conlon, The News of the World, January 5, 2003: Ireland's Other Civil War - Thousands went off to Spain and fought in rival sides.More here...

Cork Evening Echo - on Spanish Civil War – extracts Some notes on the Bandera supporters from that part of the country. More here ...

A surprisingly positive piece from the News of the World on the SCW. It gives details of the death of Jack Nalty. More here ...

International Women's Day Lecture, March 8th. More here ...

BBC Radio programme on the Irish in Spain, March 18th. More here ...

There are a few additional pieces from the Irish Times in 1996. More here ...

Historical documents, etc.

Pamela O'Malley - (1929-2006)

While these 2 related pieces are strictly speaking outside the remit of this site, I'm adding them because they are extremely important for all young readers. Pamela O'Malley was an Irish female activist in the anti-Franco underground in the 1950s-1970s. This is an Irish Times obituary for her and the remarks by Manus O'Riordan to the Memorial Service held in the Labour History Society premises, Dublin on April 2nd.

Fascism Then And Now

by John Pilger, Morning Star, August 02, 2005

"We gathered, the other day, at the International Brigades’ Memorial in Jubilee Park beside the Thames in London. It was warm with no breeze, “a Spanish day”, one of the Brigaders said."

More here ...

Irish Democrat - Irish Post - Irish Echo, May 1968 onwards

Some more newspaper coverage dug from the archives. I've collected a series of articles, over the summer I'll add more to the site.

More here ...

They do give a lot of small details of the Irish involvement. Additional pieces from the 1980's were added over the Xmas holidays. Added 9th June. 2004 and updated Dec.30th.

More here ...

Bibliography of Ireland and the SCW

Updated and Revised Bibliography of material on Irish involvement in the Spanish Civil War. I had initially included a bibliography on the site but here is a revised bibliography, revised early 2004, which is substantially longer.

More here ...

Additions, or corrections, would be welcome. Ciaran Crossey.

If you do locate additional material of interest to this subject, Irish involvement in the Spanish civil war, please e-mail me with the details so it can be added to this list. And let me know of new material as it comes out.

Salud!

Name index to 1930s papers

I have put links for a lot of these names thru to the relevant article from those papers, but there's a lot more to go in. If anyone comes across a broken link, please let me know. CC, Belfast 20/4/8

Some interesting nuggets

I have pulled together a number of short extracts from various books, papers, etc. which reflect on some detail of Irish involvement in the Spanish Civil War. CC 15.4.00

More here ...

Readers are reminded that all the copyright of this material rests with the authors, so any quotation from them must be fully acknowledged and properly cited. The publishers of this site have approached the publishers and are grateful for their advice. CC 15.4.00

1. Notes by Louis MacNeice 2. Notes on censorship and the Catholic Church
3. Notes on life in Cork in 1936, some points on SCW.

Dail debate concerning Spanish Civil War expenses!

15th Feb. 1939. This brief note refers to the costs of repatriation of Irish nationals, and the operational costs of participation in the Non Intervention Committee.

More here ...

Irish medics in Spain

I've drawn together a list of the Irish medics who served on both sides of the Spanish Civil War. Would anyone with additional names or details, please pass them onto cpcrossey@hotmail.com

More here ...

Non Combatants

Among other material found in the local papers I've established that there were a number of Non Combatants from here who were in Spain during the Civil War. Added 2nd Feb. 2003.

More here ...

North Belfast News

Recently we were able to get an article carried in the North Belfast News on local involvement in the SCW. There are a few details wrong, but we'll leave that for now. Added 26th Nov. 2001.

More here ...

An extract from a Russian book

International Solidarity with the Spanish Republic 1936-1939, published in 1976, i.e. the chapter on Irish involvement came before Michael O'Riordan's book, The Connolly Column.

More here ...

Review of the Connolly Column

© belongs to the I.R.S.P. 1980. Added 22nd November 2000

More here ...

Local newspaper coverage

I went into the provincial press in Northern Ireland. I've added a lot (approx 50 A4 pages worth) of notes on material carried in the Irish News from July 1936 to Dec. 1938. Lots of small points, and material I found useful.

More here ...

What I hope to present here are extracts from the coverage of/reaction to the SCW in the papers in Northern Ireland. This will include some of the main papers in NI, i.e. the Northern Whig, News Letter, etc. along with local papers.

Belfast Newsletter

Belfast Telegraph

This paper is the only evening paper in NI, and as such is read by both communities. 5 pieces from December 1938.

Belfast Weekly News - reports and editorials, Feb - June 1938.

There are a number of articles here, with references to an attempt by O'Duffy to support Franco by trying to 'seize' ships in Derry and Belfast. Other ref. to solidarity support for refugees includes mentions of Kathleen McColgan and the Earl of Antrim, Randal McDonnell.

Fermanagh Herald

This paper was checked from July to Nov. 7th 1936. Essentially it carried a number of horror stories about the persecution of the Catholic Church in Spain.

Irish Independent reports on the SCW June-July1937

Reports from the Irish News

The main local paper for Catholics in Northern Ireland has been the Irish News, published in Belfast but with a wider circulation. In order to get as accurate an impression as possible of the local involvement with the Spanish Civil war I went through the papers taking notes as I went.

These notes are now available here, but a word (or two) of explanation. My interest was in Irish involvement in the war, so the notes reflect this. I was not writing notes on the general war coverage, of which there was a lot in the early period. Notes [marked like this] are my summaries of the contents of the particular article in the paper. Generally any notes without those brackets are direct quotes. Bear with me, I'm sure I made errors in this, but the principle is sound. The contents should be fairly clear when you read the notes.

Northern Whig - Extracts

The Northern Whig was a daily paper published in Belfast throughout the period.

Labour movement responses

A few bits and pieces dealing with the Irish labour movement's response to the Spanish Civil War.

More here ...

Labour News (extracts)

Northern Ireland Labour Party, Conference record

Newry Labour Party (extract of minutes)

Belfast Trades Council minutes (extracts corrected, 14th April2000)

Added 23rd February 2001

Socialist Party of Northern Ireland

Some notes, added 15th April 2000

Midgley:- Articles by and about Harry Midgley, leader of the Northern Ireland Labour Party.

More here ...

Book Reviews

By Jim Monaghan, A Dublin activist January 1998.

The Irish contribution to the International Brigades in the in the Spanish Civil War is an honourable one. I will try to put into the context of Irish society at the time. I cannot but recall the Joan Baez song about another civil war and the lines, "They should never have take the best."

Books reviewed:

Connolly Column by veteran Michael O'Riordan Frank Ryan by Sean Cronin Strong Words Brave Deeds the poetry, life and times of Thomas O'Brien by H Gustav Klaus Even the Olives are Bleeding: the Life and Times of Charlie Donnelly,

by Joseph O'Connor. Dublin, 1992

Charlie Donnelly: life and works, Joseph Donnelly, Dublin 1987

Article about Belfast involvement

This is an extract from a book by Raymond Quinn, ©, called Rebel Voices. ©

More here ...

Other Links

Here are more external links of value to people interested with the SCW. Updated, March 25th 2007: April 12th 2006.

Shapes of Time

I was sent a notice about this site, with material ranging across the Spanish Civil War, Cable Street, etc. Among the other material is a brief interview with Paddy Cochrane, an Irish IB veteran. Shapes of Time site

More here ...

Here are four good sites, but go through to the Links page for more.

1. John Corcoran, a researcher who has published material on volunteers from the North East of England, has created a site giving photographs of a recent trip he took to the battlefields of Jarama.

More here ...

2. One of the most interesting people in the SCW was Salaria Kea, the only black female American to go to Spain. This pamphlet gives some indication of her political - sexual - racial struggles. One small point, it fails to mention that she married an Irish volunteer, Paddy O'Reilly, and lived with him for nearly 40 years!! (10th April 2005)

More here ...

3. A new German pamphlet, Souvenir of Spain has been added, 26.4.01 Not really of Irish interest, but I think it's worth a look. (10th April 2005)

More here ...

4. There is a very good connection for the American veteran's site allowing anyone to search back copies of their journal, The Volunteer. Make sure your computer has Adobe downloaded (it's free) so you can access this paper.

More here ...

For other selections of documents, etc., go through to these pages.

Material on Republican volunteers

Material on Nationalist/Franco's Volunteers

If you want to contact me, feel free, cpcrossey@hotmail.com I look forward to any comments, questions or corrections.





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