Connolly Column

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the Irish volunteers that fought on the
Nationalist side, see Irish Brigade (Spanish Civil War)
.

Memorial to Limerick men who fought in the International Brigades, erected outside Limerick City Hall in 2014.[1]

The Connolly Column (Spanish: Columna Connolly,

British
and Latin American battalions in Spain. The name is now retroactively applied to all Irish volunteers who fought for the Spanish Republic.

Origins

On the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936, support for the Spanish Republic grew among left-wing organizations, taking tangible form in a decision in September 1936 to form an International Brigade of volunteers to fight with the Republican government against the fascist-dominated Nationalist rebels. This decision was echoed in Ireland by various left-wing groups; the chief organizers of this effort were Sean Murray, Peadar O'Donnell, and Frank Ryan.

Murray was chairman of the Communist Party of Ireland (CPI) at the time, and a fine orator. he was in contact with Bill Scott, a volunteer with the Thälmann Battalion who sent regular reports of conditions in Spain, and which Murray published in the party newspaper, The Worker.[2]

O'Donnell, a socialist and

military coup in the city and joined one of their militias on the Aragon
front. On his return to Ireland, O'Donnell urged the formation of Irish volunteer regiments to support the Popular Front government.[3]

Ryan had fought during the

communist-orientated Republican Congress, and had also been a member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).[4]
He was keen to form a volunteer group to join the International Brigades and fight.

Most of the Irish volunteers came from the Republican Congress. From the period of 1925–1931,[5] the IRA received money from the Soviet Union in return for spying on the United Kingdom and the United States.[5] This had led to many Communist Party of Ireland members joining and even setting up front groups such as Saor Éire. This attempt to form a synthesis of republican and communist concerns had largely failed and within the IRA the communist-element declined in prominence by the early 1930s, leading these people to found the separate Republican Congress.

Motivation

As well as sympathy for the Spanish Republic, many Irish Republican volunteers were also motivated by enmity towards the Irish Brigade, an 800 strong force that volunteered in late 1936 to fight on the Spanish Nationalist side. This antagonism dated back to the Irish Civil War of 1922–23, when some of the predecessors of the two factions had fought on opposing sides. In 1932–33 small groups of IRA men and Blueshirts had fought each other in the streets with fists, bats and occasionally guns; the Blueshirts were outlawed in 1933.

Some of these men on both sides saw the Spanish conflict as a continuation of Ireland's own civil war. Neither group had a candidate elected in any Irish elections, despite the hardships of the Great Depression. Already a small group, some left-leaning IRA or ex-IRA men had formed the breakaway Republican Congress in 1934, which also divided later that year.

Not all the volunteers were Irish Republicans, however, as the Irish International Brigaders included many other strains of socialist and left wing ideology. They even included a communist ex-clergyman, Robert Hilliard.

assassins of Justice Minister Kevin O'Higgins
in 1927, and who later joined the Irish Communist Party, had a major role in the recruitment and organising.

In Spain

Paddy O'Daire, a senior officer in the Connolly Column

In December 1936, a group of eighty volunteers, led by Frank Ryan, arrived in Spain.

Tommy Wood, aged 17. Many were members of the Communist Party of Ireland, and Wood was a member of Fianna Éireann.[10]

After travelling through southern France by train to

battle of Madrid, where they lost a number of men.[13]

In January 1937 the unit was re-organized, with new recruits from Ireland and elsewhere, and placed with the newly formed (English-speaking)

Irish Republican convictions. Ryan wrote of the importance of workers solidarity outweighing national sentiment,[14] though he also on one occasion threatened to shoot an English volunteer when he found out that he had served in the Black and Tans in the Irish War of Independence. As a result of these tensions, some of the Irish left the British to join the 17th (American) Lincoln Battalion, another part of the XV Brigade. However these volunteers were not a formal unit in that battalion and other Irish volunteers also fought in other units of the Brigades. With the XV Brigade the Connolly's suffered heavy losses at the battle of Jarama, near Madrid, in February 1937.[15] Charlie Donnelly, Eamon McGrotty, Bill Henry, Liam Tumilson and Bill Beattie were all killed during this battle.[16]

Frank Ryan was also badly wounded at Jarama in February 1937 and returned to Ireland to recuperate. On his return to Spain he was appointed adjutant to the Republican General José Miaja.

In June 1937 they went into reserve, where they were joined by men from the Anglo-American company of 20th Battalion which had fought earlier near Pozoblanco in southern Spain. In July the XV Brigade took part in the battle of Brunete, where the Saktvala battalion suffered 450 casualties; the Connolly's, fighting around Villanueva de Canada, lost 7 men killed and many others wounded.[17] In August XV Brigade was fought the

Peter Daly.[18]

In October they moved to the Aragon front, a quiet sector, but in January 1938 they took part in the attack on Teruel;[19] in March during the battle of Gandesa they were forced to retreat when the front collapsed, and Ryan was captured.[20]

In July 1938 the Connolly's fought their last battle; en route for home after the Spanish Republican government agreed to repatriate all foreign soldiers, the Connolly Column returned to the front to take part in the

Battle of Ebro the last, doomed, Republican offensive of the war.[21]

The surviving Irish volunteers were repatriated to Ireland after September 1938, when the Republican government disbanded the International Brigades in the vain hope of securing military aid from other democracies and of getting the fascist troops from Italy and Germany to withdraw.

Ryan was captured during the

Miranda del Ebro detention camp. He was sentenced to death but after representations from Éamon de Valera
his sentence was commuted to thirty years hard labour.

Michael O'Riordan went on to become General Secretary of the Communist Party of Ireland in 1970.

Though a small unit, sources differ on the numbers involved. The Brigade's British and Irish roll of honour lists 36 Irishmen killed in Spain in the war.[22] O'Riordan listed 145 men, and "..of that number 61 never came back".[23] Returning to Dublin, Connolly Column was greeted by the solitary figure of Fr. Michael O'Flanagan, who unveiled a banner in their honour.[24]

Related material

Viva la Quince Brigada" is about the Irish volunteers who fought with the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War, and was inspired by Michael O'Riordan
's book, Connolly Column.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Memorial to honour six Limerick men who fought in the Spanish Civil War", 14 Sept 2014, TheJournal.ie: (Retrieved 18 April 2016)
  2. ^ O'Riordan p29
  3. ^ O'Riordan p34
  4. ^ O'Riordan p56-57
  5. ^ a b "The secret IRA–Soviet agreement, 1925". History Ireland. 8 February 2015.
  6. ^ O'Riordan p55
  7. ^ "Peter O'Connor". Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
  8. ^ Liam Tumilson
  9. ^ Ben Murray,
  10. OCLC 556399977
    .
  11. ^ O'Riordan p58
  12. ^ O'Riordan p58-60
  13. ^ O'Riordan p61-64
  14. ^ O'Riordan p67-68
  15. ^ O'Riordan p70-72
  16. ^ O'Riordan p73
  17. ^ O'Riordan p83-89
  18. ^ O'Riordan p91
  19. ^ O'Riordan p110
  20. ^ O'Riordan p118
  21. ^ O'Riordan p126-128
  22. ^ Roll of Honour Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine at international-brigade.org
  23. ^ "Review of O'Riordan's memoir". Archived from the original on 4 June 2020. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
  24. ISBN 978-1-78218-300-6
    .

Bibliography

External links
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