Ireland and the Spanish Civil War Author(s): Fearghal McGarry Source: History Ireland , Autumn, 2001, Vol. 9, No. 3, Ireland & Spain through the Ages (Autumn, 2001), pp. 35-40 Published by: Wordwell Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/27724902 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Wordwell Ltd. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to History Ireland This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Ireland and the Spanish Civil War by Fearghal McGarry The Spanish Civil War was one of the most controversial con flicts of the last century, pro ! mts ducing an immense historiography comparable to more decisive events X. ~~~~~~~~~ such as the Russian Revolution. This .X~aj af is all the more surprising given t^_ w-P Spain's reputation at the time as an i- l"I isolated backwater. When the war in F -H broke out in July 1936 The Times judged it an anachronistic struggle irrelevant to modern Europe. Spain was seen as a fading power, stifled by a regressive society and subject to the sort of social and political extremism which modern Europe had 4 * outgrown. Why then is the Spanish Civil War one of the most studied conflicts of the last century? Partly because the initial judgement of The Times proved so mistaken. Far from being irrelevant to Europe, the devas I~swsz tation of Spain by the forces of fas cism, communism and nationalism foreshadowed the conflict of 1939-45. It has even been argued that Spain marked the beginning of the war against fascism?an interpretation implicitly critical of the democratic states for standing aside while a fas cist rebellion overthrew a legally elected government. 49A ph Gripped international attention It may frustrate Spaniards for whom war's intrinsic interest also lies in its Members of the People's Militia which their civil war was a complex and sprang up to defend the Spanish Republic. divisive affair but much of the inter complexity and resistance to simple est in Spain lies in the fact that peo interpretations. Many socialists now ple throughout the world strongly see Spain as a great betrayal rather identified with what they saw as the than a glorious failure. For example, 'comradeship of heroes' in the Inter clear-cut issues involved. Like the Ken Loach's film, Land and Freedom, national Brigades with the reac later US war in Vietnam, Spain partly inspired by George Orwell's tionary clericalism of 'Maynooth'. gripped international attention, Homage to Catalonia, depicts a Span Gerry Evans' character in Brian forced individuals to take sides and ish Republic in which the oppressors Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa typifies motivated activists whose influence were communists and their victims the archetypal romantic hero associ was felt far beyond Spain. For some the anarchist and Trotskyite left. ated with the International Brigades. idealists it was the last great roman The tendency to view Spain as a Similarly, the International Brigade tic cause. Left-wing organisations, lesson from history accounts for veterans of Jim Nolan's Guernica notably the Communist Party, see the much of the popular interest in the Hotel and Paul Vincent Carroll's The formation of the International war. Spain symbolised a wider strug Wise Have Not Spoken represent dis Brigades?the 45,000-strong army of gle not only for political activists but illusioned idealists for whom international volunteers which fought also for many artists and intelli gombeen Ireland held no welcome. for the Spanish Republic ?as one of gentsia. In Ireland, as elsewhere, the That historical figures as represented the great events of working class Spanish Civil War has served as a in fragments of a poem, song or film struggle. Their sacrifice stands testa sort of shorthand for moral or politi fall short of a more complex histori ment to the idealism, political com cal positions. For example, Christy cal reality is understandable but per mitment and belief in interventionism Moore's popular ballad, 'Vive el haps more significant is the way in of that generation. But part of the Quinte Brigada' juxtaposes the Irish which popular culture can serve to HISTORY IRELAND Autumn 2001 35 This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms munists, but socialists, liberals, mid dle-class progressives, landless labourers, workers, Catalonians and Catholic Basques, was little reported. Similarly, that Franco's Nationalists comprised not just much of the cler gy but a reactionary coalition of fas cists, army officers, landowners and industrialists was not much remarked on. Instead public debate was dominated by the anti-clerical violence that swept Republican Spain after Franco's rebellion when twelve bishops, about 4,000 priests, 2,000 monks and 300 nuns were murdered. The sensational press reports of these atrocities, often embellished in highly emotive accounts, had an enormous impact on Catholic Ireland. The reaction of Irish Protestants, in contrast, was more muted. The Irish Times, to some extent still the organ of Protestant imperial opinion, adopt ed a mild pro-republican stance and reported the atrocities of both sides. G'iRe In Northern Ireland, unionists gener Spain ally looked unfavourably on both Memorial banner of the Irish section of the Franco and the Republic but many ried out'. Clergy, politicians and the International Brigade. unionist leaders attributed Spain's provincial and Catholic press echoed difficulties to the malign influences of these concerns more forcefully. With both Catholicism and republicanism. alter public memory. Nowadays in weeks the Irish hierarchy was call ing for Franco's victory. In the face of many would be surprised to learn 'A war between Christ that the vast majority of Irish people this strong pro-Franco consensus, a supported Franco rather than tiny campaign of support for the and anti-Christ' Spain's democratic government. Simi Spanish Republic, organised by a By the autumn of 1936 the Irish pro larly surprising, given the public small number of left-wing republicans esteem with which the Irish Interna and communists struggled to be Franco lobby was becoming a power ful force. In September 1936 Cardinal tional Brigaders of the Connolly Col heard. By the autumn of 1936 pro MacRory, primate of all Ireland, umn are regarded and the obscurity Franco meetings were sweeping the unambiguously declared the church's of O'Duffy's Irish Brigade, is the fact country and two military brigades support for Franco: that the great majority of Irishmen were preparing to fight each other in who fought in Spain did so under Spain. There is no room any longer for General Franco. To understand why Why were Irish people so interest any doubts as to the issue at stake one must consider the Irish response ed in the war? Essentially because in the Spanish conflict...It is a ques to the outbreak of the war. Spain was seen as a religious rather tion of whether Spain will remain as than political conflict. Most people she has been so long, a Christian Irish opinion overwhelmingly knew little about Spain or its compli and Catholic land, or a Bolshevist cated politics when Franco's rebel and anti-God one. pro-Franco lion broke out. But Spain was regard The depiction of a holy war contin On 20 July 1936 reports of a rebellion ed, like Ireland, as a historically by army officers in Spain appeared Catholic nation, a perception derived ued in the following year's Lenten from the importance of events such pastorals where more attention was in Irish newspapers. The Irish Inde devoted to communism and the pendent, which would become the as the Battle of Kinsale, the flight of loudest cheerleader of the pro-Fran the Wild Geese and the training of Spanish Civil War than any other issue. Bishop O'Kane declared Spain co lobby, warned that a victory for Irish seminarians in Salamanca in the Spanish government would lead popular nationalist history. Spain's a struggle 'between God and the pow more recent history?the establish ers of darkness'. Bishop Doorly to a 'Soviet State' and urged its read described it as 'a war between Christ ers to support the Nationalists 'who ment of the Spanish Republic in 1931 stand for the ancient faith and tradi and its radical anti-clericalism?was and anti-Christ'. Bishop Fogarty tions of Spain'. The somewhat less viewed rather differently. For a num declared Franco's soldiers 'gallant gung-ho Irish Press also approved of ber of years the Irish bishops and champions of the Cross who are Franco. His rebellion 'must have a Catholic press had portrayed Spain fighting so gloriously for Christ. How large measure of public support' as a Catholic state besieged by com can such fervent partisanship be because of the Republican govern munism and atheism. When the civil explained? The Irish hierarchy was ment's anti-clericalism?'churches war began the complexities of the genuinely worried about Spain. As have been burned, schools secu conflict were largely ignored. That Bishop Mageean warned, if Catholic larised, Communistic schemes car the Republic comprised not just com Spain had succumbed to communism 36 HISTORY IRELAND Autumn 2001 This content downloaded from 95.183.184.51 on Fri, 07 Aug 2020 09:59:19 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 'who will be so rash as to prophesy what the situation may be here in Ire land in ten years time if we pursue the policy of drift'.