IRELAND AND THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR
Fighting for Franco
Pro-Franco Volunteers from Ireland
This page updated, 11th January 2005
DES RYAN in the Limerick Christmas Chronicle, 1995
When the Spanish Civil War began in July 1936, a large number of Irishmen went to Spain and fought, on both sides in that conflict. The cause of the civil was that some of the army generals were not happy with the way the country was being governed and used the excuse that the country was sliding into communism, to start their revolt.
The majority of the Irishmen went out to Spain under the leadership of General Owen O'Duffy, and joined the ranks of the rebel generals, and other right wing parties, collectively known as the Nationalists.
This is the story of one of those men, Bill McCormack from Limerick.
If anyone can provide more information on this man, or or any of the other Bandera members, I'd be very grateful. Please contact me at cpcrossey@hotmail.com
Added to this site, January 11th 2005
Biographical notes on one Bandera member: George Mooney (1902 - ?)
He was born in November 1902 in South Dublin. By December 1936 he
had married Patricia, with whom he had three children, with a fourth
on the way when he decided to answer the call by General Eoin O'Duffy
to join the Irish Brigade fighting for General Franco in Spain. He
applied for a passport, something very unusual for a workingman in
the 1930's, he was a postman, and it was issued to him on December
1st 1936. Read
more of this note here....
If anyone can provide more information on this man, or or any of the other Bandera members, I'd be very grateful. Please contact me at cpcrossey@hotmail.com
Added to this site, August 3rd 2004
Peter Fanning
Here are some brief notes on another Belfast member of the Bandera Peter Fanning.
Added to this site, August 18th 2004.
If anyone can provide more information on this man, or or any of the
other Bandera members, I'd be very grateful. Please contact me at cpcrossey@hotmail.com
Who was Brendan Kielty?
Among the various names of volunteers in the Irish Brigade, led by General Eoin O'Duffy, appears that of Brendan Kielty, but the details are confusing to say the least. Was he from Tyrone or Belfast? Is there one man or two? Added to this site, August 4th 2004
Short note on a Bandera chaplain: (Fr Charles O'Daly)
Fr O'Daly was opposed to the 'godless 1922' constitution of Ireland.
Here's
a short note.
If anyone can provide more information on this man, or or any of the other Bandera members, I'd be very grateful. Please contact me at cpcrossey@hotmail.com
Added to this site, August 3rd 2004
Los Otros Internacionales: A Spanish source on O'Duffy's Bandera
Some details on the Bandera Los otros internacionales.
Voluntarios extranjeros desconocidos en el Bando Nacional durante la Guerra Civil. by José Luis de Mesa. Ediciones Barbarroja. APDO. CORREOS 45.082 MADRID. ISBN 84-87446-24-8
LA BANDERA IRLANDESA is a 30 pages chapter in above book, following
Eoin O'Duffy Crusade in Spain, Seumas McKee I was a Franco
Soldier, and F. Mc Cullagh In Franco's Spain as main sources.
Also many Servicio Histórico Militar original documents.
Make allowances for the fact this is a Spanish book, translated for
us, but there are a lot of small details, names, etc. (some sadly wrong)
but basically it is valuable as one of the rare sources on O'Duffy's
people.
Added (again!) to this site, August 3rd 2004
The
Sunday Independent, produced in Dublin, printed a series of
articles on the role of the Irish Bandera, led by O’Duffy, in
Spain. This gives an indication of the widespread support in Ireland
for the Bandera. There are a lot of individual mentions, so taken
with the fact that this was one of the earliest accounts of the pro-Franco
forces in Ireland, I fell it is well worth a study.
The series was finally added to this site in Feb. 2003.
© For the original articles belongs to the Sunday Independent
I have been able to draw together a
list of 112 members of Company D, the machine gun unit. Captain Sean
Cunningham of Belfast led this.
If anyone has additional names, please let me know. Luke O'Rourke
was added on August 18th 2004, along with a couple of spelling corrections.
What I've tried to do is to break down the long lists of names from
the Bandera into the various companies. These lists do place over 200
men in their Companies, but that still leaves over 400 for whom not
enough information has been found to place them in the relevant company.
We still need help, if you can provide ANY information, please
send it in. Added Feb. 2003 and then updated 7th March, 2003.
The members of O'Duffy's Irish Bandera listed here, 23rd June 2000, is substantially larger than in any previously published list. [check above as well]
Document by Legionaire Matt Beckett.
A short manuscript by Matt Beckett, a volunteer in the Bandera from Westport, has become available and was published here on April 26th 2002. It is interesting for a number of reasons, primarily because this is one of a very small number of documents giving details about life in the Bandera, and in particular he mentions a number of other men.
In the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland there is a small collection of material deposited by Sean Cunningham, one of the officers of the Irish Bandera. One document is a commemorative booklet listing the 40 men who left Ireland on Nov. 20th 1936 to fight for the Bandera.
One of the men listed, W Weymes, must be a mistyping of his name, as it was his brother, Michael who actually went on that date. William was the only one of 4 brothers who didn’t go out.
Added 5th April 2002, correction on Weymes noted, Feb. 13th 2003. © Copyright belongs to the PRONI.
Articles by Charles J McGuinness
Articles by Charles J McGuinness from the Irish Independent, January 1937. Technically he was a volunteer for the IB but quickly left Spain on dubious grounds. A member of his family has put on the web an absolutely amazing site about McGuinness and his exploits.
© For the original articles belongs to the Irish Independent
To see other selections of documents, etc.
General material on Irish involvement
with links through to other documents.
Material on Republican/Left Volunteers
If you want to contact me, feel free, cpcrossey@hotmail.com
I look forward to any comments, questions or corrections.