"How Did The Irish Brigade Do During The SCW?" Topic

My uncle tells me that there was an Irish Brigade (as well as many Catholic Latin Americans) fighting for Franco.*

How did the Irish Brigade do in the Spanish Civil War? Where did they see action, if any?

Thanks

Dan
* He says that JFK's Dad tried to get support for the Brigade from Catholic Irish Americans. Anyone know anything about that? Thanks again.

They sucked!

They were raised by the Irish Fascist Eion O'Duffy, leader of the blue shirts and the the green shirts.

Approx 700 ex blue shirt members made it to Spain where they fought at the Jarama. Their only two combat actions were an exchange of friendly fire with some falangists, and attack on the village of Titulcia which the Irish refused to attack after losing two men killed.

Franco wasn't keen on O'Duffy, Yague loathed him and the brigade was sent back to Ireland in 1937.

Thank you wikipedia.

The Fascist Irish were awful.
"Militarily the Brigade achieved little; in its first action, near Ciempozuelos in February 1937, the Brigade was involved in a friendly fire incident with a Falangist unit while advancing to the front. Four brigaders and 13 Falangists were killed in the exchange of fire. Shortly after, at Titulca in March 1937 the Brigade refused to advance after taking casualties and was withdrawn. Later, months of inactivity in a quiet sector sapped morale and saw an erosion of discipline; the unit was finally sent home in 1938."

Unlike the Irish who fought valiantly for the Republic:
" In all 320 Irish men served with the International Brigades, a quarter of whom were killed in action. Some were involved with underground unions, some were opposed to O'Duffy's Blueshirts and Greenshirts in Ireland, while others believed that fascism threatened Ireland. One of those was Michael O'Riordan, the future head of the Communist Party of Ireland. O'Riordan took part in all the battles of the 15th International Brigade in support of the Spanish Republican Army, including the Battle of the Ebro, at which he was wounded.

In late 1936 Frank Ryan travelled to Spain with about 80 men to fight in the International Brigades on the Republican side. Ryan's men are sometimes referred to as the "Connolly Column". As part of the XV International Brigade the Connollys fought in the battles of Jarama, Brunete and Belchite in 1937, and at Teruel, Gandesa and the Ebro in 1938.

Ryan himself rose to the rank of Brigadier, was seriously wounded in March 1937 at Jarama."

Thank you wikipedia.

Yes, the old Wiki is an easy to use source for most things….

* He says that JFK's Dad tried to get support for the Brigade from Catholic Irish Americans. Anyone know anything about that? Thanks again.

And as for Joe Kennedy, I'm sure you're aware of his anti-semitic & Nazi leanings:

link

Your uncle is right, to an extent. A group of Catholic Irish did go to Spain to fight for Franco but saw limited and not particularly effective service. Franco got rid of them as soon as possible. They were raised by general Eoin O'Duffy from Blueshirts and Greenshirts (members of the National Corporate Party). They came from a variety of backgrounds, including former soldiers who had served with the British in WW1 and against them in the ~Irish War of Independence. It officially mustered 663 members once in Spain. They were originally meant to join the Carlists, but were actually incorporated into the Spanish Foreign Legion as the XV Bandera del Tercio. Their 1st action was a "blue on blue" on the Madrid front in 1937 with a unit from the Canary Islands that mistook them for International Brigade troops. There were severe losses at the battle of Jamara, which coupled with lack of payments to troops and families caused a severe drop in morale. On April 9 1937 O'Duffy wrote to Franco requesting the disbandment of the Tercio because of internal discontent, lack of supplies, food and uniforms.

For more info I recommend Robert A Straddling's book The Irish and the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 published by Mandolin. Distributed in the USA by St Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue New York NY 10010. This covers Irish involvement on both sides in the war.

Wow, thank you gents!

I thought he was blurring nationalities and events, or something. After all he is 96 years old, hard of hearing and typically doesn't say much about the war. So when he mentioned an Irish Brigade with the Nationalists I though he had mixed up some facts.

He was 1 of 2 who fought on the side of the Republic. The third brother fought on the side of Franco. But of the 3 who went to Spain, he's the only one still alive.

Dan

Vigilant sums up the history of O'Duffy's 'Irish Brigade' (actually a battalion) very well indeed.

I'm not sure if Frank Ryan was ever a Brigadier Gerneral; most Republican brigade commanders were rarely anything much more than Colonels, and often just Majors. I think the confusion about his rank may come from the fact that all members of the International Brigades were referred to as 'brigaders' or 'brigadiers'.

"Frank Ryan bought me whiskey,
in a brothel in Madrid.
He he decked some f___'n blackshirt,
who was cursing all the yids…."

-"The Sickbed of Cuchulainn"

By The Pogues

Christy Moore…

youtu.be/xQbXO828Vio