The Spanish Civil War Part 2

western Spain. The local people gave them a wonderful reception. The Brigade was formed into four companies. Training, parades and rifle practice was arranged. They were toldtheywouldbegoingto the front on 17 February and they marched out singing “Faith of Our Fathers” and “Legion at the Host.”

They marched to Torres Juan where they found the town wrecked and deserted. The Brigade then marched eight miles further to Valdermere where they were fed. They spent thenightonthestonefloor of a shell wrecked convent with the stench of long deadbodies.

The following morning they were on the move againtowardsMadrid.The Canary Island troops seeing them approach the town of Ciempozuelos mistook them for the en- emyandopenedfire.Inan hour-long exchange of friendly fire two Irish and up to nine Canarians were killed before the misunderstanding was cleared up.

The Irish entered the town and later that night marched out to man the trenches. The brigade was to hold the line at all costs. All day, every day for a month enemy shells rained all around their positions. Food was of poor quality and scarce. The men were once ten hours withoutfood.

Patrick Farrelly described that he saw a church desecrated with filthy expressions in English, Spanish, Russian and English. The bones of buried priests were scattered on the ground near the altar. In another church he discovered human remains and some vestments. A shell had landed near him while he was talking to a local woman. He threw himself into a house which collapsed on top of him. Farrelly described it as a narrow escape.

The shell killed two cows but the woman he was talkingtoandherhusband escapedharm.Onanother occasion while in the trenches his pack was riddled with bullets but he escaped harm due to a Sacred Heart badge and a Miraculous medal of the Virgin Mary. Farrelly said their company was saved by the actions of Tom Tully,Carlanstown.

Caught by surprise by machine gun fire from enemy troops Tully quickly manned a machine gun and killed seven of the enemyandforcedthemtoretreat. Farrelly said Tully would have won a Victoria Cross if he had carried out the same action on a battlefieldinWorldWarI.Farrellyrecountedstoriesthat he was told by woman describing desecration of a local church. A priest who had fled Madrid described aterriblemassacreofnuns inthatcity.

Farrelly visited a local convent. He said that Franco’s men treated all their prisoners in the fairest possible manner while the enemy treated their prisoners in a horrible fashion. Farrelly described General Duffy as the essence of kindness and consideration and saidthetroopslovedhim.

The official position of the Irish government on the Spanish war was neutrality. The de Valera government outlawed participationintheCivilWarin February1937andmadeit illegal for any more Irish men to travel there to fight foreitherside.

On13MarchtheBrigade moved forward from Ciempozuelos under artilleryfireandheldtheirpositions for five days. Morale had been deteriorating for sometimeamongtheIrish Brigade,butthefinalstraw came when they were ordered to attack a fortified village named Titulcia on the other side of the Jaramavalley.

When they moved into the assault, they were hit by artillery fire and several men were killed. After this the Irish retired to their own lines and refused orders to resume the attack. TheythenmovedontoanotherpartofthefrontatLa Maranosa where they held a defensive position for four weeks. They returned to Cacoras from where they returned to Ireland. Francoseemstohaveconcluded at this point that the Irish were of little use and acceded to a request by O’Duffy that they be shipped back home to Ireland

The main contingent of O’Duffy’s men arrived back in Dublin on 21 June 1937. By late June 1937 all the Meath volunteers who had joined the Irish Brigade had returned to Ireland, fit and well and were “tanned a rich brown by the strong Spanish sunshine which they were exposed for fully three months on the Madrid front.”