International Brigades for Ukraine? The lessons from Spain

Analysis: the Spanish Civil War is the supreme example of international wartime volunteering in modern times

By Emmet O'Connor, Ulster University

The call for an international legion to fight in Ukraine is not surprising. Similar conflicts have produced similar calls and there have always been people, Irishmen among them, willing to respond. Already there have a few foreigners in Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Regiment, a unit the west doesn't like to talk about.

The supreme example of international volunteering in modern times is the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. An estimated 35,000 men from 53 countries served in the Brigades. There was nothing like it since the Crusades.

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From RTÉ Radio 1's History Show, Liam Cahill on the life of Mossie Quinlan, a young man from Waterford who joined the International Brigades and fought in the Spanish Civil War

To repeat the phenomenon, three conditions would have to be met. First, make the cause both domestic and universal. The left believed that preventing General Franco from taking over Spain was critical to stopping fascism everywhere and halting the slide towards another world war. For each Brigadista, Spain was not just about Spain, but about the future of his own country too. The Communist International, or Comintern, the controlling body of all Communist Parties, was careful to project the war not as one for communism but as one for democracy, against fascism.

By contrast, the right saw Spain in purely Spanish terms. Apart from the Irish Brigade (more anon) and the state-sponsored auxiliaries from Germany, Italy, and Portugal, Franco's 'International Brigade’ amounted to around 70 European fascists, who styled themselves the Joan of Arc battalion.

Secondly, build a trans-national network. Significant numbers of men were going to fight in Spain when the Comintern was embarrassed into creating the Brigades. It was a huge logistical operation, made possible only through 'Bolshevik enthusiasm’, as the Communists put it, and the existence of Comintern affiliates in every country. It’s often forgotten that it was a big political risk. What if the Communists couldn’t get the numbers? What if they couldn’t organize and feed an army in Spain? What if the Brigadistas wouldn’t fight?

From RTÉ Archives, Michael Ronayne reports for RTÉ News on Spanish Civil War veterans meeting in Dublin to mark the 50th anniversary of the event in 1986

Thirdly, be prepared to see it through and take heavy casualties. Here, the Irish Brigade offers a hard lesson. Ireland was obsessed with Spain between the summers of 1936 and 1937 because of the way events impacted on two forces in Irish society and politics, Catholicism and republicanism.

Inflamed by lurid accounts of anti-clerical atrocities, crowds of up to 50,000 thronged the rallies of the Irish Christian Front, which was formed in August 1936 to support Franco and combat communism. Over £43,000 was raised in church gate collections for Spanish Catholics. The bishops, Fine Gael and the Irish Independent, backed Eoin O'Duffy’s Irish Brigade to fight what they represented as a religious crusade. Most recruits claimed to be motivated by Catholicism and anti-communism, but the Brigade leaders at least admired Italian fascism. O’Duffy himself had formerly led the Blueshirts.

O’Duffy’s unit sailed to Spain in December 1936 for a six-month tour of duty. His Brigade was about 680 strong, had its own pipe band and attracted widespread curiosity. The Irish had the usual problems, common to Anglophones, of handling the oily food and cheap wine, but were made a bandera of the Spanish Foreign Legion

From RTÉ Archives, excerpt from Patriots to a Man, The Blueshirts and Their Times, a 2001 documentary on the Blueshirts

They performed reasonably well on a quiet stretch of the front until ordered to attack. O’Duffy declined: it was too dangerous. One didn’t say that in the Spanish Foreign Legion and Franco sent his men home in disgrace. The Comintern had feared that the return of these ‘fascist bravos’ would power Fine Gael to government and Ireland to fascism. Instead, the cause died of embarrassment. Brendan Behan mocked their low casualty rate, saying they were the only army that went to war and came back with more men.

About 252 Irish-born volunteers served on the Republican side in Spain, joining up in small groups between August 1936 and May 1938. Of these, about 160 were in a Communist Party. This proportion of 64% is comparable with other countries. Communists accounted for approximately 60% of French, 62% of British, and 70% of United States volunteers.

However, the majority of the Irish were exiles. When we look at those who went to Spain directly from Ireland – about 120 – we see that the proportion of communists in this category was much lower: about 33%. In addition, many Communists had formerly been in the IRA. Undoubtedly, some felt obliged to made a riposte to O’Duffy. But more saw parallels between Ireland and Spain. Their leader, Frank Ryan, initially declined to go to Spain, saying ‘the Spanish trenches are here in Ireland’. Within weeks, he would conclude that the Irish trenches were in Spain.

From RTÉ Archives, Peadar O'Donnell speaks to Joe Little on 'Day By Day’ in 1979 about his memories of Frank Ryan

Franco won the war, but lost the propaganda war. Today, the Connolly Column, as they came to be called in the 1970s, are remembered as stainless heroes of the good fight. In reality, quite a few Brigadistas were appalled by the conditions of service: the bad food, inadequate rations, faulty weapons, and military incompetence of Brigades officers.

Some begged to be allowed to go home for all sorts of reasons, such as the death of a parent and the need to be the family breadwinner. One Irish comrade decided he could better serve the party through political work in Dublin! The commissar reported: ‘If we send this man back, we won’t be able to hold the battalion in the field’. The commissars held the Brigades together, irrespective of the consequences.

About 30% of the Irish Brigadistas were killed (the fatality rate for the British army in World War I was 13%), and most of the survivors were wounded. It took 40 years before the Irish people would recognise their valour, but the reputation of the Connolly Column was sealed, in blood and glory. Sadly, the two often go together.

Dr Emmet O'Connor is a senior lecturer at the School of Arts & Humanities at Ulster University. He is the co-author of In Spanish Trenches: The Mind and Deeds of the Irish Who Fought for the Republic in the Spanish Civil War (UCD Press)

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ

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