This year marks the 75th anniversary of the civil war in Spain. I’ve long been fascinated by the conflict, as most ‘lefties’ are I suppose, not least the international elements of the conflict. For many in Ireland, the war would be seen not a foreign war to observe from a distance, but a struggle between ideologies in which to partake.
Jack White, a founding member of the Irish Citizen Army at home, would remark in the bulletin of the CNT union:
Comrades of Cataluña! In your hour of trial when you hold the barricades not only for yourselves but for us all, I greet you with the voice of revolutionary Ireland, smothered awhile but destined to regain its strength.
The 75th anniversary of the war will be marked here in Dublin in a number of ways.
As part of the Photo Ireland 2011 festival, a documentary entitled ‘Heroes Without Arms: Photographers of the Spanish Civil War’ will be shown on the 14th, 21st & 28th of this month at the Instituto Cervantes Dublin in Lincoln House.
The documentary depicts the early days of photojournalism in Spain through the lives of four friends – Alfonso, Luis Marín, Pepe Campúa and José María Díaz Casariego-, who worked together at the legendary magazine Mundo Gráfico and witnessed great changes that Spanish Civil War brought about in their lives and careers.
Eirigi have organised an interesting event to mark the anniversary, inviting established authorities on the period like Emmet O’Connor (Author and Lecturer) and Harry Owens (Historian) to participate in a public meeting at the Teachers Club on July 15th at 7pm. I’m a big fan of Emmet O’Connor’s work in particular, not least his wonderful ‘Reds and the Greens’ study of the relationship between Irish republicans and Moscow.
Click on the book for more.
Click on the book for more.
Donal
Ciarán
Sam
Come Here To Me! 
thanks for this blog post! The current day austerity struggles in Greece and the rest of Europe (including Ireland) are an echo of this forgotten war. In Athens last week, the Greek protesters carried banners bearing the words “No Pasaran”, evoking the spirit of the Spanish Civil War. It’s interesting how this secret war is all the more relevant 75 years on.
We are making a documentary film about a journey to Spain in search of the filmmaker’s grandfather’s painting of the Spanish Civil War: A Song For Carlos. You can watch a trailer and find out more here: http://www.IndieGoGo.com/aSongForCarlos.
Was on holiday in Madrid last year and it was sad to see how almost 40 years of Francoism had airbrushed the civil war from the history of Madrid. In some ways though, it’s not so different from how our own civil war has been swept under the historical carpet.
One amazing fluke for us though was that there was an exhibition of photographs taken on the front line by Robert Capa and his partner Gerda Taro (who later died in the Battle of Brunete). These photos had been smuggled out of Spain just before the fall of the Republic and were only recently discovered in the archives of the Mexican foreign ministry. Some haunting images there, including the famous “Death of a Militiaman”
This may be of interest: http://www.irelandscw.com/pdf-CorkSCW.pdf
Is it a little known fact that Jack White’s father was Sir George White, of whom there’s a stue in Portland Place in London?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_White_(British_Army_officer)