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Ireland, the Basques and the Spanish Civil War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2022

Kyle McCreanor
Kyle McCreanor*
Affiliation:
Independent Scholar
*
*kylemccreanor@gmail.com
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Abstract

In late 1936, two Irishmen arrived in the Spanish Basque Country. One was General Eoin O'Duffy, signing the terms of agreement for an Irish Brigade to support the military uprising against the Second Spanish Republic. Meanwhile, socialist republican George Gilmore journeyed across the Pyrenees in search of a Basque nationalist priest he had met four years earlier. While O'Duffy was drawn into the conflict by traditionalist monarchists from Navarre, his leftist opponents in Ireland mounted a pro-republic propaganda campaign focused on the war effort of the rival Basque nationalists. In effect, a civil war between Basques became entangled with the legacy of the Irish Civil War, as old rivals such as O'Duffy and Gilmore constructed alliances on opposite sides of the conflict as it played out in this small corner of Spain. This article places a new emphasis on the Basque dimension of Ireland's engagement with the Spanish Civil War and illustrates how it was shaped by earlier Basque-Irish relations.

Type
Research Article
Information
Irish Historical Studies , Volume 46 , Issue 169 , May 2022 , pp. 136 - 154
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd

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References

1 McGarry, Fearghal, ‘Irish newspapers and the Spanish Civil War’ in I.H.S. xxxiii, no. 129 (May 2002), p. 68Google Scholar.

2 Dáil Éireann deb., lxv, col. 691, 18 Feb. 1937.

3 Thomas, Hugh, The Spanish Civil War (London, 1977), p. 592Google Scholar.

4 Many historians call this the Third Carlist War, though within Basque historiography the primarily-Catalan Carlist War of 1846–9 is often not counted.

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12 Eli Gallastegi, ‘Pascua revolucionaria. ¡Y un día nos fusilarán…!’ in Aberri (Apr. 1923), cited in Eli Gallastegi, Por la libertad vasca, ed. José María Lorenzo Espinosa (Tafalla, 1993), pp 204‒05.

13 Whether Navarre is considered Basque is a contentious and complex issue. Basque nationalists axiomatically view Navarre as part of the Basque nation. Many in Navarre, Basque speakers included, harbour a sense of historical and cultural difference, seeing Navarre and the Basque Country as distinct.

14 See Blinkhorn, Martin, ‘“The Basque Ulster”: Navarre and the Basque autonomy question under the Spanish Second Republic’ in Historical Journal, iiixx, no. 3 (Sept. 1974), pp 595‒613CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Euzkadi, 16, 25 Jun. 1932.

16 Leach, Daniel, Fugitive Ireland: European minority nationalists and Irish political asylum, 1937‒2008 (Dublin, 2009), p. 57Google Scholar; J. L. de Cortina to Leopold Kerney, 18 Oct. 1934 (N.A.I., DFA, embassy series 2/24).

17 Archivo del Nacionalismo Vasco (henceforth A.N.V.) DP‒1316‒06, Azkoitiko Udala, ‘Irlanda Euskadi, 1932‒2002: 70 aniversario de un evento pelotazale histórico’, 2002.

18 Copy of Historia vasca sent to Eithne Coyle from Emakume Abertzale Batza (U.C.D.A., Eithne Coyle papers, P61/45); Irish Independent, 28 June 1932.

19 A.N.V., P.N.V. 0219-03; I am grateful to Cameron Watson for a discussion on these Biscayan scribbles.

20 ‘Irlanda Euskadi, 1932‒2002’ (A.N.V., DP‒1316‒06).

21 A.N.V., P.N.V. 0219‒03.

22 Euzkadi, 22 June 1932.

23 A.N.V., PNV 0219‒03.

24 Antonio Elorza, Ideologías del nacionalismo vasco 1876‒1937: de los “euskaros” a Jagi Jagi (San Sebastián, 1978), p. 447; Jagi-Jagi, 18 Mar. 1933.

25 Richard English, Radicals and the republic: socialist republicanism in the Irish Free State 1925‒1937 (Oxford, 1994), p. 140; Jonathan Hammill, ‘Saor Éire and the IRA: an exercise in deception?’ in Saothar, xx (1995), p. 56.

26 McGarry, Fearghal, Eoin O'Duffy: a self-made hero (Oxford, 2005), p. 184Google Scholar.

27 Ibid., pp 189‒90, 197.

28 Maurice Manning, The Blueshirts (Toronto, 1971), pp 70‒73.

29 Cronin, Mike, ‘The Blueshirt movement, 1932‒5: Ireland's Fascists?’ in Journal of Contemporary History, xxx, no. 2 (Apr. 1995), p. 311Google Scholar.

30 Ibid., p. 319.

31 Stanley Payne, Basque nationalism (Reno, 1975), p. 145.

32 J. L. de la Granja Sainz, Nacionalismo y II República en el País Vasco: estatutos de autonomía, partidos y elecciones: historia de Acción Nacionalista Vasco (Madrid, 2008), pp 586‒7.

33 Santiago de Pablo and Ludger Mees, El péndulo patriótico: historia del Partido Nacionalista Vasco, 1895‒2005 (Barcelona, 2005), pp 167‒71.

34 Paul Preston, The Spanish Civil War: reaction, revolution and revenge (London, 2006), p. 94.

35 Martin Blinkhorn, Carlism and crisis in Spain, 1931‒1939 (Cambridge, 1975), p. 224.

36 Paul Preston, The Spanish holocaust: inquisition and extermination in twentieth-century Spain (New York, 2012), pp 180‒83, 428‒32.

37 Ronald Fraser, Blood of Spain: an oral history of the Spanish Civil War (New York, 1979), p. 191.

38 Euzko Deya, 8 Apr. 1937.

39 Robert Stradling, The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, 1936‒1939: crusades in conflict (Manchester, 1999), p. 7.

40 McGarry, Eoin O'Duffy, p. 286.

41 Ibid., p. 244.

42 Ibid., p. 269; Cronin, ‘The Blueshirt Movement, 1932‒5’, pp 318‒19.

43 Stradling, The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, p. 19; McGarry, Eoin O'Duffy, p. 287.

44 Stradling, The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, p. 21.

45 Eoin O'Duffy, Crusade in Spain (Clonskeagh, 1938), pp 195‒8.

46 Ibid., p. 195.

47 ‘Agreement between H. E. General Franco and General Ean O'Duffy’, 28 Nov. 1936 (N.L.I., Eoin O'Duffy papers, MS 48,292/4).

48 Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the kings of Britain, ed. J. A. Giles, trans. Aaron Thompson (Cambridge [Ontario], 1999), p. 47.

49 Frederick J. Furnivall (ed.), The English conquest of Ireland, A.D. 1166‒1185, mainly from the “Expugnatio Hibernica” of Giraldus Cambrensis (London, 1896), p. 137.

50 John Talbot Dillon, Travels through Spain (London, 1782), pp 167‒18.

51 Irish Independent, 4 June 1937.

52 While O'Duffy claims that he later requested that this clause be withdrawn (see Crusade in Spain, p. 199), there is no evidence that this was ever formalised, and the Irish Brigade ultimately saw no combat on the Basque front.

53 Eoin O'Duffy, Diary: Irish Brigade in Spain (N.L.I. MS 48, 292/2); Leopold Kerney was then serving as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Second Spanish Republic.

54 Leopold Kerney to Department of External Affairs, 6 Dec. 1937 (N.A.I., D.F.A., 3/115/236); Barry Whelan, Ireland's revolutionary diplomat: a biography of Leopold Kerney (Notre Dame, 2019), p. 118.

55 Irish Times, 22 June 1937.

56 Stradling, The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, p. 83.

57 Irish Times, 22 June 1937; Documents on Irish foreign policy V, no. 26, John Dulanty to Joseph Walshe, 26 Feb. 1937.

58 Brian Hanley, ‘Fighting the fascists: Ireland in the 1930s’ in Gernika then & now: 80 years of Basque-Irish anti-fascist struggles (Dublin, 2017), p. 25.

59 Fearghal McGarry, ‘Ireland and the Spanish Civil War’ in Declan Downey and Julio Crespo MacLennan (eds), Spanish-Irish relations through the ages: new historical perspectives (Dublin, 2008), p. 220.

60 According to independent T.D. Richard Anthony, this was the view held by ‘the majority of professing Christians in Ireland’: see Dáil Éireann deb., lxv, cols 702‒03, 19 Feb. 1937.

61 Pere Soler Parício, ‘Irlanda y la guerra civil española: nuevas perspectivas de estudio’ (Ph.D. thesis, Universitat de Barcelona, 2013), p. 511. According to Seán Cronin, Gilmore's broken leg was the reason why Frank Ryan ultimately led the group of socialist volunteers known as the ‘Connolly Column’ rather than him. Thus, one might say that the notorious Basque weather changed the course of Ireland's involvement in the Spanish Civil War: see Frank Ryan: the search for the republic (Dublin, 1980), p. 83.

62 The Worker, 21 Nov. 1936.

63 Payne, Basque nationalism, p. 180.

64 Cronin, Frank Ryan, p. 81.

65 McGarry, ‘Irish newspapers and the Spanish Civil War’, p. 69; A.N.V., PNV 0219‒03.

66 Dermot Keogh, Ireland and Europe: 1919‒1948 (Dublin, 1988), p. 66.

67 Stradling, The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, p. 7.

68 Donal Fallon, ‘Saint Patrick, Animal Gang and Blueshirts: anti-communism in 1930s Dublin’ in Dublin Historical Record, lxvii, no. 2 (autumn/winter 2014), p. 76.

69 Dáil Éireann deb., lxv, col. 629, 18 Feb. 1937.

70 Stradling, The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, pp 132‒3.

71 Dáil Éireann deb., lxv, col. 605, 18 Feb. 1937.

72 Mark O'Brien, ‘“In war torn Spain”: the politics of Irish press coverage of the Spanish civil war’ in Media, War & Conflict, x, no. 3 (2017), p. 356.

73 McGarry, ‘Irish newspapers and the Spanish Civil War’, p. 72.

74 Alexander Ugalde Zubiri, La acción exterior del nacionalismo vasco (1890‒1939): historia, pensamiento y relaciones internacionales (Bilbao, 1996), pp 653‒4.

75 Irish Times, 6 Nov. 1936.

76 Irish Independent, 7 Nov. 1936.

77 Irish Times, 18 Jan. 1937. While the Spanish Communist Party (P.C.E.) had fifteen seats in the Spanish parliament, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (P.S.O.E.) held ninety-nine and the Republican Left (I.R.) held eighty-seven. Both parties, among others that constituted the Popular Front, might have been distasteful to those whose opinion he sought to sway.

78 Ibid.

79 Ibid., 23 Jan. 1937.

80 Ibid., 26 Jan. 1937.

81 Ibid., 25 Jan. 1937.

82 Ramon Laborda, ‘Rebellion in Spain and the Basque Country’ in The National Student (n.d.), quoted in Euzko Deya, 21 Mar. 1937.

83 Irish Independent, 4 Dec., 6 Nov. 1936.

84 Irish Press, 25 Mar. 1937.

85 John Bowyer Bell, ‘Ireland and the Spanish Civil War, 1936‒1939’ in Studia Hibernica, ix (1969), p. 156.

86 Cronin, Frank Ryan, p. 87.

87 Irish Press, 25 Mar. 1937.

88 O'Duffy, Crusade in Spain, p. 195.

89 Keogh, Ireland and Europe, pp 79‒80.

90 Sean Murphy to Irish legation in Paris, 6 Mar. 1937 (N.A.I., D.F.A., 3/102/43).

91 Helen Graham, The Spanish Republic at war, 1936‒1939 (Cambridge, 2002), p. 242; de Pablo and Mees, El péndulo patriótico, pp 176‒7; Payne, Basque nationalism, p. 180. For example, the conservative and pro-Franco Cork Examiner reported, on 12 Jan. 1937, that ‘over two hundred were killed in a fight between Basques and anarchists in Bilbao’.

92 de Pablo and Mees, El péndulo patriótico, p. 176.

93 Irish Independent, 6 Nov. 1936.

94 Preston, The Spanish holocaust, p. 235.

95 McGarry, ‘Ireland and the Spanish Civil War’, p. 227.

96 Preston, The Spanish Civil War, p. 270.

97 For a summary of this debate see Herbert Rutledge Southworth, Guernica! Guernica! a study of journalism, diplomacy, propaganda, and history (Berkeley, 1977), pp 371‒86. For a recent, meticulously-researched account that effectively settles the debate regarding the supposed strategic value of the bombing of Gernika, see chapter 4 of Xabier Irujo, Gernika, 1937: the market day massacre (Reno, 2015).

98 Irish Independent, 4 May 1937.

99 Ibid., 21 Mar. 1938.

100 Irish Press, 28 Apr. 1937.

101 Irish Times, 3 May 1937.

102 Recent work by William Burton explores the reaction of Irish newspapers to the bombing of Guernica in more depth: see ‘The Spanish Civil War, Irish newspapers, journals, and periodicals – a thematic examination, 1936‒39’ (Ph.D. thesis, Ulster University, 2019), pp 90‒126.

103 Peter Anderson, ‘The struggle over the evacuation to the United Kingdom and repatriation of Basque refugee children in the Spanish Civil War: symbols and souls’ in Journal of Contemporary History, lii, no. 2. (2017), p. 303.

104 Cronin, Frank Ryan, p. 118.

105 Euzko Deya, 29 Nov. 1936.

106 Ibid., 18 July 1937.

107 Ibid., 5 Dec. 1937.

108 F. M. Vargas Alonso, ‘El Partido Nacionalista Vasco en guerra: Euzko Gudarostea (1936‒1937)’ in Vasconia, xxxi (2001), p. 308.

109 Evening Herald, 16 Mar. 1939.

110 Deia, 23 July 2017.

111 Irish Times, 15 June 1937.

112 Xabier Landaburu, ‘La república irlandesa’ in Obras completas de F. Javier de Landaburu (Bilbao, 1984), pp 219‒20.

113 A.N.V., P.N.V. 0219‒03.