It is time for something completely different!

Day 1,143, 16:02 • Published in Ireland Ireland • by e-kane


The past days makes at least me wanting to think of something else. Therefore I am going to randomly share something that I come back to regularly.

It is the song "Viva la Quince Brigada". It was written by Christy Moore, but I must say that Ronnie Drews recording is even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XER2fnoHM4s

The song is based on a historical book about the Irish volunteers for the socialist side in the Spanish Civil war. The names in the song are real. Frank Ryan was the leader for the socialist volunteers and O’Duffy was the leader of the Irish volunteers for Francos side.

There where ca 300 volunteers on Ryans team, and ca 800 on O’Duffy’s.

O’Duffy was actually an interesting figure. His movement was one of the movements that merged into Fine Gael. He was a celebrated IRA leader, a celebrated Garda Commissioner, until he was sacked by Dev. He was also the founder of the blue shirts.

Not only did he lead the volunteers to Spain, he also tried to organize a similar force to assist the germans.

Many of you might know these things, but we tend al to forget how complex the history, and the personal motivations of persons are.

The church urged people to support Franco and even blessed the troops leaving Dún Laoghaire for Spain. And in spain Franco lead a coalition of different opinions that mainly was united in their opposition against the chaotic red forces. The red forces where not united, they even had different territories, and they committed atrocities just as the fascist side. One example of difficulties for the red side was that Soviet first supported them, then tried to play out the different red fractions against each other. All for their own gain, not the common cause.

In Spain the war was so bad that the mass graves still are left untouched to this day. Every one knows where they are, even though they are unmarked, but no one touches them nor speaks about them.

Just remember all these things when you listen to the song. It is fantastic. It is also quite ironic how much unity is portrayed in the song, Christian brothers and Church of ireland priests fighting side by side, but they are fighting O’Duffys troop on the other side.


Some links for those who might be interested
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Socialist_Volunteers_in_the_Spanish_Civil_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Brigade_(Spanish_Civil_War)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eoin_O%27Duffy