A SMALL group of Belfast republicans gathered recently at the Belfast Republican Plot to lay stones carried back from the site of the Battle of the Ebro in Catalunya.
We had travelled there to celebrate the Catalan National Day on September 11th and while there some Catalan comrades, led by Salvador Palomar and other left-wing Catalan activists, brought us to the Banks of the River Ebro.
There, under a blazing sun, we quietly remembered some of the Irish members of the International Brigade who fell here.
They died poorly armed and without food or water in the final days in an heroic last stand. Alongside them fell thousands of Catalan comrades and other anti-fascists.
They fought for freedom, defending the democratically elected Workers' Republic.
Their heavily armed opponents were Franco's thugs, Hitler's Nazis and Mussolini's Brownshirts and their silent backers in the governments of Britain, France and the USA.
Well to the rear and out of harm's way were the Catholic hierarchy-backed Blueshirts of Eoin O'Duffy.
The Battle of the Ebro ended in the autumn of 1938. It was the death knell of the People’s Democratic Republic.
Thousands perished here in an incredibly brave last stand against the forces of the “powerful and wealthy” backers of Franco. These brave souls and others of Frank Ryan's men “came from the other side”.
Those who fell were from many parts of Ireland, including the Falls, Shankill, Ardoyne, Short Strand and East Belfast, as well as from Antrim, Down, Derry, Dublin, Louth, Galway, Waterford, Limerick and Kerry.
The Irish dead at the Ebro were Belfast natives Daniel Boyle, Harry McGrath, Jim Stranney and Jackie Patterson, James McKeefrey from Antrim, William Keenan from County Down, George Gorman from Doire Cholm Chille, James Domegan from County Louth, Dubliner William Scott McGregor, Shannonsider Maurice Ryan, Thomas O’Flatherty from the Kingdom, Galwegian Jack Nalty and from the Déise, John Hunt.
Also remember all the others who fell elsewhere in defiance of Franco, Mussolini, Hitler and their silent allies' deadly forces.
“Remember that Comradeship of Heroes who from every corner of the world came sailing.” Viva La Quince Brigada – No Pasaran. Let us remember them.
