Fighting for Republican Spain 1936-38

Book excerpt: There were 230 Irish-born among the volunteers in the International Brigades fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. This book focuses on the six volunteers from Limerick. It uses Russian files to paint a general picture of the involvement of the Brigades, especially in the British battalion of the 15th Brigade. The book commences with the persecution of the Irish Left in the 1930s and explains the reasons why Frank Ryan led a contingent to Spain in December 1936. It examines the tension between Irish and British leaders in Spain, the major battles of 1937, the imprisonment of Frank Ryan in Spain and his role in German exile. The final chapter is the first attempt to describe in detail one of the most gruesome episodes that occurred in the British battalion: the semi-judicial murder of a Limerick volunteer, the machine-gunner Maurice Emmet Ryan during the Ebro battle in August 1938. Finally, 60 pages of statistical data of all the Irish participants in the Brigade's history.