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This paper discusses the reverberations which news of the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 had in the Irish Free State. As a result of the Irish Catholic Church and the conservative press hailing General Franco as the saviour of Catholic Spain from a godless Communist minority, Irish public opinion was overwhelmingly pro-Franco. Against this background, the paper gives a brief overview of the most interesting literary treatments of the Spanish Civil War in different genres by both pro-Nationalist and pro-Republican Irish writers. The rest of the paper focuses on Peadar O'Donnell, Irish novelist and one of the founding figures of the Republican Congress, a radical left-wing movement of the 1930s. His book Salud! An Irishman in Spain (1937) represents an eyewitness account of the mobilization of the Republican defence forces and the workers’ revolution in Catalonia during the first few months of the war. O'Donnell tried to present a seemingly even-handed picture of the Spanish revolutionary anarchists, whose agricultural reforms he clearly admired, but whose violent attacks on the Catholic Church he condemned. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936 news from Spain was a daily feature on the front page of major newspapers in Ireland. The Irish Christian Front was set up which organized mass demonstrations and financial campaigns throughout the country in support of Franco. In November 1936, 700 men set sail with General EoinO'Duffy to fight on the side of Franco. The minority Irish left battled against this tide, and sent their own forces to join the International Brigades in defence of the Republic. This paper focuses on the efforts made by the Irish left to continue the campaign in support of the Republic. It explores the final days of the Irish International Brigaders on the Ebro front, their return home, and for some, their imprisonment in Francoist Spain. It looks at the efforts of one, George Leeson, to aid Spanish Republicans and International Brigaders imprisoned in the French camp of Argeles-sur-Mer. It looks at the renewed efforts within Ireland in the last year of the war to provide medical aid and food through the Irish Foodship for Spain Committee. Finally, it examines the hostile environment the International Brigaders faced when they returned home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]