Thursday 13 September 2012

Another Batch from Cashel

The following report appeared in the Clonmel Nationalist on December 19th 1936:
Another Batch from Cashel
Enthusiastic scenes were witnessed in Cashel on Saturday night when a party of young Cashel men left en route for Spain where they will join General O'Duffy's Irish Brigade. As the three motors in which they travelled moved off, cheers were given for the volunteers and for General Franco, General O'Duffy and the Irish Brigade. The names of the eight young men who have volunteered are: Patrick Mc Donnell, builder, Boherclough Street, assistant librarian in the Cashel Carnegie Library. Thomas Griffin, Upper Friar Street, served five years in the British Army and four years in the National Army of which latter he was a Musketry and Lewis Gun Instructor. John Barron, The Kiln, saw active service throughout the Great War and was three years in the National Army. Patrick Dwyer, Upper Friar Street, a member of the league of youth. Edward Hogan, Kilpeak, was a member of the local Volunteer Sluagh. Edward Dwyer, Upper Friar Street, was three years in the National Army. John Donoghue, Camus Road, served a short period in the British Army. Francis King, Windmill Cottage, Cashel, was for 12 years in the British Army, joined the IRA during the Anglo-Irish struggle and subsequently enlisted in the National Army.
While these men succeeded in their goal of preventing Spain from falling to Communist tyranny, they cannot have been happy with the type of government that was put in place. On the anti-Franco side were communist groups from all over the world including from Stalin's notorious Red Army; no doubt fresh from the killing fields and Gulags of the Siberian island of Nazino and other hell holes where many millions were worked to death or murdered, including a group of nuns. They were assisted by a group from Ireland, precursors of Saor Eireann and the INLA, who were guilty of terrible atrocities in this country in the years since, especially during the 1970-2000 period.

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