{"id":13061,"date":"2021-03-26T10:39:07","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T09:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/?p=13061"},"modified":"2021-03-26T10:39:07","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T09:39:07","slug":"los-irlandeses-y-la-guerra-civil-espanola-the-irish-and-the-spanish-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/los-irlandeses-y-la-guerra-civil-espanola-the-irish-and-the-spanish-civil-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Los irlandeses y la guerra civil espa\u00f1ola | The Irish and the Spanish Civil War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Bandera
Bandera de la brigada pro-republicana irlandesa Connolly\u2019s Column. Fuente: History Ireland<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

La\nguerra civil espa\u00f1ola (1936-1939) ha sido uno de los conflictos m\u00e1s estudiados\ndel siglo XX, sobre el que se han realizado muchas investigaciones, tanto por\nparte de los historiadores espa\u00f1oles como de los extranjeros. La historia de la\nparticipaci\u00f3n extranjera en la guerra civil sigue atrayendo la atenci\u00f3n de los\ninvestigadores debido a su influencia sobre el resultado final y a c\u00f3mo la\nguerra parec\u00eda prefigurar el conflicto ideol\u00f3gico entre el fascismo y el\ncomunismo que marcaba la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Mientras que la sociedad\nirlandesa no estaba pol\u00edticamente polarizada como s\u00ed ocurr\u00eda en otros pa\u00edses\neuropeos, la participaci\u00f3n irlandesa nos ayuda a percibir claramente lo\nconscientes que eran del panorama pol\u00edtico europeo y qu\u00e9 opinaban sobre la\npolarizaci\u00f3n ideol\u00f3gica durante la \u00e9poca de entreguerras.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

En\nel contexto de la alianza entre el estado y la iglesia cat\u00f3lica, consagrada a\ntrav\u00e9s de la Constituci\u00f3n irlandesa del a\u00f1o 1937, los irlandeses se solidarizaban\nmayoritariamente con los franquistas en su cruzada por defender el \u201cesp\u00edritu\ncat\u00f3lico espa\u00f1ol\u201d. Debido a la ausencia de una verdadera fuerza izquierdista en\nla Irlanda de los a\u00f1os treinta, el apoyo a los franquistas ten\u00eda mucho que ver\ncon la compartida identidad cat\u00f3lica entre los dos pa\u00edses as\u00ed como el deseo de\nuna mayor\u00eda de irlandeses de lograr conservar los v\u00ednculos religiosos que\ntodav\u00eda caracetizaban las relaciones hispanoirlandesas durante esa \u00e9poca.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Con\nla consolidaci\u00f3n de la polarizaci\u00f3n ideol\u00f3gica de los a\u00f1os treinta y la persecuci\u00f3n\nde los religiosos cat\u00f3licos por parte de ciertas facciones de la banda\nrepublicana, la iglesia cat\u00f3lica irlandesa se posicionaba cada vez m\u00e1s a favor\nde la sublevaci\u00f3n franquista y empezaba a concienciar a los irlandeses sobre la\nnecesidad de enfrentarse junto a los espa\u00f1oles contra lo que consideraban como\nla amenaza del ate\u00edsmo. Como consecuencia de este retrato de la guerra visto como\nun enfrentamiento entre la estabilidad social del sistema cat\u00f3lico y el\ndesorden de una futura sociedad comunista, empezaron a establecerse en Irlanda frentes\nmilitares cat\u00f3licos que se compromet\u00edan a marcharse a Espa\u00f1a para unirse a la \u201ccruzada\u201d\nfranquista. La m\u00e1s conocida, La Brigada Irlandesa, ten\u00eda como objetivo\nconvertirse en una fuerza pol\u00edtica y ayudar a garantizar la hegemon\u00eda cat\u00f3lica\nfrente a las amenazas del liberalismo y el comunismo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tal\ny como ha se\u00f1alado el historiador Fearghal McGarry, a medida que avanzaba la\nguerra, la brigada se desilusionaba cada vez m\u00e1s debido a su participaci\u00f3n\nrestringida dentro del esfuerzo militar franquista y a la retirada de apoyos por\nparte de la iglesia cat\u00f3lica irlandesa tras el bombardeo de Guernica, realizado\npor la alianza franquista. A pesar de no haber tenido nunca el apoyo de una\nmayor\u00eda de irlandeses, la participaci\u00f3n de la Brigada Irlandesa nos recuerda el\nclima de polarizaci\u00f3n ideol\u00f3gica que azotaba a todo el continente europeo as\u00ed\ncomo la crisis existencial a la que se enfrentaba la iglesia cat\u00f3lica frente a\nla propagaci\u00f3n de las ideolog\u00edas liberales o izquierdistas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mientras\nque la participaci\u00f3n de la Brigada Irlandesa permanece bien arraigada dentro de\nla conciencia p\u00fablica, la historia de los voluntarios irlandeses izquierdistas sigue\nexigiendo un reconocimiento m\u00e1s profundo. Tras haber participado en los movimientos\nsindicalistas durante la \u00e9poca anterior a la independencia irlandesa, estos\nvoluntarios se ve\u00edan obligados a unirse a las Brigadas Internacionales para\ndefender las ideolog\u00edas comunista y socialista. Debido a su participaci\u00f3n en casi\ntodas las expediciones militares de las fuerzas republicanas, la historia de estos\nvoluntarios izquierdistas nos puede contar mucho sobre c\u00f3mo vivieron los\nirlandeses la guerra y su compromiso hacia sus respectivas ideolog\u00edas pol\u00edticas.\nA pesar de que todav\u00eda nos queda bastante por conocer sobre c\u00f3mo contribuyeron\nal esfuerzo militar republicano a lo largo de toda la guerra civil espa\u00f1ola,\ndebemos mantener vivas las experiencias de estos irlandeses dentro del contexto\nde las relaciones hispanoirlandesas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adem\u00e1s\nde permitirnos entender mejor este cap\u00edtulo oscuro de la historia espa\u00f1ola, las\nhistorias de estos voluntarios nos pueden recordar lo conscientes que eran los\nirlandeses de las ideolog\u00edas extremistas y c\u00f3mo la polarizaci\u00f3n logr\u00f3\ninfiltrarse dentro del panorama pol\u00edtico irland\u00e9s. Mientras vamos ahondando en\nlas historias de los irlandeses que luchaban por el fascismo o por el comunismo,\nno podemos eludir nuestra responsabilidad de estudiar sus vidas y empezar a\nconcienciar al p\u00fablico sobre la participaci\u00f3n irlandesa y c\u00f3mo percib\u00edan los\nirlandeses la guerra civil espa\u00f1ola.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Texto\nde Philip McGuinness<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The\nIrish and the Spanish Civil War<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Soldados
Soldados de la Brigada Irlandesa en una casa rural espa\u00f1ola en 1937. Fuente: History Ireland<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The\nSpanish Civil War (1936-39) remains one of the most studied conflicts of the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury, attracting numerous studies on the part of both Spanish and foreign\nhistorians. The story of foreign intervention in the Civil War continues to\nattract the attention of very many historians, such was its influence over the\noutcome of the war and how this conflict seems to foreshadow the ideological\ndivision between fascism and communism that would define the Second World War.\nWhilst Irish society was never as politically polarised as many of its European\nneighbours during this period, Irish participation in the Spanish Civil War\nserves to demonstrate how aware Irish people were of the ideological divisions\nof the 1930s and how Ireland viewed this ongoing ideological polarisation\nthroughout the inter-war period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\nthe context of a new alliance between Church and State, embodied in the Irish\nConstitution of 1937, the majority of the Irish population sided strongly with\nFranco and his \u2018crusade\u2019 to protect \u2018Spain\u2019s Catholic spirit\u2019. Due to the\nabsence of a leftist tradition in Ireland during this period, the strength of\nthis support for Franco\u2019s insurrection owed much to the perception of a shared\nCatholic identity between the two counties and the desire of a majority of\nIrish people to maintain these close religious bonds that still characterised\nthe relationship between Ireland and Spain into the 20th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nthe consolidation of political polarisation and the ensuing persecution of the\nSpanish clergy on the part of certain factions within Spanish Republicanism,\nthe Irish Catholic Church sided ever more closely with the Francoist uprising\nand began to preach to their congregations regarding the need for Irish people\nto confront the threat of atheism together with their Spanish brethren. Having\nportrayed the Spanish Civil War as a direct confrontation between the stability\nof the Catholic social order and the disorder brought about by a future\nCommunist regime, Ireland quickly saw the establishment of military\norganisations committed to supporting Franco\u2019s uprising, among them the \u2018Irish\nBrigade\u2019 led by the ex-politician, Eoin O\u2019Duffy. In their religious fervour,\nthe \u2018Irish Brigade\u2019 strived to become a veritable Irish political force through\nits commitment to restoring Spain to Catholic hegemony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According\nto the historian, Fearghal McGarry, the \u2018Irish Brigade\u2019 became gradually\ndisillusioned during their time with Franco\u2019s forces due to their restricted\nrole in military operations and their realisation that the Irish Catholic\nChurch had begun to distance themselves from Franco following the bombing of\nthe Basque town of Guernica in 1937. In this sense, despite never having had\nthe support of a majority of Irish people, the participation of the \u2018Irish\nBrigade\u2019 serve to remind us of the climate of political polarisation that\nafflicted Europe during this period and the preoccupation of the Catholic\nChurch with the rise of communism and socialism in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\nthe story of the participation of the \u2018Irish Brigade\u2019 remains embedded in the\nIrish public consciousness, the lives of Ireland\u2019s leftist volunteers during\nthe Spanish Civil War continues to demand a deeper acknowledgment on the part\nof the Irish public. Having been members of Ireland\u2019s leftist movements,\nparticularly during the period prior to Irish Independence, many of these men\nfelt compelled to join the so-called \u2018International Brigades\u2019 to defend their\ncauses of socialism or communism. Due to their participation in almost all\nRepublican military expeditions of the Spanish Civil War, our study of the\nlives of these Irish volunteers allow a clearer picture of the Irish experience\nof the War and how committed they were to their different political causes. In\nthe absence of an identifiable historical memory of Irish participation in the\nSpanish Civil War, we ought to strive to keep the experiences of these\nvolunteers alive in the context of Irish-Spanish relations of the 20th<\/sup>\ncentury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition to helping us better understand this dark chapter of Spanish history,\nthe stories of these Irish volunteers also demonstrate how aware Ireland was of\nthe Spanish Civil War and how extremist beliefs affected Ireland during this\nperiod. Whilst we continue exploring the lives of these Irish volunteers, we\nshouldn\u2019t forget our responsibility to study their lives and to educate\nourselves as to what these stories tell us of the social and political\nlandscape of the initial decades of the Irish Republic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Text\nby Philip McGuinness<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La guerra civil espa\u00f1ola (1936-1939) ha sido uno de los conflictos m\u00e1s estudiados del siglo XX, sobre el que se han realizado muchas investigaciones, tanto por parte de los historiadores espa\u00f1oles como de los extranjeros. La historia de la participaci\u00f3n extranjera en la guerra civil sigue atrayendo la atenci\u00f3n de los investigadores debido a su […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":323,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1604,30,1829,37],"tags":[1928,722,1934,1931,390,1925],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/323"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13070,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13061\/revisions\/13070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cervantes.es\/dublin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}