Viva La Quinta Brigada

Prologue
The bombs and shells rung, the machine guns rattled across the valley while I lay on the ground atop a hill bleeding through my head. O’Leary from Sligo town lay on the nearby wall completely motionless while comrade Murphy a Dublin man of nineteen lay burning in a crater with the Starry Plough lying on the ground next to him and Vinnie Grant from Dundalk was firing his revolver telling the fascists to take him. In the distance Jesús Ramirez led the local Spanish communists towards the fascist machine gunners. This was all happening in the Andalusian desert, right under the warm Iberian sun. I was uncertain what will happen to the remainder of my squad, Jesús’ platoon, the sniper back in the village and the people of the village. Anyway I should explain how I got here or will I ever see my beloved Kilkenny City again.

Chapter 1-Kilkenny
I was approached by two former classmates one day when I was walking down the street. “Fuck off Desmond, we don’t take too kindly to socialists here” one of them said pushing me “What ye gonna do about it Frankie, fucking atheist scum, who’ll save you? NO ONE, all you commies, republicans and heathens will be soon sorted out” the other said punching me in the face. It was then I snapped and started fighting them. Out of nowhere two men ran out and backed me up causing the bigots to run off.

“What’s your name lad?” one asked, he was a tall black haired man with a Northern accent, “Frankie Desmond” I replied to his question “Nice to meet you Frank, this is Jim Sullivan and I’m Gerry McCall. They were calling you a socialist if I’m not mistaking” I nodded to Gerry in response and Jim then said to me “We’re also socialists lad and we’re looking for men to go fight in Spain”. I looked at Jim and Gerry wondering what they were talking about “Seriously, me fighting? I’m not a pacifist or anything but I don’t know how to” “Look neither do we, well we got some pistol training but that’s it. You’ll learn on the way, tomorrow meet us at O’Brian’s we’re going to Hook’s Head, that’s where you’ll be initiated and where we’ll set off to Cadiz”.

After going home I had an argument with my conservative Catholic parents about this. But I decided not to listen to their intolerance of my beliefs. I began to see Spain as something to do for my cause. I heard that the Republican side, the communists were against the clergy and the middle class. With McCall and Sullivan I could only trust them and I owed them.

The next morning I sneaked out of my house with some baggage and went to O’Brian’s Inn. McCall and Sullivan were outside smoking and each had a case with them. “Thought you weren’t coming” Sullivan said and I followed the two men to the river. There was a small motor boat and we got on it. “Jim where are you from” I asked Sullivan and he replied “Donegal and Gerry’s from the other side of the border” “From Coleraine originally then we were burned out and moved to Derry city” Gerry added.

Chapter 2-Inition
We arrived at Hook’s Head about an hour later. “Frankie you and Jim stand over there with that crowd I’ll go talk with the commissar”. I was uncertain what was going to happen next. The ship was already out at sea but there were a couple of barges at the beach. Eventually the commissar started reading out “Gentlemen you’ve all gathered today to fight for the red flag, for the freedom of the people of Spain against the fascist hordes. By enlisting here you’ll agree to fight in the name of James Connelly under the 15th International Brigade”. The commissar handed the first man in the crowd a clipboard and he passed it on with each man signing his name.

Eventually the clipboard was handed back to the commissar who then began to give us further instruction. “I’ll assort each man into a squad of between nine and twelve. The first man mentioned is the squad leader”. McCall ran back to us and explained “I was just giving him our names, it caused a bit of a commotion but it’s alright now” “Then what was that?” Jim asked and I suggested “The manifest…” the commissar said my name then continued on “…your squad consists of Eoin O'Leary, Paddy Smith, Seán McDaid, Jim Sullivan Pauric "Fitzy" Fitznorman, Pól O'Neil, Gerry McCall, Shea Murphy, Barry Gallagher, Vincent "Vinnie" Grant and Iosá McMonagle” “Looks like you’re our man Frank” Gerry said patting my back. Our squad number was three and we too get on the third barge along with squad four.

On the ship we were assigned to our quarters and given a timetable. Each of the six squads followed a different one. We were to arrive in Spain in about a week and a half.