Brigadista: An Irishman's Fight Against Fascim, Bob Doyle, Harry P. Owens

Bob Doyle was born in Dublin's inner city on 12 February 1916. After a childhood full of the expected privations of the poor he joined the ranks of the unemployed in the dark 1930s. It was during this period of unrest that he met republican and socialist Kit Conway, who was to have a profound influence on his life and politics and whom he joined in anti-Blueshirt demonstrations on the streets of Dublin. On the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 anti-Fascists from all over the world were motivated to fight for the Republican government against Franco. In December 1937 Bob Doyle finally managed to enter Span and, with other volunteers from Britain and Ireland, reported to an International Brigade battalion at Figueras. Captured by the Fascists along with Frank Ryan, he spent many months with other Brigadistas in the monastery of San Pedro, which had been turned into a concentration camp, until eventually, in early 1939, they were released as part of a prisoner exchange.
Bob enlisted in the British merchant navy during the Second World War and it was in England that he met his Spanish wife, Lola, and in London that he lived and worked as a printer after the war. He did not forget Spain, nor the fight against Fascism, returning in secret to the country and taking part in the underground anti-France resistance. Brigadista is a memoir by a great survivor.