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The Irish Secretary of the International Brigade Memorial Trust, Manus O’Riordan, who was centrally involved in commemorating the 300 plus Irish volunteers who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, has died aged 72.
Mr O’Riordan was a familiar figure on the Irish left, helping to organise commemorations all over the country for the Irish men who joined the International Brigades to fight in Spain after Francisco Franco and the generals rebelled in 1936 to overthrow the democratically elected Popular Front government.
Mr O’Riordan’s father, Michael, went to Spain as a 20-year-old in 1938 to fight against Franco’s forces.
“He was due to go in 1937, but he got appendicitis, so he went the following year, but before he went he actually said ‘I already knew the war was lost because of the amount of aid that Hitler and Mussolini were giving Franco and the lack of support for the republic from Britain and France’,” Manus O’Riordan said of his father in 2017 at an event marking the 100th anniversary of his birth.
“But he still felt honour-bound having volunteered to go, so he went out without any expectation of the war being won by any action he took. He thought perhaps the republic could hold out a little bit longer and there might be some change if something dramatic happened elsewhere in Europe. ”
A former head of the research department at trade union Siptu, Manus O’Riordan, who lived in Glasnevin, Dublin, is survived by his daughter Jess; sons Neil and Luke; grandchildren Amaia, Rory, Caleb and Eli; his sister Brenda; and his partner Nancy Wallach.