Lynda Walker of the International Brigade Commemoration Committee (IBCC) writes…

On Friday 9 August the IBCC held its annual event as part of the Féile an Phobail (People’s Festival) in the Shankill Road Library. This year the topic was about the medics who provided vital support for those who were injured and dying in the anti-fascist war in Spain from 1936-1939.

The main focus of the talk was Hannah Ruth Ormsby (known as Ruth), who was born in Dromore West in County Sligo in 1901.

Patricia McKeown, regional secretary of Unison, who chaired the meeting, welcomed the audience and paid tribute to the IBCC and other organisations that keep the principles of the Brigaders alive. She also thanked the Shankill Road Library for their help and support.

There were two guest speakers, both involved in making a documentary, ‘Behind the Lines’, about Ruth Ormsby. One was Johnny Gogan, who has made a wide range of television documentaries and short films. His recent second novel, ‘Station To Station’ has a strong, contemporary Spanish theme.

Speakers Johnny Gogan (centre) and Catharine Howley (right) talking to David Rolston, Ruth Ormsby's great nephew.

The other speakers was Catherine Howley, who is is co-producing and co-researching the documentary. She has just returned to Ireland after 12 years living in Barcelona. There she worked helping to run Spanish Civil War tours, bringing the history of the civil war to life for visitors to the city.

The audienceheard how Ruth had trained as a nurse in Glasgow and worked in a neurological hospital in London before travelling to Spain in 1937 as part of the International Brigades’ medical aid effort. 

Gogan and Howley spoke about the research that they have carried out, about Ruth’s time in Spain and also about other medics who went from Belfast. This was interspersed with remarkable clips from the documentary.

Not many women went from Ireland to Spain and Ruth was the only Irish woman who died there.

Among the clips was one featuring another nurse with an Irish connection, this being Salaria Kea O’Reilly, born in 1913 in Milledgeville, Georgia. She was an American nurse and during the Spanish Civil War she was the only African-American nurse working with the Abraham Lincoln Battalion. 

This is how Salaria met International Brigader John O’Reilly from Tipperary. They married in October 1937.

The audience participated in a discussion. One of the questions related to the small number of Irish women who volunteered to nurse compared with those who volunteered for the First World War, when several thousand Irish women went to the front.

David Rolston and Liz Shaw.

There was a suggestion that during the war in Spain there was support for the fascist Blueshirts than for the Brigaders.

Liz Shaw, daughter of Joe Boyd, a medic from Belfast, gave a very interesting contribution about her father. Joe was born in Cookstown, but lived in Belfast, a milkman by trade. 

She described how her father had learned that he was one of 12 Ulstermen who had been chosen to serve in an ambulance unit in the International Brigades formed by socialist volunteers.

Although there were many applicants, his time as an apprentice pharmacist and experience in driving a truck made him an ideal candidate. As soon as he received word of his selection, he took the night boat from Belfast to meet the other volunteers in Glasgow. There was much more to Joe’s story, she said, including being captured by the German.

Inside the Shankill Road Library.

Liz’s contribution was welcomed along with that of David Rolston, a great nephew of Ruth Ormsby. 

This event took place on the anniversary of internment without trial in 1971. The Féile was born out of the disruptive protests against internment. Those who had initiated the Féile wanted to bring politics with peace to the streets. 

It was not lost on the IBCC organisers that the current disturbing racist protests could have meant that the event might have had to be cancelled. In fact it was a well-attended meeting and much appreciated by all.

After the meeting Johnny Gogon and Sean Kettle, along with IBCC chairperson Ciaran Crossey, gave short speeches in memory of the Brigaders at the memorial in Writers’ Square, where flowers were laid.

Speakers and IBCC supporters at the International Brigade memorial in Belfast's Writers' Square.