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Tommy or Thomas Wood (c. 1919 – 1936) was a young Irish man who joined the International Brigades, fighting on the side of the Spanish Republic during the civil war against General Franco's Nationalists. Wood came from a Dublin family which had a strong tradition of Irish Republicanism, and he had lost two uncles in the Irish War of Independence.

Following Wood's arrival in Spain, just before Christmas 1936, his unit was despatched south to Córdoba, where they built a bridgehead. The fighting was bitter, however, and little progress was made, particularly due to air attacks from Nationalist forces. During the assault on nearby Lopera, Wood was wounded. It is uncertain whether he died immediately or in hospital, and it took some time for news of his death to be received in Ireland.

Early life

Little is known of Wood's early life, but his father was John Wood, who worked for the Department of Local Government, and his mother was Sarah, née Doyle. He had siblings. Wood's precise date of birth has gone unrecorded, but his parents' letter to the External Affairs Department states he was 17 in 1936. He grew up at 16 Buckingham Place in the north of Dublin's inner city. Wood's family had a "respected" history of Irish Republicanism: two maternal uncles died fighting British forces. Patrick Doyle had been executed by at Mountjoy Gaol in 1921, during the Irish War of Independence, and another, Séan Doyle was killed in an action at The Custom House the same year. Wood joined the IRA's youth organisation, Fianna Éireann, as a youth. Wood was one of at least three active members of the Fianna who joined the International Brigade—known as International Brigaders or brigadistas—another of whom, along with Wood, was also to die on active service.

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War had broken out in July 1936 after a failed right-wing coup against the elected left-leaning Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic. Supported by the Fascist governments of Germany and Italy, the Nationalist Army was commanded by General Franco. Republican government forces were supported by the Soviet Union as well as thousands of citizens from non-interventionist countries. The volunteers mostly joined the International Brigades. The Irish section, known as the Connolly Column, began leaving for Spain in November 1936. One of its chief recruiters was Frank Ryan.

By the time Wood left for Spain, he was in the Dublin 2nd Battalion, the unit reserved for members who were 16 or over and ready to graduate into the IRA itself. According to the obituary subsequently run in the Irish Democrat, he wrote to his mother before leaving, explaining his reasons as "going to fight for the working class. It is not a religious war, that is all propaganda." It is possible that Wood lied about his age in order to join up; the Irish Democrat later reported that he had been "a mere boy who added years to his real age in order to get to Spain". The Party also rejected volunteers for service on the grounds of youth.

Ryan's group mostly comprised ex-IRA men and organised under the name Connolly Column. Wood had been attached to the recently formed XIV International Brigade at Albacete, and was almost immediately despatched—on 24 December—to the Córdoba area as part of the Aceituna Campaign. A fellow of Wood's, Joe Monks, described their departure for the front on Christmas Eve: "The people turned out to wish us bon voyage; the little girls kissed us. Their mothers cried for us because in their eyes, most of us were but boys." On 26 December Wood's unit created a bridgehead at Lopera. However, heavy enemy airfare prevented an all-out assault on the Nationalist lines.

Death

The brigade's attempted offensive in Lopera, comments the historian R. Dan Richardson, "received a baptism of fire turned into a thorough debacle". Including Wood, eight Irishmen were to die as a result of the fighting. Of these, six of these—including Wood—had crossed the Pyrenees with Ryan. Wood was either killed outright on Boxing Day (26 December), as The Worker reported or died five days later in Andújar Hospital following injuries sustained during the battle. He had been gone from Ireland 18 days. He was buried in Andújar Cemetery.

On 15 February Joseph Walshe, Secretary of the Irish Free State's Foreign Affairs Department wrote to the Irish Plenipotentiary in Spain, Leopold H. Kerney, advising him that Wood had "secretly" joined Ryan's group and departed for Spain on 11 December 1936. Kerney was requested to contact the republican Spanish Government Authorities and seek Wood's return on account of his being a legal minor still. Kerney was unable to establish Wood's movements, however.

News of his death did not reach Ireland until 1937, and early reports were confused. In his autobiography, the political commissar of the column Michael O'Riordan, reported that on 21 January, Ryan wrote that Wood had been wounded but did not list him among the dead. On 6 February, Ryan wrote to the Irish Communist Party's paper, The Worker, that Wood had been "slightly wounded and progressing favourably". It was believed Wood was suffering from shell shock as the result of an air raid, but alive. However, ten days later, the Irish Democrat carried an obituary with a message from Ryan. In it, they state that Ryan wrote to Wood's parents and said he was wounded above the left knee and required hospital treatment. He was carried off the field by the English communist and historian Ralph Winston Fox and ex-British soldier and Auxiliary George Nathan, but after being collected by stretcher bearers, he was hit again, this time in the head. Throughout this, he remained conscious, said Ryan, before dying on 29 December. Ryan suggested the late arrival of news was the result of a local confusion with the surname 'Wools', which was the name of a Dutch volunteer in the same hospital at the time.

In culture

The Irish folk and rebel music singer and songwriter Christy Moore wrote a song in 1983 while on holiday in Spain, which he titled 'Viva la Quinta Brigada'. A condensed story of Ireland's involvement in the Spanish Civil War, Moore says in his autobiography that he was influenced by reading O'Riordan's mémoire of the fight in Spain, The Connolly Column, subsequently noting that he "began this song as I read on. The song was lifted entirely from his book." Moore devotes a verse to Tommy Woods [sic], which reads:

Tommy Woods age seventeen died in Cordoba

With Na Fianna he learned to hold his gun

From Dublin to the Villa del Río

Where he fought and died beneath the blazing sun

In a 1961 interview with Sylvère Lotringer, the Irish writer Brendan Behan claimed Wood as a friend of his (albeit "two years older than myself when he went away"). Fellow brigadista Monks—also from Dublin and a friend of Seán O'Casey—later spoke to the John Cornford Poetry Group and described his memories of Wood at Lopera. On Christmas day night, their unit was "eyeball to eyeball" with fascists; Cornford kept his comrades amused, and Wood enjoyed himself.

See also

• International Brigade Memorial Trust

Notes

1. Sometimes misnamed Woods.
2. The only other 17-year olds to have joined up were the black radical Charlie Hutchison and Ronnie Burgess, Charlotte Haldane's son, both from London.
3. Historian Fearghal McGarry notes that the CPI vetted new recruits' suitability on the grounds of "physical or mental condition, political unsuitability, as well as the importance to the party", as well as age: Bob Doyle was rejected at the age of 21.
4. Not to be confused with the Battle of Córdoba itself, which had taken place between 19 and 22 August earlier the same year.
5. In the same letter, Walshe advises that "representations have been received in the Department from the parents of four boys under 21 years of age". The boys had joined the pro-nationalist and pro-Catholic Irish Brigade under Eoin O'Duffy and were by then in Spain.
6. Historian Pete Jackson has described The Worker as "a small, duplicated, four-page weekly bulletin ... Costing one penny and edited by Sean Murray, the General Secretary of the CPI, the Worker was a shoestring operation published from 32 Lower Ormond Quay, and ran for only thirty-six issues from 11 July 1936 to 13 March 1937".
7. Both Fox and Nathan died during the Civil War, the former at Lopera on the same day as Wood and the latter at the Battle of Brunete the following year.

References

1. ^ IBMT 2024.
2. Esdaile 2023, p. 180.
3. ^ Irish Press 1941.
4. ^ DIFP 2024.
5. ^ Barnett 2020.
6. ^ Irish Democrat 1937a.
7. O'Halpin & Ó Corrain 2020, p. 338.
8. McKenna 2021, pp. 224–225.
9. ^ Watts 1981, p. 235.
10. OED 2023.
11. Collins 2024.
12. Graham 1987, p. 106.
13. Forrest 2000, p. 54.
14. Bowen 2006, p. 5.
15. ^ Thomas 2013, p. 424.
16. Payne 2004, p. 155.
17. Tremlett 2020, pp. 63–67.
18. O'Riordan 1979, pp. 63, 56–57.
19. MacEoin 1997, pp. 768–769.
20. O'Riordan 1979, p. 65.
21. ^ McGarry 1999, p. 54.
22. Irish Democrat 1937b.
23. ^ Richardson 2021, p. 72.
24. Beevor 2001, p. 118.
25. Hoar 2004, p. 159.
26. Stradling 1999, pp. 150–151.
27. Stradling 1999, p. 151.
28. Vallejo & Vallejo 2006, p. 178.
29. Daily Worker 1937a, p. 8.
30. O'Riordan 1979, p. 62.
31. Jackson 1998, p. 79.
32. Ryan 1937.
33. Irish Independent 1937.
34. ^ Leeson 2011, pp. 116–117.
35. Monks 1985, Woods2.
36. Baxell 2012, pp. 116–117.
37. Motherway 2013, p. 146.
38. Moore 2000, Viva la Quinte Brigada.
39. SIPTU 2006.
40. Moore 2024.
41. Lotringer 2005, p. 9.
42. Coughlan 1995, pp. 111–113.
43. Monks 1985, Woods1.

Works

• Barnett, M. (21 October 2020). "Britain's Black International Brigadier". tribunemag.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
• Baxell, R. (2012). Unlikely Warriors: The British in the Spanish Civil War and the Struggle Against Fascism. Aurum. ISBN 978-1-78131-082-3.
• Beevor, A. (2001). The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War, 1936-1939. London: Penguin Books. p. 526. ISBN 978-0-14303-765-1.
• Bowen, W. H. (2006). Spain During World War II. London: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-6515-9.
• Collins (2024). "Brigadista". Collins English Dictionary.
• Coughlan, A. (1995). "Some New Letters Of Seán O'Casey". Saothar. 20: 111–116. ISSN 0332-1169.
• Daily Worker (3 November 1937a). "'Back Spain's Unity Call' Famous French Leader Says". Daily Worker. OCLC 474289818.
• DIFP (2024). "Documents on Irish Foreign Policy: Volume 5". Documents on Irish Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
• Esdaile, C. J. (2023). British Battles of the Spanish Civil War: How Volunteers from Britain Fought against Franco. Barnsley: Pen and Sword Military. ISBN 978-1-52678-284-7.
• Forrest, A. (2000). The Spanish Civil War. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13467-442-8.
• Graham, H. (1987). "The Spanish Popular Front and the Civil War". In Graham, H.; Preston, P. (eds.). The Popular Front in Europe. London: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 106–130. ISBN 978-1-34910-618-9.
• Hoar, A. (2004). In Green and Red: The Lives of Frank Ryan. Dingle: Brandon. ISBN 978-0-86322-332-7.
• IBMT (2024). "Thomas Wood". International Brigade Memorial Trust. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
• Irish Democrat (31 July 1937a). "Tommy Wood: An Appreciation". Irish Democrat. OCLC 25652998.
• Irish Democrat (4 December 1937b). "Story of the Irish Unit in Spain". Irish Democrat. OCLC 25652998.
• Irish Independent (13 January 1937). "News". Irish Independent. OCLC 232118268.
• Irish Press (29 October 1941). "Obituary: Mrs Sarah Wood". Irish Press. OCLC 14200392.
• Jackson, P. (1998). "'A Rather One-Sided Fight': The Worker and the Spanish Civil War". Saothar. 23: 79–87. OCLC 608582964.
• Leeson, D. M. (2011). The Black and Tans: British Police and Auxiliaries in the Irish War of Independence, 1920-1921. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19161-891-8.
• Lotringer, S. (2005). "The Thin Man: An Interview with Brendan Behan". Field Day Review. 1: 3–28. OCLC 475802236.
• MacEoin, U. (1997). The IRA in the Twilight Years: 1923–1948. Dublin: Argenta Publications. ISBN 978-0-95111-724-8.
• McGarry, F. (1999). Irish Politics and the Spanish Civil War. Cork: Cork University Press. ISBN 978-1-85918-239-0.
• McKenna, J. (2021). The Fight for Dublin, 1919-1921: Urban Warfare in the Irish Struggle for Independence. Jefferson: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-47668-441-3.
• Monks, J. (1985). With the Reds in Andalusia. london: John Cornford Poetry Group. OCLC 15590037.
• Moore, C. (2000). One Voice. London: Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-1-44471-719-8.
• Moore (2024). "Viva la Quinta Brigada". Christy Moore. Retrieved 2024-03-07.
• Motherway, S. H. (2013). The Globalization of Irish Traditional Song Performance. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-31703-003-4.
• OED (2023). "International Brigader". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
• O'Halpin, E.; Ó Corrain, D. (2020). The Dead of the Irish Revolution. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30012-382-1.
• O'Riordan, M. (1979). Connolly Column: The Story of the Irishmen who Fought in the Ranks of the International Brigades in the National-revolutionary War of the Spanish People, 1936-1939. Dublin: New Books. ISBN 978-0-90514-075-9.
• Payne, S. G. (2004). The Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and Communism. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-30013-078-2.
• Richardson, R. D. (2021). Comintern Army: The International Brigades and the Spanish Civil War. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-81318-350-3.
• Ryan, F. (6 February 1937). "Frank Ryan sends News from the Front". OCLC 25733734.
• SIPTU (2006). "Archived SIPTU publications". Archived from the original on 2007-11-19. Retrieved 2024-03-08.
• Stradling, R. A. (1999). The Irish and the Spanish Civil War, 1936–39: Crusades in Conflict. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-90134-113-3.
• Thomas, H. (2013). The Spanish Civil War (Rev. ed.). London: Random House. ISBN 978-0-06014-278-0.
• Tremlett, G. (2020). The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-52664-454-1.
• Vallejo, A. P.; Vallejo, J. L. P. (2006). La XIV Brigada Internacional en Andalucía: La Tragedia de Vila del Río y la Batalla de Lopera (in Spanish). Diputación Provincial de Jaén. ISBN 978-8-49621-842-0.
• Watts, J. R. (1981). Na Fianna Éireann: A Case Study of a Political Youth Organisation (PhD thesis). University of Glasgow. OCLC 556399977.

• 1936 deaths
• People from Dublin (city)
• Irish people of the Spanish Civil War
• Irish anti-fascists
• Irish military personnel killed in action
• International Brigades personnel killed in action