WRITERS SQUARE DONEGALL STREET BELFAST
A few years ago, while I was in the process of photographing this memorial, a passerby asked me why I was interested in a statue of an American soldier.
There are a number of memorials to Belfast’s Spanish volunteers, from this bronze statue at Writers’ Square, opposite St Anne’s Cathedral, to the plaque in The John Hewitt bar. Note: Hewitt and his wife, Roberta, took housed Basque refugees during the Spanish Civil War.
In the 1930s, nearly 1,000 Irishmen followed in the long tradition of foreign service by enlisting to fight in the Spanish Civil War; some fought with the Nationalist forces and others joined the Republicans.
The plaque reads:
Dedicated to the people of Belfast,
the island of Ireland and beyond who joined
the XV International Brigade to fight Fascism
in the Spanish Civil War 1936 – 1939,
and those men and women from all traditions
who supported the Spanish working people
and their Republic.
This sculpture was commissioned by the
International Brigade Commemoration Committee
and unveiled by Bob Doyle
International Brigade veteran
on 13th October 2007.
Sculpted by Anto Brennan.
Erected by the Open Window Production Team.
Gerard Brennan
