"Modern Spain is the product of forgiveness, but it can't be the product of forgetfulness."These were the words of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as Francesco Franco was exhumed from the Valley of the Fallen to be reburied with his family in a low key location in the cemetery of El Pardo. Having been unable to get Spain back on its feet and fix the economic problems, Sanchez can boast about his only victory, the exhumation of Franco. Beating a dead horse, or rather a dead opponent, is the only challenge he has yet overcome. But the question arises, why after 44 years, more than 80 years after winning the Civil War does el Caudillo still attract so much hatred?
Clearly this is a case of gross ignorance. History is not a neutral science and it has become more and more politicized in the last few decades with the cultural hegemony of the Left. Now that the universities and the academic world have been successfully monopolized by the societal Left, the revisionists have all the room to impose their new version of history without being contradicted. The history of the Spanish Civil War is being totally rewritten and by reading what the journalists write in the mainstream media, it is clear that the truth has been sacrificed in favor of a militant version of history.
Spaniards from the 1930’s would be shocked by the narrative now presented by the modern historians, who seem to have no respect for facts and truth and seem solely interested in using the study of the past to further their own agenda. But isn’t that what George Orwell had prophesied?
In a rather bizarre way, history has never been more ignored, referring here to the lack of knowledge and ignorance, but on the other hand, it has never been more present in the news with statue vandalism, the changing of place names, and constant apologies. But maybe, it is actually because the youth are no longer being taught proper history that it has become such a joke and an excuse for white guilt.
Raphael Minder from the New York Times is a perfect example of this phenomenon. In a rather extensive article on Franco’s exhumation on October 24th, the left-wing journalist explains the beginning of the Civil War this way :
“Franco and other officers staged a military coup that turned into a three-year civil war.”A reader without any prior knowledge on this dramatic episode of Spanish history is then led to believe that in 1936, Spain was a peaceful and democratic country, and that out of nowhere a would-be dictator rose up to impose his fascistic regime, and that for three years, the valiant democrats resisted Franco. This is exactly the version that was held publicly by Stalin and his puppets. It is funny to see that even as we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the downfall of the Berlin Wall that led to the collapse of the USSR, the communists did win the battle of memory and their version of history prevails in the West. It is one of history’s paradoxes.
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| Franco exhumed: not the first time the Spanish Left have disturbed the dead. |
Already in 2010, French historian Christophe Dolbeau, author of a book on the Spanish Civil War, was writing:
“Many are those who believe that the Second Spanish Republic was a peaceful state, governed by a progressive, caring and democratic Liberal left and that the right was composed of obtuse, bigoted and hateful reactionaries. Repeated over and over for 70 years by an army of liars, this cliché is hard to overturn. Forgotten are the burnings of convents and churches, the confiscation of wealth, the constant strikes, mutinies, riots, plunders, murders, and bombings! Forgotten are the hordes of failed bandits, terrorists, schemers, and masons who took power and kept on screaming that they wanted to turn Spain unto a "Popular Democracy."A Historical Memory Law, passed in 2007 by the Socialists, recognized the war victims on both sides. Today the word "victim" seems to apply to only one side.
In order to defend truth, Reconquista Press, which unfortunately does not match the readership of the NY Times, has recently republished Eoin O’Duffy’s Crusade in Spain. It is not the work of a historian, but rather, the impressions and perceptions of an outsider, an Irish Catholic, about the Civil War, and unlike those writing today, O’Duffy actually visited Spain and saw at first hand what this fight was all about. His testimony is therefore of the foremost importance. It is unfortunate that writers like Minder do not take the time to read O’Duffy’s account and instead rely solely on Communist propagandists for their sources.
O’Duffy, according to Christophe Dolbeau in Les Parias (Irminsul, 2001), was a man of quality and virtue. This is a term I feel is obsolete in our post-modern society. He was also known for his organizing skills. Asked to head a non-partisan veteran association, he transformed it into a Catholic nationalist organization, the National Guard, composed of thousands of Blueshirts. After a severe repression, the National Guard was dissolved, but O’Duffy was catapulted to the head of the United Ireland Party, the Fine Gael. He gave a corporatist program to the party, a corporatism first and foremost Catholic, like Adrien Arcand’s corporatism in Canada, inspired by the Social Teaching of the Church rather than by what was being implemented in Italy.
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| O'Duffy |
Indeed, Spain was under a very serious attack from the Reds who were targeting the Catholic Church as their main enemy. Smashed crosses, murdered priests and raped nuns were the daily bread of the “Republican” side. Today, historians tend to forget these atrocities, but in 1936, they were hard to deny.
That year, the Bishops of Spain raised an alarm cry:
“We calculate that about twenty thousand churches have been destroyed, the priests were hunted with dogs, they were pursued across the mountains, they were searched for with eagerness in every hiding place. The forms of murder took the character of horrible barbarity. Many have had their limbs amputated or have been dreadfully mutilated before being murdered; their eyes have been put out, their tongues cut out, they have been ripped open from top to bottom, burned and buried alive or chopped to death with axes. The greatest cruelty has been used against the ministers of God.”The Marquis Merry del Val wrote an even more precise account of these barbarities in a letter addressed to General O’Duffy:
“The reign of terror began with the accession to power of the so-called Popular Front on 17th February, 1936. From February to July 18th, when General Franco rose in revolt, 251 churches were burned or blown up, 269 persons were murdered, 1,278 wounded. This brought the number of churches destroyed before the outbreak of war up to one thousand. It is calculated that since then from fourteen thousand to twenty thousand priests, monks and [clergy] have been murdered, thousands of them after the most cruel physical and moral torture.”Those are merely statistics that do not allow the readers to grasp the barbarity that was unleashed in Spain. For better or worse, authors of that era still valued decency and were reluctant to really expose the atrocities committed by the Republicans, a patchwork of Communists and Anarchists supported by their friends from Soviet Russia.
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| The desolation and destruction of churches. |
It is not the politician who felt appalled by Spain’s cry, but the believer. For O’Duffy, it was not a temporal matter, but a spiritual one. The Irish Catholics had to lend their aid to Spanish Catholics in order to defeat the Red Beast that sought to enslave them all. The enemy of Christ had to be fought, and not with words, but with the sword and the spear.
Cardinal MacRory, Ireland's leading churchman, had himself declared in September 1936:
“Poor Spain! So by a great country and faithful friend of Ireland, now torn and bleeding and fighting for her Christian life. There is no room any longer for any doubt as to the issues at stake in the Spanish country. It is not a question of the army against the people, nor the aristocracy plus the army and the Church against labour. Not at all. It is a question of whether Spain will remain as she has been so long, a Christian and Catholic land, or a Bolshevist and anti-God land.”Convinced of the necessity to launch a movement for a new crusade, a Reconquista of Spain, O'Duffy thus decided to launch an appeal to his fellowmen to form battalions to go to free the Iberian peninsula. After all, Franco himself had talked about a crusade for Spain and Europe against Bolshevism.
But Ireland, like France and the USSR had signed a Non-Intervention Agreement on November 15, 1936, forbidding any involvement in the Civil War. For Moscow, this pact had no value and was not binding in any way, but for Dublin, a signature was a signature and honour commanded its respect. Therefore, the departure of Irish volunteers was complicated by the Irish government. Having to bypass the law in order to reach Spain, special arrangements that made them land in Portugal had to be taken and only 700 made it to the country of Cervantes.
It must be said that these volunteers were not motivated by political reasons. They came from different parties and held different views. Some were Greenshirts, some Blueshirts, some had fought during the war of independence, others in the First World War. They went to Spain for religious reasons and because of their hatred for Communism. They were the vanguard of a European anti-communist front. As Monsignor Ryan of Cashel put it, “only heroes can fight such a battle.”
After initial training, they were sent to the front in Ciempozuelos, close to Madrid. There, the spiritual sons of Saint Patrick experienced the hard life of the trenches and were under heavy enemy fire. They then moved to La Maranosa and launched an unsuccessful assault on Titulcia, an attack that was brutally stopped by a rain of iron. That defeat allowed the Reds to boast about the total annihilation of the Irish Brigade, a feat they never achieved, but of which they were constantly dreaming.
In May 1937, after having served for the six months upon which they had agreed, the Irish volunteers crossed the border to Portugal and sailed back to Ireland where they had to face new hardships. Some never made it back to Ireland, like Tom Hyde, who had fought the British in the struggle for independence, Dan Chute who had been among the first to volunteer, and Gabriel Lee who had been an Irish volunteer and a commandant in the National Army. The soil of Spain was watered with the blood of the Celts.
Franco expressed his “supreme gratification” for these volunteers “fighting for the glory of Ireland, the glory of Spain and the glory of our Holy Faith.” The Caudillo thanked the Irish Bandera in heartfelt words:
“I shall always hold a grateful memory of the young Irishmen who for the justice of our cause did not hesitate in offering their services, and their lives, and many made sacrifices in defense of the high ideal that animates the Spanish people in the fight for the independence of the Fatherland and for civilization against Moscow communism.”As for the question of whether Franco was a fascist, as he is now presented in the mainstream media and history books, the answer is simple for any objective observer. O’Duffy himself answered this question when he stated:
“Some people oppose Franco under the pretense that the war in Spain is a fight between Fascism and Democracy and they have no use for Fascism. Nothing could be more absurd. If their reason is sound how can they account for the fact that the 'democrats' fire on the Tabernacle, and challenge Christ as if he is really present to come out and smite them. Why do these 'democrats' remove the figures of Christ and Mary from the churches, and place them on the highways after having painted them immodestly? If those who are not Communist are Fascist, and if the Catholic Church condemns Communism, then is the Church Fascist?”Franco was a reactionary in every way. He did not start a revolution, but merely reacted to events. It is indeed true that Franco, who had become the youngest general in Spain in the 1920s, had managed to unite the Spanish Right. That included the Falangists of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, but also the Carlists and other monarchists, as well as conservatives. The Church also gave him unconditional support, as he was the shield protecting Christianity against the Red’s atheistic violence. O’Duffy pointed out something that has been forgotten, that during the Civil War, Nationalist Spain welcomed countless refugees from the Red zones, while the opposite never happened.
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| Italian bombers help the Nationalists |
O’Duffy did not see him as a politician believing he had “no dictatorial ambitions. He wants to see Spain powerful and happy, but he is not a politician, he is not attached to any ‘ism’, he makes no speeches, and he avoids a public demonstration like a plague.” But, “he is a genuinely devout Catholic. He makes no pretensions, he does not beat his breast piously in public, but his sense of duty to God and to the Church and to his country is complete.”
General O’Duffy was indeed right as history proved it: Franco never was a fascist and did not “adopt any foreign model,” although he did borrow some policies from Salazar’s Portugal. His reign was a mix of liberalism and conservatism with a few superficial reforms aimed at contenting the Falangists and Carlists who never felt Franco was implementing a real corporatist program. The New State was inspired by the Vatican, rather than by Rome.
In an earlier article published on this blog, Timo Hännikäinen summarized the situation perfectly well:
“Franco and the other generals who rebelled against the Republic represented a traditional, authoritarian conservatism, leaning on monarchy and the Catholic Church, rather than radical and socially reformist fascism.”As for O’Duffy himself, his involvement in the Spanish Civil War was his last political statement. He never resumed the National Corporate Movement, and when the war started, he aligned himself with de Valera, forgetting old animosities for the sake of national unity. He died prematurely at the age of 52 on November 30, 1944, and was given a State Funeral. As the historian Christophe Dolbeau puts it, “he had been attacked by many, but respected by most.” The Crusade in Spain, which is not by any means a war journal but a testimony on the Spanish Civil War, was his last stand.
He wished that “please God Ireland will honour their memory some day”, referring to the sons of Ireland fallen in Spain. Unfortunately, they are mostly forgotten and are now considered on the evil side of history.
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