Spanish Civil War labourers, and parts of the middle class. The conservative, strongly Catholic Basque country, along with Catholic Galicia and the more left-leaning Catalonia, sought autonomy or independence from the central government of Madrid. The Republican government allowed for the possibility of self-government for the two regions, whose forces were gathered under the People's Republican Army ("Ejército Popular Republicano", or EPR), which was reorganized into mixed brigades after October 1936. A few well-known people fought on the Republican side, such as English novelist George Orwell (who wrote "Homage to Catalonia" (1938), an account of his experiences in the war) and Canadian thoracic
Irish involvement in the Spanish Civil War Irish involvement in the Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War lasted from July 17, 1936 to April 1, 1939. While both sides in the Spanish Civil War attracted participants from Ireland, the majority sided with the Nationalist faction. Feeling in Ireland in the 1930s ran overwhelmingly against the Second Spanish Republic due to the opposition by the Catholic Church. Following the July coup by the generals in Spain a wave of atrocities swept the country on both sides; in Republican Spain the Red Terror was, in part, directed against the Church there. Ireland was awash with atrocity stories, leading