Homage to Catalonia 1943. The closing phrase of the poem, "No bomb that ever burst shatters the crystal spirit", was later taken by George Woodcock for the title of his Governor General's Award-winning critical study of Orwell and his work, "The Crystal Spirit" (1966). Homage to Catalonia Homage to Catalonia is George Orwell's personal account of his experiences and observations fighting for the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War. The war was one of the shaping events on his political outlook and a significant part of what led him to write, in 1946, "Every line of serious work that I have written
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