Irish Examiner letters: Frank Ryan and the Spanish Civil War

The Irishman did not work with any other Irish republicans in Berlin

Republican troops of the International Brigades with a Renault FT tank during the Spanish Civil War, Spain, February 1937. Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty

I agree that The International Brigades by Giles Tremlett, described by reviewer David Kernek as a “meticulous, massively detailed history” — ‘Sinners and saints’ ( Irish Examiner, Books, February 13) — is a superb history of the Spanish Civil War.

It is when Tremlett’s epilogue superficially addresses the question of Frank Ryan’s role in wartime Germany that he goes astray. The review quotes him as writing that Ryan “seems to have worked with other Irish republicans who thought the war — that’s WW2 — offered a unique opportunity to bring about the reunification of Ireland, especially if Hitler should invade Britain”, suggesting that de Valera regarded Ryan himself as a threat to Irish neutrality.