In the cool shade of a leafy ash tree in south Tipperary, and far from the parched but bloody olive groves of Jarama, Kit Conway was remembered for his heroism in both the Irish War of Independence and the Spanish Civil War in a ceremony at the weekend.
In his native Burncourt, nestling in the lush green plain between the Galtees and the Knockmealdowns, some 100 people came to honour his memory with the unveiling of a plaque.
Conway died in Spain on February 12th, 1937, fighting fascism with the International Brigades; and among the attendants were the last two surviving Irish brigadistas, Dubliner Bob Doyle (89), who travelled from London, and Cork-born Michael O'Riordan (87).
Mr Doyle recalled that when the IRA split in 1934, he followed Conway, Peadar O'Donnell and Frank Ryan into the left-wing Republican Congress. He later followed Conway and others to support the Spanish Republic.
Mr O'Riordan related how Conway took command of two British companies as well as his own Irish company at Jarama, before he fell mortally wounded - one of 19 Irishmen to die in the battle to prevent Franco isolating Madrid from the rest of the republic.
Earlier, local man Seán Ó Cearnaigh, whose father was Conway's best friend and company commander in the IRA, recalled their exploits and those of other Burncourt men in the fight against the Black and Tans and Auxiliaries in the War of Independence.
But it was Conway's decision to go to Spain that provided perhaps the most moving moment of the ceremony when, beneath the flags of the Irish and Spanish Republics, Seve Montero scattered soil from Jarama valley around the monument. "I come from Spain, the land where Kit lies . . ."
