Sir, - Lara Marlowe's feature (Weekend, September 11th) on the French Government's betrayal of the Spanish Republican refugees between 1939 and 1941 must be a revelation to many. It repeated the cry made by Pablo Neruda on the attitude of the French and British Governments to the war against Franco that began in 1936:
"Spain tore the earth with her nails,
When Paris was most beautiful.
Spain poured out her enormous tree of blood,
When London tended its garden and its lake of swans".
It may be of interest to note that one Irishman, the late Paddy Duff (1914-72) of Dublin, was also held in the French St Cyprien Concentration Camp, along with his Spanish comrades, following the Franco victory in February, 1939.
Paddy Duff was with the first Irish group led by Frank Ryan that joined the International Brigade in September 1936. He took part in the battles of Cordova and Jarama, was wounded and returned to Dublin for medical treatment. He then re-volunteered for Spain and climbed over the Pyrenees to fight on the Ebro Front, when he was again wounded. Following his release from the St Cyprien Camp he was repatriated to Ireland and when the second World War began he emigrated to London where he was employed as a roof firewatcher during the Nazi blitz on that capital. After the war he returned to Dublin and began to organise agricultural workers, later becoming a full-time official of the Workers Union of Ireland. - Yours, etc.,
Michael O'Riordan, Connolly Books, Essex Street, Dublin 2.