Sound recording of interview conducted by Robert Stradling with Bernie Boles

Sound recording of interview conducted by Robert Stradling with Bernie Boles, Cahir, county Tipperary, who recalls knowing William F. McGrath, Cork, who served as Sergeant in ‘B’ Company of Irish Brigade in Spain. Notes how McGrath had been working in Fords, county Cork, and attended meeting in Imperial Hotel in approximately August 1936, before being persuaded to go to Spain as an interpreter. Outlines journey to Spain via Lisbon, on board a German vessel, with group consisting of mainly cashiered army officers and policemen. Notes the red light district in Lisbon, stating ‘There was some... time in Lisbon to organise buses to Spain… he [McGrath] told me… it was almost time for the buses to go and several of the Irish fellas were missing… Willie had an idea where they were going because he had heard them talking on the boat about women… so he went towards what he understood to be the red light district… he went down to this house… and here were my brave Irishmen with madam’s ladies… and they were all in this sort of a saloon, and they were all drinking tea or coffee… a few of them [the ladies] had rosaries around their necks and Willie saw the rosaries and he said to the lads… “What are they doing with your rosaries, “Well”, they said, “we hadn’t any money… and that’s all we could give them, and they were quite happy to take them”’. Also notes the horrendous condition of the barracks at Badajoz, upon the arrival of the Irish Brigadiers, due to a massacre that had previously occurred there. Also refers to drinking habits of the Irishmen and the lack of uniforms, stating ‘they were given from Germany… these uniforms… and they were beautiful material, but they were completely wrong in size for the lads because they were all small fellas… so Willie had to go around the town… it could have been Badajoz, to get the seamstresses to make up the uniforms’. In addition, notes that the men never got into battle although two got shot, and meeting ‘Franco’s Moors’. Also makes reference to letter from Welsh landowner, Evan Morgan, Lord Tredegar, to Louis [La Fleur], as he made his way to the Canary Islands (see P13/1/1/12/1). This item is too fragile to be safely handled. For digital access to contents, please check with a member of staff.