Thursday 19th March 2026 8pm
Columbanus Hall, Canon Row, Navan, C15 E197
Talk by Dominic Muldoon
‘Meath and the Spanish Civil War’
A story of conviction, conflict and refuge.
The Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) was a
brutal conflict between Spain’s
democratically elected Republican
government and a Nationalist faction led by
General Francisco Franco.
While the war was
fought on Spanish soil, its impact reached
deep into County Meath. In late 1936,
eighteen individuals from Meath travelled to
Spain to volunteer for Franco’s Nationalist
forces against the Republicans. Most of these
volunteers had no previous military
experience, yet they were driven to join the
conflict.
The war’s brutality was further
brought home in April 1937 with the
bombing of Gernika. This event led a Basque
refugee family, the Gallastegis, to flee their
homeland and find sanctuary in the Gaeltacht
of Gibbstown.
This talk explores these contrasting
experiences: the local people who went to Spain to join the fight, and the
refugees who came to Meath to rebuild their lives.
