Frank Conroy plaque unveiling on Saturday
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| Nessa Dunlea of the Kilcullen 700 committee shows the plaque. |
Frank Conroy died in 1936 with the International Brigade fighting for Republican Spain. Born on 25 February 1914, he was baptised in Kilcullen Parish Church. His parents were Michael Conroy (born in Co Laois) and Catherine Farrell (born in Co Dublin).
They married in Dublin in 1908, and Michael Conroy, a baker by trade, moved his family to Co Kildare sometime after 1911, probably for employment reasons, as there was a large bakery operating in Kilcullen. The family later moved back to Dublin while Frank was a young boy.
Frank Conroy left for Spain on 13 December 1936 with about 25 other Irish volunteers, ex-members of the IRA like himself, and the Irish Citizen Army, Irish Republican Congress, and the Six-County Socialist Party. Many of them, including Conroy, were Communists.
He was among 300 volunteers killed in an attack on the town of Lopez, near Cordoba, during Christmas of that year. A full account by author and historian James Durney is available here.
He is featured in Christy Moore’s song Viva La Quinte Brigada. A twin of the plaque to be placed in Kilcullen has already been erected in Spain.
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