THE ECLECTIC COLLECTOR 6 APRIL 2025

134 220 1936-1937 Irish Brigade in Spain - El Tercio Banderas Irlandesas. Diaries of a corporal, serving under General Eoin O’Duffy. Three notebooks 21 November 1936 to 22 June 1937, handwritten by corporal James McKenna (1910- 1986) describing the journeys to and from Spain, his activities in Spain including some fighting. Also his certificate of Service with The Irish Brigade and a 15u Bandera Irlandesa commemorative plaque inscribed to James McKenna, his Irish Free State passport with entry and exit stamps of Portugal and Spain, booklets (3) issued by the Irish Brigade, a Spanish Army tunic, a scrapbook with news cuttings about the war, his 1939-1946 Emergency Service Medal (Defence Forces issue) and certificate of Discharge in 1946, letters to him during the war, furlough dockets, a list of fellow members of the Irish Brigade’s Trench Mortar Battery, a Blueshirt tunic with Fine Gael embroidered badge, 1937 typed letter confirming his service in Spain signed by General O’Duffy, and a later letter handwritten by O’Duffy, 1939 English translation of Hitler’s Mein Kampf, gifted to McKenna in 1941, Weekly Review of The German News Agency (19 issues), also birth and marriage certificates of James McKenna and his parents. A unique archive of an Irish soldier in the Spanish Civil War. Condition: Diaries are very legible and in good condition, the tunics are also very good condition. There are some faults with other documents with heavy folds and some splitting, overall the archive is in good condition. Provenance: By descent to the present owner. James McKenna was born in Cheshire to Irish parents and appears to have moved with his family to Ireland in the 1920s. He was member of the Blueshirts in the 1930s, and joined its leader, General Eoin O’Duffy, in ‘The Crusade Against Communism’ in the Irish Brigade to support General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. The presence of Mein Kampf and the Nazi propaganda publications in the 1940s show his continuing interest in fascism while he was in the Irish Defence Forces during WorldWar II. Estimate €3,000-€5,000 (approx £2,500-£4,170) Click here for more images and to bid on this lot 220