Thomas Patten memorial

Irish International Brigades volunteers are well-represented by monuments ranging in size and form. The International Brigades Memorial Trust lists more than forty publicly displayed plaques and artworks across the island of Ireland that commemorate volunteers who fought in the International Brigades. 

One of the more scenic settings for a memorial commemorating an Irish volunteer who died fighting for the Spanish Republic is the memorial to Thomas Patten on Achill Island in the Gaelteacht (Irish-speaking) region of County Mayo. Patten was the first Irish volunteer to die fighting with the International Brigades. 

The monument is situated on a hillside beside the village of Patten’s birth, Dooega on the southern coast of Achill. A trilingual inscription in Irish, Spanish and English commemorates Patten who ‘fought bravely and died in the “Defence of Madrid” 1936 for the Spanish Republic and all oppressed people’ 

Patten’s disappearance was first reported in late December 1936, before his death in combat became known. In a notice on his disappearance, the Derry Journal described him as a ‘native of Achill Island’, who was attached to the West Mayo Battalion of the IRA but had, since emigrating to London in 1933, transferred his allegiance to the Republican Congress. The Congress was an Irish socialist republican initiative formed in Dublin that also had branches in London and New York. 

According to a September 1984 report in the Irish Democrat, funds for the Patten memorial, the first of its kind in Ireland, were partly raised through supporters in New York. The report noted that Gerard O’Reilly, who argued for Irish-American solidarity with Republican Spain in the 1930s, addressed a memorial fund raising meeting in Washington Square’s Methodist Church to support the initiative. The monument was unveiled by Sean Fitzpatrick of the National Graves Association on 28 October 1984. Among the attendees at the unveiling was Patrick Burke, another Achill-native who fought in the International Brigades.