SIPTU General President on Bob Doyle, Feb. 9th

Liberty Hall Tribute next Saturday
to the late Bob Doyle –
last Connolly Column fighter

Hello Everybody

As you have already been informed, the death took place on January 22 of Bob Doyle, the last surviving Connolly Column veteran who had fought in defence of the democratically-elected Government of the Spanish Republic when International Fascism subjected it to the three years of horrendous war followed by forty years of dictatorship. Tragically, the fascists won and went on to inflict unprecedented carnage and destruction in Europe as well as committing the most horrendous crimes against humanity ever recorded.

You will also be aware that, following his cremation in London, his ashes will be brought back to his native Dublin for a memorial procession next Saturday, February 14, commencing at 12 noon at the Garden of Remembrance and proceeding to Liberty Hall where a celebration of his life will be held.

The same forces that are attacking our movement on a daily basis have also decided to continue the attack on Bob in death as well as life. The Irish Independent of February 6 carried a column wholly devoted to a scurrilous attack on Bob Doyle, in which next Saturday’s memorial procession is specifically denounced. A fitting response, therefore, would be the maximum possible SIPTU presence in that procession, complete with Union banners.

Bob Doyle, as well as fighting against Fascism in Spain and enduring a year’s incarceration in a concentration camp, was also a life-long trade unionist who was arrested in 1959 as one of the leaders of the successful six week national strike for a 40 hour week in Britain’s newspaper industry. He had also many decades of association with our own Liberty Hall where we will pay our respects to his memory next Saturday.

Yours in solidarity

Jack O’Connor
General President
SIPTU
Liberty Hall
Dublin 1