Tito and the Irishman

[tiggrrr]

I heard of an Irishman who started in Connolly's Column and ended up in serving under Tito, because he assaulted a senior officer. Could this have been possible?

[peter monahan]

Need a few more details to make any useful guesses. Could he have been a Communist and so fled Ireland for Yugoslavia and was able to get work there? Perhaps he had some skill set which made his employment [as a mercenary?] there useful to Tito. hard to say with such a bare bones description.

Peter

[tiggrrr]

Peter.

I kept the question short because the long winded version might be deemed to boring to trawl through. The key here is that he started in Connolly's Column but there is no record of him joining up, nor is his name listed amongst Irishmen who joined the cause. There is a photo of him availble in the book 'The XV International Brigade.' However, he stated when alive that he also served under Tito (then Josep Broz). I know of others that served in the Brigades that are not listed in official records as those that served. Would some have changed their names before travelling to Spain? Or were records not assiduously kept?

My information was that he was demoted for striking a senior officer, possibly whilst with the Connoly Column, which would explain why he might then have joined the Eastern Europeans.