On Saturday 22 June, Christy Moore unveiled a plaque to the socialist republican Frank Conroy, a Kildare man killed in 1936 while fighting with the International Brigades in the Spanish war against fascism.
The plaque, presented to Kilcullen Heritage Centre by the Friends of the International Brigades (Ireland), is a twin of a plaque presented to the town council of Lopera in April 2016.
More than a hundred people packed into the centre to hear the historian James Durney speak on the life of Frank Conroy, who was born on 25 February 1914 in Kilcullen, Co. Kildare.
Christy sang his song “Viva la Quinta Brigada” and was joined on stage by the Kilcullen Choir to give an incredible performance of “Ride On” and “Nancy Spain.”
On 16 December 2012 the Frank Conroy Committee held its first commemoration for this young Irish revolutionary who had conveniently been airbrushed from history by the establishment. Today the International Brigader Frank Conroy is as well known as the Kildare Fenian John Devoy.
