Peadar O'Donnell

Peadar O'Donnell was born in Co. Donegal in 1893 and trained as a teacher at St Patrick's College, Dublin. O'Donnell joined the IRA during the War of Independence and took the anti-Treaty side in the Civil War. A socialist at heart, he split from the IRA to form the Republican Congress and opposed the fascist Blue Shirts movement. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he mobilised, together with Frank Ryan, a unit of Irish volunteers in support of the Popular Front. Salud! An Irishman in Spain (1937) recounts his experience with the Connolly Column. Between 1946 and 1954, O'Donnell edited the literary magazine The Bell. His works include The Storm (1925), Isladers (1928), Adrigoole (1929), The Knife (1930), and two volumes of autobiography, The Gates Flew Open (1932) and There Will be Another Day (1963).