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20th Century Ireland - Bob Doyle (1916-2009)
Bob Doyle was born in Dublin on February 12th, 1916. He was one of five children to Peter Doyle, a seaman, and his wife Margaret (née Aldridge). He grew up in North King Street, Dublin until his mother's illness caused he and his siblings to be placed with foster families in Co. Wicklow.
Doyle began working as a farm labourer at the age of ten and later as a servant in Sandymount, Dublin and as an apprentice upholsterer and as a clothes presser. Doyle shared accommodation in Capel Street with Kit Conway who recruited him into Fianna Éireann and later the Communist Party.
Doyle was involved in resisting the Blueshirts in Dublin and during one confrontation he received permanent damage to his left eye.
In 1937, following Kit Conway's death at the Battle of Jarama, Doyle was one of 160 Irish anti-fascists who volunteered to fight in Spain. He was captured at Gandesa by Italian fascists, along with Frank Ryan, then commander of the Cnnolly Column, and imprisoned for 11 months in a POW camp near Burgos. While interned Doyle was tortured by the Spanish and interrogated by the Gestapo before being released in a prisoner exchange.
He returned to Ireland in 1939 but couldn't find work and he emigrated to England. He worked at building air-raid shelters before joining the merchant navy for the duration of World War II.
After his discharge, he worked in the printing trade and became active in the Fleet Street unions. Arrested in 1959 during a mass picket in support of the 40-hour week, he was charged with riotous assembly but cleared by an Old Bailey jury.
He stood as a Communist Party candidate in local elections and remained active in politics into old age, marching in support of the miners, dockers and steelworkers and against the poll tax in the 1980's.
In 1988 he organised a contingent of his old comrades to go to Barcelona to mark the 50th anniversary of the International Brigades.
In 2006 Doyle published 'Brigadista - An Irishman's Fight Against Fascism'. He was due to accept honorary Spanish citizenship in 2009 but died aged 92 on January 22nd, 2009. © Searc's Web Guide 1997-2009
Bob Doyle (1916-2009)