AT THE age of 96, Paddy Cochrane still burns with the passion that inspired him to sign up in the 1930s for the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War.
“I regret nothing and would do it all over again if the opportunity arose,” says the Dublin-born veteran, who sometimes still aches from injuries sustained when a grenade exploded near him during fighting in the closing stages of the war.
More than 70 years on, his sacrifice was recognised yesterday when he and six surviving British international volunteers who had served in the republican forces were given Spanish citizenship.
Presenting them with passports at the Spanish embassy in London, Spain’s ambassador to Britain said it was an act of gratitude for what the group had done. “We wish to pay homage to a group of extraordinary men and women who decided to give up their comfortable lives, to leave their families, to go to Spain to fight for democracy and freedom,” said the ambassador, Carles Casajuana.
Sitting in a wheelchair and straining to make sure he heard every word, Mr Cochrane said he always counted himself as being on the left, but remained unaffiliated to any party.
“I played my part and I’m proud of that. I always hated fascism, and hated what Hitler and Franco were doing then,” added the veteran, who now lives in Lincoln, England, and was accompanied yesterday by his son and daughter, Fergus Cochrane and Karen Gupta.
After emigrating from Ireland to the US, he returned to Europe and later decided to join the republican forces at the outbreak of the war in Spain, but was told by communist recruiters in Britain that he could not, as he had no military training.
Undeterred, he went to Spain to work as an ambulance driver, arriving first in Valencia and later becoming involved in the huge transportation operation to keep the republican fight alive.
During the battle of Belchite, a major offensive in 1937, he and other volunteers attempted to secure some abandoned trucks in town.
Making his way towards them, he was thrown into the air when a grenade exploded, tearing a chunk out of his leg and embedding shrapnel elsewhere in his body.
His daughter yesterday recounted what happened next: “He was able to crawl into some ruins, and lay there bleeding. Eventually, he heard an American member of the international brigades outside calling out ‘Are there any Americans here?’ My father called back ‘No, but there is an Irishman here.’
“The American carried him through the streets to safety under sniper fire and my father was eventually treated. We’ve tried over the years to find out who the American was, or even to contact him through the veterans’ association in the US, but unfortunately we never found him.”