Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My party welcomes the legislation, as it is right that the soldiers in question are pardoned. Fascism did not just emerge with Hitler’s rise to power. It was already evident in Mussolini’s Italy and later in Franco’s Spain.

Many men from this country who went to fight fascism in Spain were excommunicated from the Catholic Church. They were condemned up and down the country and isolated on their return. Many of them never returned home. If we are to look back and address those who took the decision to confront Nazism and fascism, we must do it in the round.

We welcome this legislation. The men who served in the Allied forces suffered egregiously when they returned home, as did their families, for many years. The passing of this legislation is the right thing to do, but I ask the Government to also consider what it can do to heal the wounds of the men and women who left this country to fight fascism in Spain and with the 5th International Brigade who received no real acknowledgement from the State of the unbelievable courage they showed at the time.

See this speech in context