A Greater Tomorrow

Had an early lunch, and went to the art gallery to see the exhibition "A Greater Tomorrow - Aberdonians in the Spanish Civil War" (link). Nineteen people from Aberdeen joined the International Brigade to fight the fascists in 1930's Spain. Five died over there: one at Gandesa, and four on the Ebro.

There was a good audio interview with John Londragan, who served on an anti-tank gun. He was at the battle of Jarama (recalled in the Woody Guthrie song), and talked about being up on Mosquito Ridge.

The full poem by volunteer Bob Cooney is reprinted on the wall by the blood-soaked Republican flag (link):

Seven and twenty years? That long?
It seems but yesterday
We left that war torn hill above Gandesa.
Is it perhaps because I'm growing old
That thought now skips so lightly down the years?
And the travail of a quarter century
Melts in the vision of those great days
Those days we lived and knew that we were living

We also say
Hasta La Vista - Madrid!

There is so much we want to see once more
We will stroll in the Puerto del Sol
And the Ramblas of Barcelona
We will cross the Ebro and drink with our friends in Mora
Friends who will be free!
We will look at them and at each other
And each of us will think
"This is why we came in '36"
And if we live to be a hundred
We'll have this to be glad about
We went to Spain!
Because of that great yesterday
We are part of the greater tomorrow