Occupation Irish activist Name Thomas Patten | Role Socialist | |
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Born 1910 Dooega, Achill Island, County Mayo Died 1936, Boadilla del Monte, Spain | ||
Thomas Patten (1910 – 16/17 December 1936) was an Irish volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. He was born in Dooega, Achill Island, in the County Mayo gaeltacht, one of a family of fourteen children. Irish was his first language. Patten emigrated to England as a teenager, working in Blackpool and London. In London he became involved with the Republican Congress, a socialist republican group. In October 1936, after the outbreak of the war in Spain, Patten left England to travel to Spain on his own, before the formation of the International Brigades. Upon his arrival in Madrid, he enlisted in the militia to assist in the defence of the city from insurgent fascist forces during the Siege of Madrid. He was killed at Boadilla del Monte on the night of 16/17 December 1936, the first person from an English-speaking country and the first Irishman of 74 killed in the conflict.
Peadar O'Donnell dedicated his memoir of the war, Salud!, to "a young Achill boy". A monument was raised to Patten in his native Dooega in 1984. Christy Moore mentions Patten in his song Viva la Quinta Brigada