The Irish in Asturias: the footprint of the Irish College, Salamanca, 1913–1950

Traces the history of the clerical students and rectors of the Irish College, Salamanca (Colegio Real de Nobles Irlandeses) on their summer vacations on the northern coast of Spain. The article draws chiefly on rectors’ reports to the Irish hierarchy in the Salamanca Archive, held in St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare, Ireland and on the papers of Alexander McCabe, rector of the College from 1935-49, held in the National Library of Ireland.. A summer house (Casona de Verines) was purchased in the early 1920s and thereafter the holidays were spent in Pendueles, Asturias. This article augments the small body of work that has been published to date on the 20th century history of the Irish College, Salamanca, it documents the Irish presence in Asturias, adding further details to our knowledge of the evacuation of the students on the outbreak of the Spanish civil war. It recounts some of the impressions and experiences of Alexander McCabe as an eye witness to the civil war in Spain as documented in his reports and personal diaries. Two photographs showing the summer house (c.1930s) and a group photo of the students in 1916 are here published for the first time