Robert Hilliard

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Robert Martin Hilliard (born April 7, 1904 in Moyeightragh near Killarney , † February 22, 1937 in Castellón de la Plana , Spain ) was an Irish boxer, priest of the Church of Ireland , journalist and volunteer in the Spanish Civil War .

Life

Hilliard was born in 1904 as one of six children to an Anglican entrepreneurial family. His father owned a successful leather business in Killarney. He attended the Cork Grammar School and the Mountjoy School in Dublin . In 1921 he enrolled at Trinity College of the University of Dublin one. Even in his youth he was interested in republicanism. This intensified at Trinity College. Hilliard, who was a talented athlete and boxer, became a champion in the Irish Amateur Boxing Association in 1923 and also won related university competitions. In 1924 he took part in the Summer Olympics in Paris .

In the summer of 1925 he left Trinity College without a degree and married in 1926. Hilliard now went to London , where he tried to gain a foothold as a journalist. There he came into contact with the Oxford group led by Frank Buchman , a non-denominational "early Christian" revival movement . Hilliard, now a born again Christian, decided to resume his studies at Trinity College. In 1931 he received his Bachelor of Arts . He started studying theology and was ordained a deacon that same year . As such, he held a part-time position as assistant curate in Derriaghy Parish in County Antrim . In 1932 he was ordained a priest . Hilliard was now from 1933 active in the poor mission of St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast . During his work there, doubts began to arise in him and a turn to communist ideas took place. In late 1934 he gave up his priesthood, left his wife and four children and went back to London, where he worked as a journalist again. Hilliard now joined the Communist Party. After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he decided to fight in the International Brigades and went to Spain in December 1936. In February 1937 he was seriously injured during the Battle of the Jarama and died five days later in the hospital.

The Irish musician Christy Moore mentions him in his 1984 song Viva La Quince Brigada about the Spanish Civil War.

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personal data
SURNAME Hilliard, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hilliard, Robert Martin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Irish boxer, Church of Ireland priest, journalist and volunteer in the Spanish Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH April 7, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Moyeightragh near Killarney
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1937
Place of death Castellón de la Plana , Spain