Student Publications, Professors and the Spanish Civil War - ‘May the Lord save us from our universities and protect us from our professors.’

The Spanish Civil War was reported in student newspapers across Ireland and debates on the conflict demonstrated an acute awareness of the political situation and propaganda in Ireland. There was a stark difference between the highly polarized newspaper reportage from across the island and the perceptions of the conflict by student writers in the publications. What was published depicted an apathetic student body which, regardless of whether it was in Belfast, Dublin or Cork, mocked the belligerents in Spain, and the reportage newspapers throughout Ireland. To date, there has been no scholarly research dedicated to student newspapers. My paper examines the reportage in National Student (University College Dublin), the Quarryman (University College Cork), T.C.D. A College Miscellany (Trinity College, Dublin), Pro Tanto Quid (Queens University Belfast) and the New Northman (Queens University Belfast) and argues Irish students, unlike their fellow students in Europe and the United States, were detached from the schism in Irish society, despite the outpouring of propaganda from both sides in Irish publications during the Spanish Civil War.