Michael O'Riordan
Michael O'Riordan (; 12 November 1917 – 18 May 2006) was the founder of the Communist Party of Ireland (3rd) and also fought with the Connolly Column in the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. Early life O'Riordan was born at 37 Pope's Quay, Cork city, on 11 November 1917. He was the youngest of five children. His parents came from the West Cork Gaeltacht of Ballingeary-Gougane Barra. Despite his parents being native speakers of the Irish language, it was not until O'Riordan was interned during the Second World War that he learnt Irish. As a teenager, he joined the republican youth movement, Fianna Éireann, and then the Irish Republican Army. Much of the IRA at the time was inclined towards left-wing politics. A lot of its activity at the time involved street fighting with the quasi-fascist Blueshirt movement, and O'Riordan fought the Blueshirts on the streets of Cork City in 1933–34. O'Riordan was friends with left-wing inclined republicans such as Peadar O'Donnell and Frank Ryan, and in 1934, he followed them into the Republican Congress – a short-lived socialist republican party. Spanish Civil War and Internment during the Second World War O'Riordan joined the Communist Party of Ireland