Spain, sectarianism and social memory in Cold War Queensland

Spain, sectarianism and social memory in Cold War Queensland

Spain was central to both Protestant and Catholic constructions of the British Commonwealth, and mediated changing emphases in narratives of social identity. Whilst Protestants associated Spain with military opposition to the Commonwealth, Catholics identified the country with the principled prioritisation of communism’s defeat in the post-war world. The well-publicised tension between the two positions meant that Spain was central to the construction of social discourse in the early Cold War. Spain was particularly central to Catholic identity, and reconciled narratives that focussed on Irish ethnicity with the emerging predominance of anti-communism. Spain’s success in maintaining Catholics’ continuity of identity minimised the trauma caused by changed social conditions, and facilitated later Catholic political action in the well-documented initiatives of the Movement.

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