The Girona History Museum hosts an event commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Josep Irla Bosch

Thursday, July 2, 2026

Historian and anthropologist Dr. Josep Maymí Rich will analyze the role of the president of the Generalitat in exile in the democratic resistance to fascism in a conference on July 15, at 7 p.m.

The Girona History Museum will be the setting, on July 15 at 7 p.m., for an event commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Josep Irla i Bosch (1876-1958), one of the most important figures of Catalan republicanism and the 124th president of the Generalitat of Catalonia. The activity is free and is part of the Josep Irla Year program, promoted by the Generalitat of Catalonia. This will be the second time that the Irla Year has stopped in Girona, consolidating the presence of the commemoration in the city.

The event will consist of a conference by historian and anthropologist Josep Maymí. Coinciding with the 90th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, the session will analyze Josep Irla's commitment to defending democracy and Catalan institutions in the face of the advance of fascism, as well as the significance of a conflict that profoundly marked the country's history and that decisively truncated the republican and Catalanist project.

Born in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Josep Irla began his political career as a councilor in 1905, served as mayor in 1906 and 1909, and was a provincial deputy between 1911 and 1923. Member of the Republican Left of Catalonia, in the midst of the Civil War he was elected president of the Parliament of Catalonia in 1938.

After the forced exile in France and the execution of President Lluís Companys, Irla assumed the presidency of the Generalitat in exile in 1940. For fourteen years, and in a context of great precariousness, he defended institutional legality, self-government and the Catalan language and culture, and kept the institution alive until his successor, Josep Tarradellas, in 1954.

One of the most outstanding moments of his mandate was in 1945, when he promoted the first and only government of the Generalitat in exile, with figures of the stature of Pompeu Fabra, Carles Pi i Sunyer, Antoni Rovira i Virgili or Josep Carner.

Josep Irla died in Sant Rafèu (Provence) in 1958. In 1981, his remains were transferred to Catalonia and buried in the cemetery of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, in an act of institutional recognition and restitution of his memory. Today he is recognized as a symbol of democratic resistance and institutional continuity during the Franco regime.

The event will take place in the cloister on the first floor of the Girona History Museum. In case of rain, it will be moved to an interior space of the same facility. Admission is free.

The activity is organized by the Democratic Memorial and the Department of Justice and Democratic Quality of the Generalitat of Catalonia, with the collaboration of the Girona History Museum and Girona City Council.