DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

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A SHORT DIGRESSION ON THE TOPIC OF: THE WILD GEESE

The fourteen thousand armed men of Ireland watched as Patrick Sarsfield signed the Treaty of Limerick, witnessed by the Chief Justice of England (a prerequisite of the treaty made by Sarsfield). The Irish Army was then organized by units and paraded to a place where they were to turn to the English or French standard. Only 1,046 members of the Irish Army marched to the English banner and elected to stay.

Ninety three percent marched to the French Standard.

A few days later, a French fleet came up the Shannon with money, men and material to continue the fight, but Sarsfield felt bound by the terms of the Treaty of Limerick. Sarsfield spoke to his men: “Ireland’s and our honor is pledged. Though 100,000 Frenchmen offered to us aid now, we must keep our word.” The French took these honorable Irishmen to France. As to the origin of the term “Wild Geese”, see the Prologue in The Celtic Connection.

Within a year of the signing of the Treaty of Limerick, the English repudiated the terms of the treaty, they began to pass laws discriminating against the Irish, especially the Catholic Irish. Before long the Irish were forbidden to:

> Receive an education
> Enter a profession
> Hold public office
> Engage in trade or commerce
> Enlist in the army or navy
> Live in a corporate town, or within five miles of one
> Own a horse of more than five hands (a pony)
> Purchase land
> Lease land
> Vote
> Own a gun, neither pistol or rifle
> Be a guardian of a child
> Receive anything from a Protestant
> Exercise the Catholic religion

The Irish were compelled to attend Anglican services and to pay a tithe to that church. This grated both the Catholics of the south and the Presbyterians of the northeast. The Catholics were the worse off. An English Supreme Court Justice of the time stated, “The law does not suppose any such person to exist as an Irish Roman Catholic”. The Presbyterians while not treated as non-persons, were abused by the English. The lands of Ulster on which the English planted the Scotch farmers, who were almost all Presbyterians, more than 200 years earlier, were now considered English rent property and the farmers whose families had worked the farms for two hundred years, mere tenants. Rents were raised only a short time after they were posted for the first time. If the farms were considerably improved by these Presbyterian Irish the rent was higher.

This situation among the Catholic and Presbyterian Irish triggered a round of emigration from English control. Thousands fled Ireland. Many of these immigrants went to the new colonies in the Americas. They found the English administration in the Americas only slightly less discriminatory than in Ireland. Hearing of this many of the Catholic Irish chose to follow the Wild Geese to France, or to other Catholic countries on the continent. There they hoped to grow in number and military experience and one day come back to Ireland to wrench it from the grasp of the English. Many of these men found a home in the French service, in the Irish Brigade that was formed because so many Irish military men were in France.

FRANCE

From 1691 to 1792, close to one million Irishmen died for France. At one time the Irish Brigade of France had six complete regiments. Many of the Irish who served France, served with honor.

In the Battle of Fontenoy, in May of 1745, the Irish Brigade carried the day for the French, and brought victory from near defeat. When all the French forces about them were ready to capitulate, the Irish Brigade charged the combined English and Dutch forces and secured a victory. One of the Irish soldiers at Fontenoy was Richard Hennessey of County Cork. He later settled in Cognac, France and founded the famous Hennessey distillery there.

It was a MacMahon of Ireland that led Irish troops for France in a critical action that brought about the fall of Sevastopol.

Thomas Conway, of the Conway Cabal, was an Irishman in the service of the French Irish Brigade. He took leave to fight in the American Revolution on the side of the United States. After the American Revolution, he returned to France and became the Governor General of French India.

Thomas Arthur Lally was an Irishman in the French service. He was sent as a Lieutenant Governor to India in 1756. He was made Commander in Chief of all French forces.

Theobold Wolfe Tone’s brother, William, was an advisor to the Nizam of Hyderbad.

George Thomas was a Rajah of India, he was from Tipperary.

One of the Irish generals that took part in the French Revolution was General James O’Moran.

Jacques MacDonald was a Marshall of France under Napoleon Bonaparte.

Other Irish in the service of France rose through the ranks to distinction to claim such titles as: Governor of Oran, Governor of Tobago, Governor General of Algiers. General Edmund P. MacMahon, who led the Irish charge at Sevastopol, became in turn: a Marshall of France, Duke of Magenta, and in 1873-1879, he was President of France!

Earlier, in 1848, an Irishman named Kavanaugh received over one and a half million votes to be President of France.

A large portion of the French speaking population of Quebec have Irish origins going back to the period when the Irish Brigade was stationed there beginning in 1690. Church records show at the close of the Seventeenth Century, there were over 100 Irish families in what was called Lower Canada.

The Plains of Abraham upon which the Battle of Quebec during the French and Indian War was fought, and which claimed the life of both the French and English generals (Montcalm and Wolfe), was owned by an Irish sailor by the name of Abraham Martin, and thus its name. A MacCarthy commanded Fort de Chartres for the French during that war. A year after the fall of Montreal, he would not give it up to the English. He did so only on the expressed orders of the King of France.

Arthur Dillon, a commander of the French Irish Regiment which participated in the American Revolution, married a woman who was a lady in waiting to Marie Antoinette.

SPAIN

Not all the dissident Irish went into the French service, many went to fight for Spain. There were three Irish regiments in the Spanish Army. The first was established sometime around 1610, and spent 20 years fighting for Spain in the Belgium and Netherlands area.

Church records in Catalonia, Spain revealed Irish were there in numbers as early as 1655.

In 1698, Captain Juan Jordan, an Irishman in the service of Spain, captured Florida.

Texas and Louisiana each had a Spanish Governor; Texas was governed by Hugh O’Connor in 1767 and Louisiana by Alexander O’Reilly in 1769. O’Connor later was Governor of the Yucatán. O’Connor was the first Commandante Inspector of the Interior Provinces with authority over all Governors from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. O’Reilly became Governor of Cuba and still later Commander in Chief of the Spanish Army. O’Reilly personally saved the life of the King of Spain. He was a close personal friend of Viceroy Bucareli of New Spain.

Juan O’Donoju, John O’Donoghue, was a Minister of War in Spain, the last Viceroy of Nueva España, and a Regent of Mexico.

Red haired, green eyed and freckled Peter Martin, an Irishman, together with John Brown of Waterford lived in Mexico in 1575. They were on John Hawkin’s flagship in 1567-’68 when it was captured by a Spanish ship. They were taken to Mexico.

Conde de Lacy the Spanish Ambassador to Russia, strongly advised the King of Spain to take California before the Russians did. The King listened and did.

The second governor of California under Spain was Irishman Felipe de Barry. He served as Governor in 1771.

An Irishman named Lawless was Governor of Majorca.

An Irish regiment of Spain was sent to Brazil in 1779.

The son of Henry James O’Donnell a Finance Minister of Spain was, in 1809, the President of the Spanish Cabinet. He authored the Moret Law of Spain abolishing slavery in Cuba and Puerto Rico.

General G. O’Farrill was, in 1808, the Spanish War Minister and a member of the ruling junta of Spain.

Fernando Moran was the Spanish ambassador to the United Nations, and then Spain’s Foreign Minister.

Thomas Shelly, an Irishman in Spanish service, worked his way up to the rank of General and was later appointed Governor of the Spanish province of Leon.

Don Guillermo Murphy was the Private Secretary to King Alphonso XII of Spain.

Don Ricardo Wall was the Spanish Prime Minister 1754-1767.

Another Irishman to be Prime Minister of Spain was Juan Prim in 1870. Prim was also the President of the Council of Ministers, and later Premier. He was also said to be a king maker.

Leopoldo O’Donnell captured Morocco for Spain. He became the Duke of Tetuan, and later in 1856 until 1866, he was the Premier of Spain.

In 1812, Enrique O’Donnell was the Regent of Spain, He proclaimed Spain’s first Constitution.

Genoa, Italy to this day has institutions echoing the name of the Ultonia Irish regiment that heroically protected it from Napoleon during a siege in 1808-’09. The regiment’s flag is on display in the city.

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