For King. Emperor President & Czar
Royal Munster Fusiliers
South Irish Horse
Seventy of the St Patricios were taken prisoner, fifty were hanged by the American forces and twenty were flogged.
For some extraordinary reason Reilly was one of those who got away with a flogging. An especially agonising death awaited thiry of the San Patricios. They were placed on mule carts with ropes around their necks and made to watch the storming by the Americans of Chapultepec, the last Mexican bastion before the capital city. When the
Stars and Stripes was raised over the citadel, the mules were released and the thirty men dangled. These men were looked on as traitors by the Americans but hailed as heroes by the Mexicans, where today various memorials stand in their memory.
A group of soldiers more clearly motivated by religious fervour was the 1,400 Irishmen who went to the defence of the Papal States in 1860 against the army of the northern Italian state of Piedmont. Their number included Myles Keogh from Carlow and John Joseph Coppinger from Cork, who would later distinguish themselves in the US Civil War The Irish were treated wretchedly, not allowed to serve together in a single unit, underpaid and badly trained
Nonetheless, they are acknowledged to have fought particularly bravely for a cause unpopular in Italy on the verge of unification. The 1,000 Irishmen who sailed to South America to fight for the cause of independence from Spain, led by Simon Bolivar, had no particularly lofty motives in mind. They were simple mercenaries, promised wages one third higher than anything on offer in the British Army. The guarantee, from an artful Wexford conman John Devereux was spurious and most of the members of the Irish Legion reacted like the mercenaries they were when they got to Venezuela. Angered by conditions, forty officers returned to Ireland on the ships which had brought them; the rest bided their time. Their ranks were reduced by disease, dysentery, typhus and yellow fever. Their uniforms and footwear began to disintergrate. By the time the Irish Legion went into action only 450 of the original group of 1,000 were left; the rest had died, were chronically ill or had deserted.
For many their luck did not change when the fighting began; things got even worse. After an initial success as an amphibious raiding force they moved on the Venezuelan town of Maracaibo. The advance guard of the Legion was wiped out by Guajira Indians and the rearguard burned to death in their huts. Only the Irish Lancers, under Colonel Francis Burdett O'Connor from Cork, fared well. That they did so was all the more astonishing - they did not boast a single horse between them. After a couple of barely mitigated disasters most of the Legion demanded to be shipped back to Ireland. They mutinied and burned down the town of Riohaca. Three hundred of them were rounded up by the still loyal Lancers and dumped in Jamaica.
There was however a positive side to Irish aid for Bolivar. A Kerryman, Dr Thomas Foley, became inspector general of his military hospitals. Another ' Kindom ' expatriate, Arthur Sandes rose to the rank of Brigadier General in Bolivar's army, while Corkman Daniel O'Connell who saw himself as being on par with the South American Liberator, sent his fifteen year old son Morgan to fight with Bolivar. O'Connell junior saw little action; Bolivar made sure to keep him well out of trouble. After a year spent on the general's staff Morgan got bored and went home. Amongst many of the forces, intermingled with feelings of idealism or the smple urge for financial gain, was the element of adventure. this often derived from a certain misplaced romanticism which evaporated with the first report of gunfire. but there were ( and still are ) undoubtedly many Irishsmen who drifted from war to war largely because they liked soldiering. Latterly Ireland has supplied 33,000 troops for United Nations peacekeeping operations in seventeen countries. The courage, diplomacy and restraint they have shown is respected world wide. They have taken casualties at Niemba in the Congo, in South Lebanon and in a host of other battle zones. knowing that they must avoid, at almost all costs, inflicting casualties in return. Revenge and retaliation are not words allowed in their lexicon. We should remember them all. past and present.
For some extraordinary reason Reilly was one of those who got away with a flogging. An especially agonising death awaited thiry of the San Patricios. They were placed on mule carts with ropes around their necks and made to watch the storming by the Americans of Chapultepec, the last Mexican bastion before the capital city. When the
Stars and Stripes was raised over the citadel, the mules were released and the thirty men dangled. These men were looked on as traitors by the Americans but hailed as heroes by the Mexicans, where today various memorials stand in their memory.
A group of soldiers more clearly motivated by religious fervour was the 1,400 Irishmen who went to the defence of the Papal States in 1860 against the army of the northern Italian state of Piedmont. Their number included Myles Keogh from Carlow and John Joseph Coppinger from Cork, who would later distinguish themselves in the US Civil War The Irish were treated wretchedly, not allowed to serve together in a single unit, underpaid and badly trained
Nonetheless, they are acknowledged to have fought particularly bravely for a cause unpopular in Italy on the verge of unification. The 1,000 Irishmen who sailed to South America to fight for the cause of independence from Spain, led by Simon Bolivar, had no particularly lofty motives in mind. They were simple mercenaries, promised wages one third higher than anything on offer in the British Army. The guarantee, from an artful Wexford conman John Devereux was spurious and most of the members of the Irish Legion reacted like the mercenaries they were when they got to Venezuela. Angered by conditions, forty officers returned to Ireland on the ships which had brought them; the rest bided their time. Their ranks were reduced by disease, dysentery, typhus and yellow fever. Their uniforms and footwear began to disintergrate. By the time the Irish Legion went into action only 450 of the original group of 1,000 were left; the rest had died, were chronically ill or had deserted.
For many their luck did not change when the fighting began; things got even worse. After an initial success as an amphibious raiding force they moved on the Venezuelan town of Maracaibo. The advance guard of the Legion was wiped out by Guajira Indians and the rearguard burned to death in their huts. Only the Irish Lancers, under Colonel Francis Burdett O'Connor from Cork, fared well. That they did so was all the more astonishing - they did not boast a single horse between them. After a couple of barely mitigated disasters most of the Legion demanded to be shipped back to Ireland. They mutinied and burned down the town of Riohaca. Three hundred of them were rounded up by the still loyal Lancers and dumped in Jamaica.
There was however a positive side to Irish aid for Bolivar. A Kerryman, Dr Thomas Foley, became inspector general of his military hospitals. Another ' Kindom ' expatriate, Arthur Sandes rose to the rank of Brigadier General in Bolivar's army, while Corkman Daniel O'Connell who saw himself as being on par with the South American Liberator, sent his fifteen year old son Morgan to fight with Bolivar. O'Connell junior saw little action; Bolivar made sure to keep him well out of trouble. After a year spent on the general's staff Morgan got bored and went home. Amongst many of the forces, intermingled with feelings of idealism or the smple urge for financial gain, was the element of adventure. this often derived from a certain misplaced romanticism which evaporated with the first report of gunfire. but there were ( and still are ) undoubtedly many Irishsmen who drifted from war to war largely because they liked soldiering. Latterly Ireland has supplied 33,000 troops for United Nations peacekeeping operations in seventeen countries. The courage, diplomacy and restraint they have shown is respected world wide. They have taken casualties at Niemba in the Congo, in South Lebanon and in a host of other battle zones. knowing that they must avoid, at almost all costs, inflicting casualties in return. Revenge and retaliation are not words allowed in their lexicon. We should remember them all. past and present.
Myles Dungan,
' Distant Drums ' Irish Soldiers In Foreign Armies.
' Distant Drums ' Irish Soldiers In Foreign Armies.
Remaining survivors of the 2nd Battalion Royal Munster Fusiliers Overrunning German positions along the Loos Hulloch Road, September 25th 1915.
