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Irish Diaspora Museum - Thematic Displays The Irish at War
Sub Themes: Mercenaries and Empire Builders. Visitor Goal: Visitors understand the Irish tradition of overseas military service, and the role the Irish played in conflicts across the globe. Focus Personalities: Peter de Lacey, Bernardo O'Higgins, Sir Bernard Montgomery. Content: The Irish who fought abroad in the service of other nations. Edward I to Philip II. Throughout the Middle Ages Irish soldiers served abroad on various occasions including the Hundred Years War, the War of the Roses and in the service of Henry VIII. Every major upheaval in Ireland in the late 16th and 17th centuries produced a flood of Irish soldiers who left the country in search of employment in foreign military service and led to the creation of regiments in the Spanish, French and Austrian armies. This migration created Irish quarters in a number of European cities. Spain, France and America 1640-1780: During the 18th century the Hispano - Irish fought in Flanders, Sicily, Italy, Minorca, North Africa, Spanish America as well as in Iberia itself. Many rose to the highest military and social ranks. Throughout the 18th century Irish Regiments fought in the French Army. They enjoyed particular success in the Austrian Empire. The American War of Independence witnessed many Irish men fighting on both sides, many as high ranking officers. British Imperial Service: During the 19th century Irish military involvement probably reached a peak. The British forces of the Napoleonic Wars contained a high percentage of Irish soldiers. Throughout the century Irish troops saw action in the service of Britain wherever the Empire felt its interests needed to be defended. All the Irish regiments, for example, fought in the Boer War where the Inniskillings, the Dublin Fusiliers and the Connaught Rangers all took heavy casualties. In 1901 the strength of the British Army stood at 440,000 of which 50,000 were Irish. Many of these recruits were drawn from Irish emigrants resident in British industrial cities. American Civil War: During the American Civil War 140,000 Irishmen fought in the federal armies. As so often in the past they were on both sides. Thomas Francis Meagher's ‘Fighting 69th' entered the Irish American folk memory and helped create the myth of ‘the fighting Irish'. Thereafter many Irish veterans engaged in the Indian Wars and helped to ‘win the West'. In South America thousands of Irishmen fought in the Wars of Liberation from Spain. First and Second World War: Over 200,000 Irishmen served in the British Army during the First World War, the largest deployment of armed manpower in the history of Irish militarism. They fought primarily in France and Flanders where they took heavy casualties, as they did in Gallipoli. In the Second World War Irish recruitment fell below expectations totaling around 80,000. Four wartime Field Marshals had an Ulster background, including 'Monty of Alamein'. The Irish were also heavily represented in the American and Australian armed forces. |
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