Volume 7 - Number 3 March 2010 IRISH MIGRATION STUDIES IN LATIN AMERICA Society for Irish Latin American Studies Courtesy of Ministerio de Defensa - República Argentina in collaboration with Veteranos de Guerra de Malvinas. Volume 7 – Number 3 March 2010 Irish Soldiers and Military Conflicts in Spain, Latin America and the Caribbean Guest Editor: Karen Racine Editors: Claire Healy ISSN 1661-6065 Society for Irish Latin American Studies (SILAS) Smoorbeg, Kill, Co. Waterford, Ireland This journal is available online at SILAS website: www.irlandeses.org Irish Migration Studies in Latin America CONTENTS Irish Soldiers in Spain and Latin America: An Introduction, by Karen Racine ......................................... 299 British Army, Irish Soldiers The 1806 Invasion of Buenos Aires, by Thomas Byrne ................................ 305 Irish Soldiers at the Sieges of Girona, 1808-1809, by Oisín Breatnach .................................................... 313 Richard Crofton, Irish Soldier in New Granada’s Battle of El Santuario in 1829: A Work in Progress and Search for More Information, by Matthew Brown ....................................................................... 317 Saving Republics: General Martin Thomas McMahon, the Paraguayan War and the Fate of the Americas (1864-1870), by Michael Kenneth Huner .............................................................................. 323 John O’Brien: Captain Dynamite of the Cuban War for Independence, 1868-1898s, by Herminio Portell Vilá ................................................................................................................................................ 339 Testimonies of Irish-Argentine Veterans of the Falklands / Malvinas War (1982), by John Kennedy .... 349 Who are the Good Guys?: Political Violence and the Figure of the Irish Mercenary in Louis Malle’s South-of- the-Border Western Film ¡Viva Maria!, by Paula Gilligan ........................................................... 357 The Ancestral Home of Chile’s Blest Family in Sligo, Ireland, by Moises Hasson Camhi ........................ 373 Terrys in Latin America of Cork origin, by Kevin Terry ........................................................................... 381 Castle with a Ghost, by Mario Vargas Llosa ............................................................................................ 387 Review of Lawrence A. Clayton's “W. R. Grace & Co. Los años formativos: 1850-1930”, by Fabián Gaspar Bustamante Olguín ....................................................................................................... 390 Review of Diego Téllez Alarcia’s “La manzana de la discordia. Historia de la Colonia del Sacramento desde la fundación portuguesa hasta la conquista por los españoles (1677-1777)”, by Emilia Riquelme Cortés ........................................................................................................................................... 395 Review of David Barnwell, Pádraig Ó Domhnalláin and Carmen Rodríguez Alonso’s “Diccionario Irlandés- Español / Foclóir Gaeilge-Spáinnise”, by Thomas Ihde .............................................................. 399 Review of Michael Lillis and Ronan Fanning’s “The Lives of Eliza Lynch, Scandal and Courage”, by Tony Phillips ........................................................................................................................................ 403 Review of David Tatham’s (ed.) “Dictionary of Falklands Biography (including South Georgia). From Discovery up to 1981”, by Mariano Galazzi................................................................................ 407 Eric Lambert (1909-1996), historian and intelligence officer, by Moises Enrique Rodríguez .................. 411 Patricio Lynch (1825–1886), naval and military officer, by Moises Enrique Rodríguez ......................... 413 iii Irish Migration Studies in Latin America Irish Soldiers in Spain and Latin America: An Introduction By Karen Racine (1) Guest Editor Irish soldiers have a long history of seeking The presence of Irish soldiers in Spain and Latin service in foreign lands. Known collectively and America continued into the nineteenth and colloquially as the ―Wild Geese‖, they constitute twentieth centuries. As Oisín Breatnach‘s article a distinct subset of the Irish emigrant and shows, both the French and Spanish armies had diasporic communities. Irish soldiers have Irish soldiers who faced each other across fought in all continental European wars, enemy lines during the Peninsular War. sometimes as mercenaries for hire, and other Matthew Brown and Enrique Rodríguez have times as true believers in the service of Catholic both written extensively on the activities of the monarchs against Protestant foes. They were British and Irish Legions in the Spanish present in the Americas too, dating from the American wars for independence and have first voyages that accompanied the explorers and provided biographical studies for this collection. conquistadors in the sixteenth century and Tom Byrne extends the story of the Irish role in continuing all the way up to the present with Latin America southward, in his discussion of rumours of connections between the Irish the 1806 invasions of the River Plate and Republican Army (IRA) and the Fuerzas Brazilian territories. His account reminds us of Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) the famous Admiral William Brown of County (2). Mayo who served the Argentine navy so memorably in that era. In fact, Irish soldiers have had a significant presence throughout the histories of Spain and Mexicans fondly recall the famous Saint Latin America. The historian Gráinne Henry has Patrick‘s Battalion (known as the Batallón San conducted an excellent case study of Patricio), which fought in five major battles approximately 10,000 Irish troops who served in during the United States-Mexican War (1846- Spanish Flanders at the time of the great 1848), and whose experiences have gone on to Armada. (3) This episode is significant, and it inspire romantic novels, films, songs, poems underscores the longstanding connection and, more recently, serious historical between Irish soldiers abroad and the scholarship. The unit began as a small group development of national identity at home, the called the San Patricio Company, jokingly called persistence of a militant strain of Counter- the ‗Red Guards‘ or colorados, a reference to Reformation Catholicism in their world view, their red hair. Their leader was a career soldier and the close connection between Ireland and from Galway named John Riley, or Seán the Spanish-speaking world. Another Irishman, O‘Raghailligh, who brought together William Lamport of County Wexford, was a approximately 200 men under a green silk solitary, quixotic figure who fought in the banner of his own design. The flag had a continental wars and then travelled to Mexico in shamrock, harp and Mexican crest on one side, 1659 where he tried to set himself up as an and the figure of St Patrick on the other, nicely independent king. In the latter decades of the blending Irish and Aztec symbolism with the eighteenth century, Alejandro O‘Reilly was a incorporation of a serpent. Irish-descended military commander who dominated Cuba, deserters from the US military comprised 40% Florida and Louisiana while it was under of the San Patricios, which was finally raised to Spanish control, and Ambrosio O‘Higgins held full battalion status only in 1848, at a late stage a similar command post in Chile and Peru. of the war. Patrick Dalton, James O‘Leary, Racine, Karen 'Irish Soldiers in Spain and Latin America.' 299 Vol. 7, n°3 (March 2010) Matthew Doyle, Francis O‘Connor and Henry drama and intrigue, but also because Eliza Hudson all distinguished themselves in the Lynch was a strong female presence in a very service of the Mexican nation. In a conflict male-dominated and militaristic environment. notable for its viciousness, the San Patricios saw (7) In this volume, Michael Kenneth Huner a lot of action. (4) They were present at the recounts a related story of the Irish-American disastrous Battle of Monterrey (21-24 September soldier-diplomat Martin Thomas McMahon, 1846), the Battle of Buena Vista (22 February who encountered Madama Lynch during his 1847) and the infamous Battle of Cerro Gordo own service in Paraguay. (12-18 April 1847), before being completely The long and close connections between Irish routed at Churubusco on 20 August 1847. A and Spanish national events were brought to the plaque to their memory has been erected in fore during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Mexico City‘s plaza San Jacinto in San Ángel An estimated nine hundred Irishmen fought in with the inscription ―In memory of the Irish this ideologically-charged conflict, and they soldiers of the heroic St Patrick‘s Battalion, could be found on both sides of the bitter martyrs who gave their lives for the Mexican divide. In fact, one scholar has claimed that the cause during the unjust American invasion of Spanish Civil War even served as a 1847.‖ Moving ceremonies in their honour are prolongation, or proxy, or extension of an still held there twice a year, one on St. Patrick‘s ongoing Irish civil war; to underscore this point, day, and the other in September to mark the he notes that one Irish company in the service date when so many were executed by vengeful of the republicans in Spain named itself after American forces. (5) James Connolly, who was executed for his The story of Miss Eliza Lynch, the fiery Irish participation