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The Irishin LatinAmerica

Uruguay

ArgentinaChile

Peru Brazil

Mexico

Cuba

Paraguay

Bolivia

Ecuador

Colombia

Venezuela

DublinIreland

Historical Journeys

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Loyalty to the Spanish Crown saw thisgeneration of exiles go from beingoppressed in Ireland to becoming colonialadministrators in the Spanish imperialworld. The next generation of Creole-Irish(American-born) supported a break withSpanish rule. In the Spanish Americanwars of independence (1810–25) theIrish fought on both sides, with theSpanish forces but in greater numberswith Bolívar’s patriot armies. Some lefttheir mark as revolutionary heroes; othersbecame diplomats or merchants takingadvantage of economic opportunities inthe new republics. There were also Irishindividuals who stood out as advocatesfor subjugated peoples in Latin America,particularly African and indigenousAmericans and women. The largest flowof migrants to leave Ireland for LatinAmerica took place in the nineteenthcentury, with smaller numbers arrivingthrough the United States. Attracted toCatholic South America, the promise ofland and new opportunities, ordinary Irishemigrants joined a growing immigrantwork force as artisans, farm-hands,labourers, railroad workers, seamstresses,

and washerwomen. As settlers in frontierregions, they became part of theincreasing European population,particularly in Cuba and in Argentina. Thesons and daughters of Irish immigrantsmade substantial and lastingcontributions to the economic, political,social and cultural life of society in LatinAmerica. The greatest legacy has been inArgentina. This exhibition describes thecomplex, varied and shared history ofIreland and different countries in LatinAmerica, connected through migrationover the centuries. In telling the lifestories of Irish people, each panel reflectsthe diversity of experiences in differenthistorical periods and in differentcountries. Most of the importantcharacters who appear in the dramaticpolitical and economic events on displayhere are men. On the centenary of Irishindependence, we have arrived at a morebalanced understanding of events byincluding the equally important role ofIrish women. Their place in the history ofIrish migration to Latin America needs tobe told, as do the stories of thousands ofemigrant lives yet to be uncovered.

IrishMigrationto LatinAmerica

Text by Dr Margaret Brehony, with the support of SILAS,Embassy of Ireland in Mexico, Embassy of Ireland inArgentina, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Irish adventurers,missionaries, soldiersand settlers appear inthe history of LatinAmerica since the timeof Columbus. Irishsoldiers and theirfamilies, fleeing Britishcolonisation, went intoexile in Spain. The menjoined Spanish armiesand fought in Europeanwars. Irish exiles availedof patronage in the royalcourt of Spain andserved as high-rankingmilitary officers andadministrators in theSpanish Empire. Theybecame some of the firstEuropeans, who were notSpanish subjects, in theAmerican colonies.

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The leaders of the Rising declared a freeIrish Republic in the words of the 1916Proclamation, which “guarantees religiousand civil liberty, equal rights and equalopportunities to all its citizens”. Theevents of 1916 set in train an unstoppableprocess culminating in the War ofIndependence and ultimately anindependent Irish Republic in 1922, withsix counties in Northern Ireland remainingpart of the United Kingdom.

In Latin America, a fifteen-year cycle ofbicentennial commemorations began in2010, marking the processes ofindependence in the ex-colonies of the

Spanish Empire. It will continue indifferent countries throughout the regionup to 2025. Coincidentally, in July 2016Argentina celebrated the bicentenary ofnational independence with the signing ofthe Declaration of Tucumán in 1816.Ireland and the countries of Latin Americashare a history of European colonialismand subsequent revolutionary andindependence struggles. There is much tolearn by comparing common experiencesof decolonisation: their positions inrelation to processes of globalisation; andthe entanglements of diverse ethnicities,cultures, and languages as a result ofcolonial histories.

HistoriesShared

& Nationhood

Independence

2016 marked the centenaryof the rebellion of Easter1916 in Dublin, an eventthat led to an independentIrish Republic in 1922. Menand women involved in the1916 Rising believed thatnational democracy throughself-determination andgovernment by consentcould only be achievedthrough full independencefrom Britain.

I have come to South America topractise the art of war in order that Imight use my new-found skills in the

liberation of Ireland from British rule.Francis Burdett O’Connor to Simón Bolívar

Historical Journeys

Mexico

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William Lamport found his way intothe Spanish military service, buthad to leave Spain after ascandalous affair with noblewomanAna Cano Levia, with whom he hada daughter, Teresa. The Crown senthim to Mexico with a brief to spyon Creole insurgents, but soon afterhe arrived Lamport took up thecause of indigenous, black andCreole populations. He began topreach radical ideas about racialequality, the abolition of slavery,and the restitution of land to theIndians and wrote what is describedas the first Declaration ofIndependence in the Indies.Lamport was thrown into prison,accused of plotting rebellion as well

as dabbling in astrology andconsorting with witch doctors. Heescaped seven years later, but hecontinued to criticise the SpanishInquisition and was returned toprison for a further nine years.Despite the degradations of prisonbrutality, Lamport railed against theInquisitors, resisting them at everyturn. He took up the cause of fellowprisoners, Crypto-Jews (Portuguesemerchants of Jewish origin, living asChristians) who were alsopersecuted by the Inquisition. Hespent his time writing revolutionarypamphlets and also left behind aremarkable collection of 918religious psalms entitled RegioSalterío.

William

RACIALEQUALITY

WEXFORD

LAND REFORM

SOVEREIGNTY

Lamport(1611 – 1657)

Guillén de Lampart

The Irish ZorroWilliam Lamport from Wexford arrivedin New Spain (Mexico) as a member ofthe Spanish Court in the 1630s. Accusedof plotting against the state, he wasimprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition.He escaped but was ultimately foundguilty of heresy and burnt at the stakein 1657. Lamport is celebrated as aprecursor of Mexican independence, andhis statue is among a pantheon ofpatriots in the Monument toIndependence (Ángel de Independencia)in Mexico City. Some biographers claimthat this seventeenth-century Irishmanhas been immortalised by Hollywood inthe fictional character of Zorro.

O’Donojú

Mexico

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Born in Seville to Irish parents in 1762,Juan O’Donojú, known as the “LastViceroy” of New Spain, was in fact theJefe Político Superior of the Viceroyaltyof New Spain. Celebrated in Mexico, hewas regarded as a traitor in Spain for hisrole in the final arbitration of Mexicanindependence.

Napoleon’s occupation of Spain and theconstitutional crisis in Madrid led to theoutbreak of independence wars inSpanish America in 1810. The leaders ofindependence in South America camelargely from the aristocracy, inspired byEnlightenment ideals. In Mexico theinitial revolt came from indigenous andpeasant masses, led by Catholic priestFather Miguel Hidalgo. He issued theGrito de Dolores, a revolutionary tractthat called for an end to Spanish rule,endorsing racial equality and the

redistribution of lands. Hidalgo wasexecuted and his popular movementcrushed by a coalition of royalists andCreoles refusing to share power withthe lower classes.

O’Donojú arrived in August 1821 with amandate to introduce a liberalprogramme to the Viceroyalty. Justweeks later he signed the Treaty ofCórdoba with the conservative Mexicanarmy officer Agustín de Iturbide. Thetreaty approved the Plan of Iguala,making Mexico an independentconstitutional monarchy. It also gaveCreoles equal status with pureSpaniards, and Mexicans of pure ormixed Indian blood were ascribed lesserrights. O’Donojú saw this as apragmatic solution to achieving abloodless separation from Spain. On 28September 1821, Mexico became a

sovereign state ruled by conservativesunder the self-proclaimed Emperor,Agustín de Iturbide. The empire wasshort-lived and in 1823 General SantaAna set up the first Mexican republic.

O’Donojú played an extraordinary rolein the achievement of Mexicanindependence. He became persona nongrata in Madrid and died two monthsafter his arrival in Mexico at the age of59. His Spanish wife, Doña María JosefaSánchez-Barriga Blanco, and her threesons paid the price for her husband’streason. Forbidden to return to Spain,she was left destitute once her pensionof 12,000 pesos a year from theMexican government dried up, and shedied in 1842. Juan O’Donojú’s body wasembalmed and laid to rest in a vaultunder the magnificent Altar of the Kingsin Mexico City’s cathedral.

Juan

PLAN OFIGUALA

CONSTITUTIONALMONARCHY

TREATY OF CÓRDOBA

“LAST VICEROY”OF NEW SPAIN

(1762 – 1821)

SanPatricio

Mexico

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A plaque in Plaza San Jacinto, San Angel,Mexico honours the Batallón de SanPatricio as martyrs who gave their livesfor the Mexican cause. The San PatricioBattalion was made up of Irish, Scottishand German soldiers who changed sidesin the Mexican–American War 1846–47.They deserted the American army andfought in defence of Mexico. In the USthey were branded as vile traitors, andthose who were captured after the warwere executed.

The US declaration of war againstMexico satisfied a belief in “manifestdestiny”, or the right of the US to takelands from Mexico and the AmericanIndians. The war resulted in the captureof more than two-fifths of the territoryof the newly independent state ofMexico. In the US it played intoethnocentric ideas of Anglo-Saxonsuperiority by Nativists who professedanti-Catholic, anti-foreigner sentiments.These events coincided with a massiveinflux of Famine migrants from Irelandwho helped to swell the lower ranks ofthe US army. They earned seven dollars a

month and the promise of citizenship. Irish and German Catholics were treatedwith contempt by the Anglo-Protestantofficer class. Subjected to brutal forcedmarches, excessive punishments and thedeath sentence for minor infringementsof army discipline, foreign soldiers beganto desert. They slipped into the RíoGrande and swam across to the Mexicanside. General Zachary Taylor ordereddeserters to be shot on sight. Irishsoldiers had no stake in the US waragainst Mexico. Many of them identifiedwith Mexico, seeing this as an unjust waragainst a Catholic nation, echoing theirexperience in Ireland. Promises of higherpay and land in Mexico also enticedthem to switch sides.

John Riley, an experienced soldier fromClifden in Galway, was one of the first todesert. He organised the Batallón de SanPatricio, a company of more than 200soldiers, and turned it into an eliteartillery unit. The San Patricios areparticularly remembered for their laststand in the battle of Churubusco, thefinal battle before the US army entered

Mexico City, when they refused tosurrender to a far superior army. Manydied in combat but eighty-five werecaptured and tried. Forty-seven menfound guilty of treason were publiclywhipped, with the letter “D” for deserterbranded on their faces with red-hotirons. They were later hanged, sixteen inPlaza San Jacinto in San Ángel and thirtyin the village of Mixcoac. Riley escapedthe death sentence because he desertedbefore hostilities began. He was publiclywhipped and branded with a “D” on bothcheeks before being thrown into prisonfor the duration of the war.

There are annual remembranceceremonies in Mexico for the SanPatricios in Saltillo, Monterrey,Churubusco and Plaza San Jacinto; and inClifden, County Galway. On 18September 1997, the 150th anniversaryof the US–Mexican War, the Mexicangovernment honoured the San Patriciosby inscribing in gold letters on a plaqueon the Wall of Honour in the MexicanCongress: Defensores de la Patria 1846–1848, Batallón de San Patricio.

The

JOHN RILEY

CLIFDEN

PLAZA SAN JACINTO

M E X I C A NAMERICAN WAR

(1846 – 1847)Battalion

CHURUBUSCO

Mexico

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JUAN O’GORMAN, 1905 – 1982

Juan O’Gorman, architect, painter and muralist, was born in Coyacán, Mexico City in1905. His father was Cecil Crawford-O’Gorman from Dublin. Juan graduated from theUniversity of Mexico’s School of Architecture. He designed a strikingly modern houseand studio for muralist Diego Rivera and painter Frida Kahlo. Influenced by the greatMexican muralists Rivera, Orozco and Siquieras, Juan O’Gorman moved betweenarchitecture and painting murals. His first major mural, The History of Aviation inMexico City’s airport, was removed in 1939 for its anti-clerical, anti-fascist references.O’Gorman used indigenous motifs in his murals and mosaics, depicting Mexicanculture and history. The most famous example is the library of the NationalAutonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), covered with natural stone mosaics. It isin a group of landmark buildings that make the UNAM campus a World Heritage site.

EDMUNDO O’GORMAN, 1906 – 1995

Edmundo O’Gorman, brother of Juan, was ahistorian, writer, and philosopher. He taught atthe Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico(UNAM) and worked at the National Archive ofMexico from 1940–70. Among his many works,the best known is a pioneering work of LatinAmerican post-colonial studies, La Invención deAmerica (1958), which discredits the concept of“the discovery of America” by Columbus.

PHIL KELLY, 1950 – 2010

Phil Kelly was an Irish expressionist painter with a passion for Mexico. Born in Dublinin 1950, Kelly arrived in Mexico City in 1982 as a penniless artist and quickly absorbedthe colours, light and exuberance of life in Mexico in his new work. He is famous forhis vibrant and colourful cityscapes of Mexico City, paintings of Oaxaca and Dublin, aswell as seascapes of Mexico and Cornwall.

In 1990 he married Ruth Munguía and they had two daughters. In 1996 his majorexhibition Babel Descifrada at the Museo de Arte Moderno received critical acclaim inthe Mexican press. Phil Kelly’s paintings can be seen at the Museum of Modern Art inMexico City and the Museum of Modern Art in Oaxaca.

Painters,Muralists, Writers, Media

RÓMULO ANTONIO O’FARRILL, 1917 – 2006

Rómulo O’Farrill Jr., born in Puebla in 1917, was one of Mexico’s mostpowerful media barons. He was a descendant of Joachim O’Farrill, originallyfrom Longford. O’Farrill Jr. and his father, Rómulo O’Farrill Silva (1897–1981),set up the first commercial television station in Mexico in 1949. The O’Farrillfamily built and still manage a newspaper chain with Novedades and TheNews, one of the most widely distributed English-language dailies in LatinAmerica. Rómulo O’Farrill Jr. was Honorary Consul of Ireland in Mexico forover twenty years. His wife, Hilda Ávila Camacho, was a niece of the formerPresident of Mexico, Miguel Ávila Camacho.

Cuba

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Marshall Alejandro O’Reilly, 1723–94

Alejandro O’Reilly from County Meath was educated in Zaragoza,Spain. He joined the Hibernian Regiment at the age of eleven and rosequickly through the ranks of the Spanish military. After the Britishoccupation of Havana in 1763, O’Reilly was sent to Cuba as fieldmarshal. The capital was in ruins, the dockyard destroyed and everywooden structure burnt to the ground. As the second military authorityon the island General O’Reilly is most remembered for his role instrengthening the island’s defence installations and planning theconstruction of the Morro Cabaña fortifications at the entrance toHavana harbour. He radically reformed the army, recruiting the officerclass from the Havana oligarchy – including the O’Farrills. O’Reilly alsoraised the first Black and Mulatto militias.

Ennobled by the Spanish Crown in 1771, Count Alejandro O’Reillymarried Rosa de las Casas, sister of Luis de las Casas, who was Governorof Cuba 1790–96. Their son, 2nd Count Pedro Pablo O’Reilly de LasCasas, married María Francisca Calvo, 3rd Countess of Buenavista. PedroPablo, a plantation owner, occupied the post of regidor alguacil mayor(permanent alderman) on the Havana city council. His son ManuelO’Reilly y Calvo de la Puerte, 3rd Count O’Reilly, inherited the post in1861 until his death in 1882. Calle O’Reilly in Old Havana is named inhis honour.

Up to the twentieth century, Irish emigrants could be found at all levels of Cuban society. Theyhave made important contributions to the economic, cultural and political evolution of theisland. Some profited from slavery and loyalty to the Spanish crown. Others supported abolitionand a break with Spanish rule.

DYNASTIESTAKE ROOT

SLAVERY AND SUGAR

MORRO CABAÑA

LONGFORD

RicardoO’Farrill yO’Dalyc.1680-1739

MarshallAlejandroO’Reilly1723-1794

Ricardo O’Farrill y O’Daly, c.1680–1739

Born in the Caribbean island of Montserrat, RicardoO’Farrill was descended from Catholic nobility inLongford, Ireland. He arrived in Havana in 1715 asthe first agent to Havana for the English South SeaCompany, with exclusive rights to sell slaves to theSpanish colonies. Wealth and position throughprestigious military appointments, noble titles andadvantageous marriages made this dynasty of Irishorigin one of the most powerful and influentialfamilies at the heart of the Spanish-Cubanaristocracy. The O’Farrill name has been connectedto slavery and sugar production in Cuba since theeighteenth century.

In the twentieth century the O’Farrill namecontinued in the medical, legal, and musicprofessions. Arturo “Chico” O’Farrill (1921–2001)became a Jazz musician in the Afro-Cuban tradition.His compositions were recorded by Dizzy Gillespieand Gato Barbieri. His son Arturo is a pianist andthe director of the New York Afro Latin JazzOrchestra.

CALLE O' REILLY

MEATH

Cuba

As parish priest of Five Points in Manhattan, the Cuban priestset up the Church of the Immigrants. His parishioners weresome of the first Irish Catholics in New York. Varela supporteda rapidly growing diocese, opening schools for youngimmigrants. With an estimated 40,000 Irish in the city by1830, he began to publish the New York Weekly Register andCatholic Diary. The opening editorial promised that it wouldbe “purely republican, inflexibly impartial, and thoroughlyIrish”.

In the midst of anti-Catholic hostility and xenophobia, Varela,a fearless defender of immigrant rights, religious tolerance andsocial justice, was enormously popular with Irish immigrants.He worked tirelessly, providing humanitarian aid to faminerefugees from Ireland. In 1851, suffering from asthma andexhaustion, he returned to his boyhood home in St. Augustine,where he died prematurely, alone and in poverty. In 1911 hisremains were repatriated to Cuba.

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SOC IALJUSTICENEW YORK

EXILE

IRISH IMMIGRANTS

Padre Félix Varela, 1788–1853Félix Varela was a leading educator, philosopher andpatriot. Born in Havana and orphaned as a child, hewent to live with his maternal grandparents in St.Augustine, Florida. Father Michael O’Reilly, a parishpriest from Ireland, became his mentor. Varela’sconnection with Ireland in St. Augustine continued inNew York, where he ministered to impoverished Irishimmigrants.

Ordained a Catholic priest in 1811, Félix Varela held theChair in Philosophy in San Carlos College, Havana until1821. Despite independence wars throughout LatinAmerica, Cuba remained loyal to the Spanish Crown.Varela advocated for sovereignty and the abolition ofslavery at the Spanish Court, and for this he wascondemned to death by the conservative KingFerdinand VII. He became a political exile in the UnitedStates in 1823 until his death in 1851.

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Cuba

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Jose Martí1853-1895

CUBAN INDEPENDENCE

POET

NEW YORK

REVOLUTIONARY

Martí does not have Irish roots, but as ajournalist in New York he wrote aboutIreland, Irish America and the struggle forindependence. One article about the IrishLand League appeared in La OpiniónNacional, Caracas, in January 1882.Drawing parallels between Irish andCuban colonial histories, Martí also wroteabout Irish figures he met in New York,such as Michael Davitt, Charles StewartParnell and O’Donovan Rossa. In theliterary sphere he wrote about OscarWilde, John Boyle O’Reilly and JonathanSwift, and he translated Lalla-Rookh, anOriental romance, by Thomas Moore.

José Martí, poet and revolutionary,is known as the Apóstol andfounding father of Cubanindependence. Exiled from hisnative Cuba in 1881, he spentfourteen years in New York as awriter and political activist. Hewas a prolific writer and the mostimportant Cuban poet of the 19th

Century. Martí was namedprovisional president of theComité Revolucionario Cubano deNueva York, and by 1890 he wasthe undisputed leader of Cubanindependence activists in the city.

Cuba

White settlers and The O’BourkeFamily (1820-1898)

Irish families were some of the first settlers in the foundingof the port city of Cienfuegos. At a time of expanding slaveryin Cuba, the authorities wanted to increase the whitepopulation to defend the slave owners against slave revolts.The new Council for White Population recruited hundreds ofIrish families in Baltimore, New Orleans and Philadelphia tojoin settlers from France and the Canary Islands in the new“white colony” of Cienfuegos.

John O’Bourke from Limerick arrived in Cuba in 1820 andmarried Nicolasa Palacios. They had ten children. He boughta sugar plantation in Cienfuegos and called it NuevaHibernia. It was sold after Juan died in 1842 and the namewas changed to San Esteban. His son Juan O’Bourke Jr.continued to invest in the plantation and he also worked asthe administrator of La Carolina, a large plantation with2,000 acres worked by 500 slaves. The O’Bourke familyprofited from sugar production and slavery into thenineteenth century, but Juan O’Bourke Jr. supported a breakwith Spanish rule. He joined the anti-colonial forces in theWar of Independence (1868–87). In July 1897, his son“Juanico” O’Bourke Palacios, fighting alongside his brother“Perico”, was fatally wounded in combat in Cienfuegos.

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IRISHRAILROAD WORKERS

THE FIRST‘FREE’WORKERSTO GO ONSTRIKE

Los irlandeses 1835-1845

A sixteen-hour day of backbreaking, dangerous work on meagre food rationsand returning at night to filthy, over-crowded camps soon made lifeunbearable. When an outbreak of cholera threatened their survival, workersfled the railroad. “Deserters” were caught and thrown into prison, only to bereturned to the tracks, this time as prisoners. The Irish and Canary Islandersbegan to riot, and armed forces were brought in to quell the unrest.

Many did not survive the railroad debacle and ended up in unmarked gravesalong the tracks. The lucky ones were repatriated to the United States orremained on as overseers on the railway. Los irlandeses were imported as anexperiment in “free” labour. They resisted the coercive regime and clashedwith the authorities, who responded with the same violence used to controlslavery.

COUNCIL FORW H I T EPOPULATION

CIENFUEGOS

THE SUGARRAILROAD

The O’Bourke Women

Marina O’Bourke, daughter ofIrishman Juan O’Bourke, supportedthe abolition of slavery. She wasthe owner of a domestic slave,Matilde O’Bourke, and in 1871Marina helped Matilde to buy herfreedom. Matilde continued herassociation with the O’Bourkefamily, borrowing money fromthem to buy property. She quicklybecame one of the wealthiestproperty owners in Cienfuegos. Inturn, she lent money in 1897 tothe Cabildo Real Congo, a blackmutual-aid society. Matilde usedher connections with white societyto support the African diaspora inCienfuegos.

Barrio O’Bourke, a neighbourhoodon the west side of Cienfuegos,marks the presence of Irishimmigrants in the history of thecity.

“FREE” LABOUR

Hundreds of Irish railroadworkers recruited in NewYork in 1835 went to Cubato build the Havana–Güinesrailroad. Experienced inrailroad construction, losirlandeses were unskilledlabourers with a fewartisans, carpenters,seamstresses, washerwomenand cooks. They joined withCanary Islanders and withenslaved Africans to formthe biggest labour forceoutside the sugarplantations. In the first year,800 to 1,200 workers wereof Irish origin.

Cuba

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CheERNESTO

SOCIALJUSTICE

GALWAY

MEDICAL DOCTOR

REVOLUTION

(1928 – 1967)Guevara

She was a descendant of Patrick Lynch, whosettled in Buenos Aires in the 1740s and marriedRosa de Galaya de la Camera, a wealthy heiress.Their great-granddaughter, Ana Isabel Lynch, Che’sgrandmother, was born in 1851. She marriedRoberto Guevara Castro, and their eldest sonErnesto Guevara Lynch, Che’s father, was born in1900. Ernesto married Celia de la Serna in 1927,and their first child, Ernesto, was born in Rosario,Argentina, in 1928.

Ernesto Guevara de la Serna was the eldest of fivesiblings. After he graduated as a medical doctor,Ernesto Junior spent the rest of his life fightingagainst poverty and injustice in Latin America. Hewas a hero of the Cuban revolution thatoverthrew the dictatorship of Batista in 1959, andwas one of the most celebrated rebels of thetwentieth century. Che’s father once commented,

“the first thing to note is that in my son’s veinsflowed the blood of Irish rebels”. After sixgenerations, Patrick Lynch’s descendant would dieat the age of 39, executed in Bolivia forrevolutionary activities in 1967. Dr. AleidaGuevara, Che’s daughter, visited Ireland in 2012 tolaunch the book Remembering Che: My Life withChe Guevara, written by her mother Aleida March.

In 1968, Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick produced theiconic black-and-red screen print poster image ofChe Guevara called VIVA CHE, based on aphotograph taken by Cuban photographer AlbertoKorda. The artist never sought copyright for theimage, taking pride instead in his creation of aglobal symbol for resistance to oppression. Hiswish is to reclaim copyright and hand over allrights, in perpetuity, to the Guevara family inCuba.

Ernesto Guevara dela Serna is not anIrish name. Yet CheGuevara, a globalicon of revolutionwho belongs toCuba andArgentina, has Irishroots. He isdescended fromthe “Tribes ofGalway” throughhis paternalgrandmother,Argentinian-bornAna Isabel Lynch.

The Bolívarian Revolution

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Some had seen service with Napoleon’s armiesand supported the cause for independence, butmost were driven by poverty or a spirit ofadventure. The Irish Liberator, DanielO’Connell, in support of Bolívar sent his 16-year-old son Morgan and his nephew Mauriceto fight in the Irish Legion.

Up to 1,000 soldiers, some with families,crossed the Atlantic in six ships, landing firston the Island of Margarita, off the coast ofColombia. Some regiments made their waythrough tropical jungle to Angostura (nowCiudad Bolívar) on the banks of the OrinocoRiver. Arriving into scenes of destruction andmisery, with hundreds of soldiers dying of warwounds and yellow fever, Irish soldiers fearedfor their lives. Many deserted when they sawthat promises of land and riches would cometo nothing. They returned to Ireland and

launched a campaign in the press againstBolívar’s patriot cause.

The remaining soldiers joined the expedition inMarch 1820 to attack the Spanish-held townsof Riohacha and Maracaibo. Surrounded bydesert, mountains and marshland, the IrishLegion marched through inhospitable andhostile territory. Worn out by hunger andthirst, and after months without pay, oncethey returned to Riohacha discipline fell apartand foreign troops mutinied, setting fire to thetown. On 13 May, over 500 men, women andchildren were transported to Jamaica, leaving amuch-reduced Irish regiment.

Branded as “vagabonds”, “cowards” and“mercenaries”, the Irish deserters were bluntlydismissed by Bolívar as disloyal to the cause ofSouth American independence.

JOHN DEVEREUX

MUTINY

ISLA MARGARITA

S I M Ó NBOLÍVAR

Morgan O’Connell

Irishmen! I have the glory of counting you asadopted Sons of Venezuela, and asdefenders of the Liberty of Colombia.

—Simón Bolívar

Between 1817 and1824, thousands ofIrishmen enlistedin Simón Bolívar’spatriot armies inSouth America.John Devereux ofWexford andThomas Eyre ofGalway ledrecruitment drivesin Ireland andEngland.

IrishTHE

Legion

The Bol ívarian Revolution

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O’Connor was born in Cork city to a well-to-doProtestant family of political radicals. His olderbrother was Chartist leader Feargus O’Connor,and his father, Roger, was imprisoned for takingpart in the 1798 United Irishmen rebellion. Hisgodfather Sir Francis Burdett, a radical memberof the English Parliament, financed him to raisea regiment for Bolívar’s patriot army.

Colonel Francis O’Connor arrived with the ill-fated Irish Legion, and after the debacle atRíohacha he led the remaining loyal Irishtroops, the Irish Lancers, on the celebratedmarch across the Andes in 1819 and in thedecisive battles of Boyacá (Colombia) andCarabobo (Venezuela). He played a decisivepart under Antonio José de Sucre at the battle

of Ayacucho, liberating upper Peru. In 1826Francisco Burdett O’Connor was appointedmilitary governor of Tarija to the south of thenew Republic of Bolivia.

In 1827 O’Connor married Francisca deRuyloba. In June 1827 he published aproclamation encouraging Irish people to settlein the “New Erin” of Tarija. His memoir,Independencia Americana: Recuerdos deFrancisco Burdett O’Connor (1895), waspublished by his grandson Tomás O’Connord’Arlach. Once retired from military serviceO’Connor dedicated himself to farming inTarija, until his death in 1871 aged eighty-one.He had one surviving daughter, HerciliaO’Connor d’Arlach.

BOLIVIA

BATTLE OF AYACUCHO

NEW ERIN

S I M Ó NBOLÍVAR

1791–1871

O’Connor joinedBolívar’s army in1819. He becameassistant chief-of-staff to Bolívar andlater Minister ofWar in Bolivia. Aprovince in theDepartment ofTarija, Bolivia, isnow named afterhim.

BurdettFrancis

O’Connor

The Bol ívarian Revolution

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His father, Jeremiah, was a friend of DanielO’Connell, the great leader of Catholic Irelandand an admirer of Simón Bolívar. In 1817, DanielFlorence, aged sixteen, set sail for South Americaas a commissioned officer with the Irish Legion.

He served as staff officer in the epic “CampañaLibertadora”, in which Bolívar marched his armyacross the Venezuelan and Colombian llanos(plains) before moving high up into the Andes.Decisive battles in Pantano de Vargas and Boyacáin 1819 decimated the Spanish army andliberated central New Granada. O’Leary wasdecorated with the Order of the Liberator fordistinguished service in battle. In 1828 he marriedSoledad Soublette, Bolívar’s niece, and settled inBogotá. At the end of 1830, after Bolívar died,O’Leary was forced into exile for three years inJamaica with his wife and children. After retiringas a soldier, O’Leary enjoyed a long diplomatic

career and spent six years in Europe serving theVenezuelan government. He made one returnvisit to Cork. In 1841 he became British consul inCaracas, and in 1851 on behalf of Britain hesigned a treaty outlawing the slave trade. O’Learywas given access to Bolívar’s papers, out of whichhe compiled a monumental thirty-two-volumeaccount of the wars of independence. O’Leary’sson, Simón Bolívar O’Leary, published the firstedition of The Memorias del General O’Learybetween 1879 and 1888. The Colombian writerand Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez usedit for his fictionalised account of Bolívar’s lastdays in El General en su Laberinto. A recognisedhero of Venezuelan independence, DanielFlorence O’Leary died in 1854. In 1882, by orderof the Venezuelan president Antonio GuzmánBlanco, his remains were interred in the NationalPantheon in Caracas near those of Bolívar.

CORK

SIMÓN BOLÍVAR

MEMORIAS DEL GENERAL O’LEARY

INDEPENDENCE

Simón Bolívar hada succession ofIrish aides-de-camp, of whomthe mostprestigious wasCork-born DanielFlorence O’Leary.O’Leary becameBolívar’s aide andchronicler. O’Learywas born at theturn of thecentury (c. 1802)to a family ofbutter merchants.

O’LearyDaniel Florence

(1800 – 1854)

Soldier,Aide andChronicler

Putumayo

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Over two decades with the BritishForeign Office in Congo and in SouthAmerica, Casement exposed crimesagainst humanity by the rubberindustry in the brutal exploitation ofIndigenous peoples and devastation oftheir ecologies. Though he was knightedby the British for his service,Casement’s support for Irishnationalism and his critique ofimperialism led him to become activelyinvolved in the cause of Irishindependence. For this he was foundguilty of treason and executed byhanging in Pentonville Prison, London inAugust 1916.

From 1910–13, as British consul generalin Brazil, Casement investigated theatrocities in the Amazon by an Anglo-Peruvian rubber company. He travelledon the Putumayo river extending acrossBrazil, Colombia, Peru and Ecuador. Hisharrowing accounts in The PutumayoJournal highlight the impunity of aprofit-making system of forced labour,debt peonage and inhumane treatmentof Indigenous peoples. He made the

connection between the exploitationsof colonialism and global capitalism. Ina brutal world order there was nochange since colonial times in theviolent coercion of labour under “newslaveries” of the early twentiethcentury.

Roger Casement’s work, trial andexecution attracted huge internationalattention. The Crown prosecution,intending to undermine the campaignfor a pardon, made public Casement’sprivate journals – in particular sectionswith homoerotic content. Known asThe Black Diaries, the controversy has,for far too long, overshadowed anddistracted from his important legacy asa humanitarian. One hundred yearslater, Casement’s life, moral courageand pioneering work are a source ofinspiration to human rights andenvironmental campaigners, scholars,and writers including Peruvian Nobellaureate Mario Vargas Llosa, who wrotea novel called The Dream of the Celtbased on Casement’s Putumayojournal.

CasementRoger

Roger Casement, a revolutionaryand pioneer of international humanrights, is celebrated in Ireland forhis contribution to the struggle forIrish freedom. In the words of thePresident of Ireland, Michael D.Higgins, at the 2016 statecentenary commemoration: “RogerCasement was not just a great Irishpatriot, he was also one of thegreat humanitarians of the earlytwentieth century – a man who isremembered fondly by so manypeople across the world for hiscourageous work in exposing thedarkness that lay at the heart ofEuropean imperialism.”

INDIGENOUSRIGHTS

HUMAN RIGHTSPIONEER

PUTUMAYO

HUMANITARIAN

(1864 – 1916)

RUBBERINDUSTRY

Paraguay

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She used her Parisian connections toimport educators, musicians and artiststo contribute to the intellectual andcultural development of Asunción. Shepromoted education for all, especiallywomen, and supported advances inmedicine. Solano López inherited powerin 1862, and two years later he broughthis country to war against Argentina,Brazil and Uruguay – the War of theTriple Alliance. After five years of warParaguay was in ruins, with ninetypercent of the male populationannihilated.

Eliza supported López unto death, evenwhen others tried to stop the war. Sheremained by his side and buried him andtheir son with her bare hands on thebattlefield. To avoid prison, she left forParis with her children. She returned toher adopted country Paraguay to layclaim to extensive properties which hadbeen confiscated. She was persona nongrata and finished out her years in Paris,where she died in poverty, aged 51, in1886. Before leaving Latin America Eliza

Lynch published Exposición y Protesta in1875, a document defending herselfagainst her many detractors. Seventy-five years after her death she wasreclaimed as a national heroine and herremains repatriated to Paraguay byanother dictator, General AlfredoStroessner, in 1961. The Catholic Churchobjected to his plan to inter her remainsin the National Pantheon in Asunciónbeside López, and Lynch was laid to restin a tomb in the national cemetery.

Eliza Lynch’s great grandson, HisExcellency Miguel Angel Solano López,Ambassador of Paraguay to Ireland in2014, visited her birthplace in Charleville.Author Anne Enright, Ireland’s firstlaureate for Irish fiction, wrote about thelife of the heroine in The Pleasure of ElizaLynch. The film The Unofficial Queen ofParaguay, by Irish filmmaker AlanGilsenan, is based on the more recentbook The Lives of Eliza Lynch: Scandaland Courage by Michael Lillis and RonanFanning.

LynchEliza

PARIS

WAR OF THETRIPLE ALLIANCE

SOLANO LÓPEZ

THE UNOFFICIAL QUEEN

OF PARAGUAY

(1835 – 1886)

Elizabeth Alice Lynch was bornin Charleville, County Cork, on3 June 1835. Eliza became theunofficial “Queen of Paraguay”,or “Madame Lynch” as shecalled herself. From humbleorigins in Ireland, she becamethe mistress of FranciscoSolano López, Dictator ofParaguay (1826–70). Eliza wasfifteen when her family movedto Paris, and at sixteen shemarried a French army officer.Divorced by age twenty, Elizamet the son of the Dictator ofParaguay in 1853. They nevermarried, though she bore himseven children. For this “LaLynch”, as she was known inParaguay, was snubbed by highsociety as a courtesan andconsort.

Ambrose O’Higgins(1720-1801)

Ambrose O’Higgins, the Irish-born viceroy of Peru, is one ofthe most celebrated Irishimmigrants, having reached thehighest ranks in the Spanishcolonial imperial service.

Born in Ballynary, Sligo, he moved toSpain in his early thirties. On his firsttrip to South America in 1756 he builtcommercial contacts for his employers,the Butler family of Cádiz. He returnedin 1763, this time as a military surveyor.On both occasions he made thearduous journey from Buenos Aires toChile by trekking across the Andes toSantiago on foot. He had a strongcharacter, with steely determination,ambition and unusual physicalresilience. His military achievementsand unflinching loyalty to the Crownsaw him rise rapidly through the ranks

to become commander of the forcesstationed on the frontier between theSpanish Empire and Mapuche territory.O’Higgins won the respect of theMapuche people through hisenlightened policies of abolishing theencomienda system of tributes andforced Indian labour, introduced by theSpanish. The Crown recognised thepolitical and territorial autonomy of theMapuche, and governance wasnegotiated through the institution ofparlamentos or peace-conferences.O’Higgins famously organised thelargest parlamento de Negrete in 1793.He was rebuked by government officialsbecause he tried to “support theseforsaken and early owners of theterritory and their rights to their landsand property”.

Despite O’Higgins’ pro-Mapuche stance,the early creation of centres ofpopulation paved the way for a strategyof dispossession and settlement incontested indigenous lands. In 1786O’Higgins became governor ofConcepción, and in 1796 he wasappointed viceroy of Perú, where heremained until the age of eighty, a yearbefore his death. He became the firstMarquis of Osorno, a ruined city to thesouth, and installed his compatriot JuanMackenna as governor. The viceroylooked for immigrants to settle thecolony, among them Irish and Englishartisans and labourers.

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Juan Mackenna(1771-1814)Juan Mackenna, Irish-borngeneral in the war ofindependence in Chile, camefrom County Tyrone. He wentto Spain as a youth under thecare of his uncle GeneralAlejandro O’Reilly.

In 1795 he was promoted to captain inthe Royal Regiment of Engineers, and ayear later sailed to South America.Fellow Irishman Viceroy AmbroseO’Higgins appointed Mackenna asgovernor of Osorno, a ruined colonialcity at the southern tip of Chile.Mackenna set about rebuilding the city,and as a highly skilled engineer he alsoconstructed fortifications along thecoast to protect against invasion fromFrance. In 1810 he joined therevolutionary party led by Carrera, andlater as brigadier general he foughtagainst the royalists. When BernardoO’Higgins supplanted Carrera, Mackennajoined him. He married a Chilean,Josefina Vicuña, and their son BenjaminaVicuña Mackenna (1831–86) became adistinguished Chilean writer andhistorian. Mackenna lost his life, caughtup in the fierce political rivalry betweencarerristas and o’higginistas.

Scandal finally reached Ambrose O’Higgins,and through his son’s association with anenemy of the Crown the viceroy was forcedto resign. Bernardo returned to Chile a yearafter his father’s death in 1801. Finallyreunited with the Riquelme family, he livedwith his mother and half-sister Rosa andmanaged his inheritance, a huge cattle-ranchin Southern Chile. Now a wealthy landowner,Bernardo reclaimed the O’Higgins name thathis father had denied him. He became thevoice of a radical minority calling for acomplete break with Spanish rule, and by thetime the royalist forces were ousted in 1810,O’Higgins stood out as a revolutionaryleader. When José Miguel Carerras tookpower, civil war broke out, weakening patriotforces, and royalists took control of Chileagain. Following defeat at the Battle ofRancagua, the patriot army, includingBernardo and his family, marched into exileacross the Andes, taking refuge in Argentina.Juan Mackenna was killed by Carerras’brother in a duel. Bernardo had lost hisclosest friend and ally and everything heowned in Chile. After the declaration ofindependence by the United Provinces ofSouth America at the Congress of Tucumán,

O’Higgins planned the invasion of Chile withGeneral José de San Martín. In January 1817,accompanied by Irishman John ThomondO’Brien, San Martín’s Army of the Andes,with Brigadier O’Higgins in command of the2nd division, crossed the Andes. Theydefeated the royalists on 12 February andO’Higgins was appointed Supreme Directorof Chile.

Founder of the Chilean Navy and MarineCorps, O’Higgins also oversaw improvementsin public works, education, farming and themilitary. Despite his achievements, hiscommitment to liberal republicanism in theAmericas alienated the church and thecriollo elite. Opposition to his rule grew, andin 1823 General O’Higgins resigned andwent into exile in Perú, where he remaineduntil his death. He wished to live in Ireland,“the country of his fathers”, but he fell ill inCallao in 1823 and never made the journey.In October 1842, the Chilean governmentofficially reinstated him as a commander-in-chief, but before he could return, he died inLima on October 23, 1842. O’Higgins’remains were ceremoniously repatriated toChile in 1869.

Peru and Chile

O’HigginsBernardo

(1778 – 1843)

Bernardo O’Higgins, son ofViceroy Ambrose O’Higgins,led the Independence Armyand is celebrated as theFather of the Republic ofChile. He was born in Chillánto Isabel Riquelme, theeighteen-year-old daughterof a local landowner.Ambrose, now sixty yearsold and desperate to preventa scandal interfering with hisambitions, put his son intothe care of foster parents.He removed Bernardo fromChile as a boy and sent himto Lima, Peru under the careof Irishman John IgnatiusBlake. Bernardo was thensent to London, where hebecame close to theVenezuelan revolutionaryFrancisco de Miranda.

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Argentina

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The continuing blockade waschoking trade in Buenos Aires, andin 1814 William Brown was askedby the patriot government to leada small Argentine fleet with hisflagship Hércules. Demonstratingextraordinary tactical skill, theydefeated the Spanish squadron offMontevideo, breaking the blockadeand effectively ending the Spanishstranglehold on the newindependent state. Brown’scourage, discipline and concern forthe welfare of ordinary seamenbecame the founding principles ofthe Argentine Navy.

Brown continued his campaignand sailed on board the Herculesto the Pacific, rounding the Capeof Good Horn in treacherousstorms. Accompanied by twoother ships they wreaked havoc onSpanish military and commercialships. Brown was detained inBarbados in 1816 by Britishcolonial officials, accused ofinfringing international trade rules.He entered into a long andtorturous appeal process thatultimately succeeded. But when heeventually returned to BuenosAires in 1818 he was arrested andcourt martialled. He was foundguilty of disobeying orders andwas stripped of his rank and hisearnings from the naval campaign.

At his lowest ebb, ill with typhoidand accused of being a traitor,Brown attempted to take his ownlife. In 1819, on appeal, the civilgovernment restored him to therank of retired colonel.

In 1825, when the Brazilianblockade of the River Platethreatened the economicfoundation of Argentina, Brownreturned to command theArgentine fleet and defeated a farsuperior Brazilian navy. He was ahero once again and returned tobecome governor of Buenos Aires.In 1841 he led the navy for thelast time against the British andFrench blockade in the war againstUruguay. General Garibaldi on thelosing side considered Brown thegreatest naval leader of all time.He made one final trip to hisnative Foxford, accompanied byhis daughter, and witnessed thehorrors of the great Famine in1847.

Today there is a museum in areconstruction of the Yellow Houseoriginally built by Brown in thefamous Boca district. Named in hishonour are several ships of theArgentine navy, an Argentine navalbase, three towns, 320 schools, sixfootball clubs and about 1,100streets.

BrownAdmiral William

FOXFORD

INSTITUTO BROWNIANO

ALMIRANTE BROWN

ARGENTINE NAVY

(1777 – 1857)

Ireland’s Son,Argentina’s HeroAdmiral William Brown, or GuillermoBrown, native of Foxford, County Mayo,became Admiral of the Argentine Navyleading the battle to achieveindependence from Spain. Today he is anational hero in Argentina. Brown wasborn in 1777, one of four siblings. Thereare few records of his childhood, but heleft Ireland as a youth and did not returnuntil he was sixty-one. His remarkablenaval career began as a midshipman inthe British navy. By the time he arrivedin Buenos Aires in 1810, his formidablenaval skills and reputation as a “MasterMariner” brought him to the attention ofthe Buenos Aires government. He settledin Buenos Aires in 1812 just as the criollorebellion against Spanish rule wasgaining momentum. By then, he wasmarried to Englishwoman ElizabethChitty, daughter of a British shippingmagnate, and they had two children. In1812, as an established commercialtrader, he became adept at running theSpanish blockade of the River Plate.

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Miguel O’Gorman1736-1819Michael O’Gorman, a doctor from Ennisin County Clare, was appointed the firstProtomédico (Royal Physician) in the newviceroyalty of Río de la Plata in 1798. Heestablished the Academy of Medicine inMontevideo and the first medical schoolin Buenos Aires, and is regarded as thefounder of modern medicine in Argentina.He studied in Paris before working as amedical officer for ten years with theHibernian Regiment in Spain underGeneral Alejandro O’Reilly. He arrived inBuenos Aires at the age of sixty-two. Heinitiated public health measures tocontrol the spread of disease andintroduced the latest methods ofvaccination against smallpox.

John Thomond O’Brien 1825-1886General John Thomond O’Brien of Baltinglass, Wicklow arrived in Argentina in1814 and fought in the siege of Montevideo. He was appointed aide-de-camp toGeneral San Martín, and took part in all major actions of the independencestruggle in Chile, Bolivia, and Perú.

The new government gave him a grant of the Salcedo silver mine near Puno, andwith pioneering spirit he undertook the construction of a railroad across theAndes. O’Brien returned to Buenos Aires and became involved in persuadinggovernment officials to implement an immigration scheme from Ireland. In 1826he returned home to recruit “moral and industrious” immigrants. Thoughunsuccessful in his attempts, this first effort sowed the seed of Irish emigrationto Argentina from the Westmeath–Longford–Offaly area.

In 1847 O’Brien was appointed special envoy of the Uruguayan Republic to theUnited Kingdom. He returned to Ireland and died on 1 June 1861 in Lisbon, onhis way back to South America. His remains were repatriated to Argentina in1935 on board the gunboat Rosario. At an official ceremony the Minister of Wargave an oration, as did the president of the Comisión Irlandesa–Argentina inBuenos Aires, Dr. Humberto Ennis.

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Patricio Lynch, a great-grandson ofIrishman Patrick Lynch, and the greatgreat-grandfather of Che Guevara, hada highly successful career in theChilean navy. He fought in the War ofthe Pacific between Chile and theAllied Powers of Perú and Bolivia(1879–84), in which Bolivia lost itsonly access to the sea and Chileannexed large areas of the Pacific coastwith valuable nitrate deposits. Patricio’sfather Estanislao Lynch y Roo arrived inChile as a colonel in the Patriot armyled by Bernardo O’Higgins and SanMartín. He settled in Valparaiso and

became a wealthy merchant. Patriciomarried Carmen Solo de Zaldívar yRivera, and their first son Patricio wasborn on 18 December 1825. Heentered the Chilean navy aged twelveand went on to join the Royal Navy fora time. On returning to Chile, he wasappointed Minister for the Marine.During the War of the Pacific he waspromoted to military governor ofoccupied Perú, and later to rearadmiral. In 1884 Patricio Lynch wasappointed Minister Plenipotentiary toSpain. He died on a return journey toChile in 1886.

The Lynch dynasty in Argentinabegan with Patrick Lynch fromCounty Galway, who arrived inBuenos Aires via Cadiz in Spain inthe 1740s with a licence to tradein the Spanish colonies. Hebecame a substantial landowner,a regidor (royal representative)and captain of the militias. Hemarried Rosa de Galaya de laCamera, a wealthy heiress. Theirson Justo Pastor Lynch andgrandchildren became well-known names in Argentinasupporting the patriot cause.

LynchThe

DynastyPatricio Lynch, 1825-1886

Argentina

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Eduardo Mulhall,1832-1899

Edward Mulhall (1832–99) settled inBuenos Aires in the mid-1850s. He set upThe Standard daily newspaper (1860–1959) with his brother Michael (1836–1900) as co-editor. Michael was ajournalist, author and statistician. As thefirst English-language newspaper in LatinAmerica, The Standard appealed to adiverse readership of English-speakingsettlers in Argentina, Uruguay andParaguay. The Mulhall brothers, despitebeing natives of Ireland, identified asingleses and promoted support for HomeRule, with Ireland remaining in theUnited Kingdom. The Nationalist editorof the Southern Cross criticised TheStandard as “the mouthpiece of Englishcommercial enterprise and interests”. In1875 the Mulhall brothers published TheHandbook of the River Plate as a guide toprospective European settlers.

Argentina attracted the largest numberof Irish emigrants outside the English-speaking world. As a result of privatesettlement schemes throughout thenineteenth century, it is estimated thatmore than 50,000 Irish immigrantslanded in Buenos Aires up to 1929. Themajority found work as sheep farmersand cattle ranchers and settled largelyin rural areas of Argentina on frontierlands or in the Pampas. Smallernumbers became factory workers inBuenos Aires, or owners of smallbusinesses. A handful who arrivedbefore the Irish Famine became verywealthy and influential landowners andmerchants. The first generation laid thefoundation for a flourishing multi-generational and layered Irish-Argentine diaspora contributing to allaspects of life in Argentina. Theymaintained a strong sense of identityand became prominent in education,the Catholic Church, banking, sport,industry and railways, the armed forces,politics and the press.

MulhallThe

FamilyMarion Mulhall, 1847 -1922

Marion Mulhall, née Mc Morrough, anauthor in her own right, marriedMichael Mulhall. She wrote about herexperiences as “the first Englishwoman to penetrate the heart ofSouth America”. These travel accountsby a white female explorer of terraincognita reflect the Europeandiscourse about indigenous peoplesas seen through nineteenth-century“imperial eyes”.

Marion Mulhall also wrote an accountof the devastating 1871 yellow feverepidemic in Buenos Aires in which upto 25,000 people died. Widowed in1900, Mulhall resettled in Kent inEngland until her death in 1922. Herpublished works include From Europeto Paraguay and Matto-Grosso(1877) and Between the Amazon andthe Andes (1881).

Argentina

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Monsignor Patrick J.Dillon,1842-1889Father Patrick Dillon, also from Galway, arrived inBuenos Aires in 1863 to serve as chaplain to theIrish in districts outside Buenos Aires – Merlo,Cañuelas and the Falkland Islands. With thesupport of Irish Catholics, he set up the SouthernCross newspaper in 1875. This was the firstEnglish-language, Catholic and Irish periodical,and it contributed to separating Irish identityfrom the wider English-speaking population.

Father Anthony Fahy, 1805-1871Father Anthony Fahy from Galway ministered to a growing Irish diaspora until his deathfrom yellow fever in 1871. Fahy travelled the length and breadth of the Pampas,supporting the Irish Catholic community. He acted as consul, financial adviser, judge,employment agent interpreter and matchmaker and founded the Irish Hospital inBuenos Aires. The Fahy Institute for boys and St. Brigid’s College for girls, providing freeeducation to the children of poorer Irish immigrants, were set up in the 1890s.

Marriage outside the Irish-Argentine community was rare until the twentieth century.The diaspora retained a strong sense of Irish ethnicity, and later generations spokeEnglish with accents of the early settlers who came from Counties Meath, Westmeath,Longford and Offaly in the midlands, and from Cork, Clare and Wexford. In a countrywith a strong British influence in the nineteenth century, it was easier to identify asingleses, but as Irish-Argentine communities grew and moved from rural to urban areasthey began to speak Spanish.

The Dresden AffairThe Argentine government set up a scheme to recruit emigrants in Ireland. In1887 John Steven Dillon (Fr. Dillon’s brother) and Buckley O’Meara becamethe agents managing the scheme. In one disastrous recruitment drive, the SSDresden carried some 1,500 Irish emigrants. There was nothing in place fortheir reception, and most of them, left at the hands of unscrupulous agents,ended up destitute in the streets of Buenos Aires. Up to 800 travelled on tothe colony of Napostá, started by Irish-American David Gartland. After twoyears of misery living under canvas in harsh weather on lands that wereunsuitable for agriculture, more than 100 people died. The surviving groupeventually returned to Buenos Aires on foot, a distance of 700 km. Thismarked the end of mass migration from Ireland to Argentina.

Argentina

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Secondary education for girls didnot exist until early in thetwentieth century. Cecilia wasrecognised as an exceptionalstudent but also for her voluntarywork in treating patients duringthe 1886 cholera epidemic.Despite successfully defending herthesis on gynaecology andbecoming the first woman inArgentina to graduate with adegree in medicine, it was notlegal for her to practise because ofher gender.

Grierson was academically prolificand innovative in her work. Shewent on to develop trainingprogrammes and foundedArgentina’s first school of nursingin 1891. It was called theMunicipal Nursing School or “theDr. Cecilia Grierson”. Dr. Griersonwas the director of the school until1913. She was a pioneer of thepractice of kinesiology, a massage

technique which she taught at theSchool of Medicine in BuenosAires. She founded the NationalObstetrics Association and theRevista Obstétrica, a journal formidwives.

Cecelia was a feminist and becamepolitically active in the struggle toachieve civil, legal and politicalequality for women. She was vice-president at the second meeting ofthe suffragist organisation theInternational Council of Women,held in London in 1889, and shesubsequently set up the ArgentineWomen’s Council. As part of theevents marking the centenary ofArgentine independence, Dr.Grierson presided over the firstInternational Feminist Conferenceof Argentina. Today several medicalinstitutions bear her name, as doesa street in the district of PuertoMadero in Buenos Aires.

GriersonCecilia

FEMINIST

SUFFRAGETTE

DIRECTOR OFNURSING SCHOOL

ARGENTINA’S FIRSTFEMALE PHYSICIAN

(1859 – 1934)

Cecilia Grierson was Argentina’s firstfemale physician. Her mother, Jane Duffy,was Irish, married to John RobertsonGrierson, son of a Scottish colonist. Afterher father died, Cecilia, still a young girl,helped her mother run a country school inthe province of Entre Ríos. She latergraduated as a teacher in 1878 but went onto study medicine, despite the legalexclusion of women from educationalinstitutions.

Argentina

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In 1896 he became the editor and owner of thepaper, publishing articles about politics, Irishlanguage and sports, and the cultural revival inIreland. William supported the Gaelic League inBuenos Aires and maintained close contact withIrish nationalists such as Douglas Hyde, ArthurGriffith and Patrick Pearse. His first book, Tales ofthe Pampas, described life in Argentina for theIrish, and his book Rambles in Erin (1907) was aguidebook for the diaspora on the Irish landscapeand geopolitical events in Ireland. The familyreturned to Ireland in 1908. Eamon Bulfin arrivedin Ireland agee 10. He was the second boy toenrol in the Irish language school St. Enda’s,founded by revolutionary leader and poet PatrickPearse. Eamon’s father died in 1910, the sameyear he began his studies for a science degree atUniversity College Dublin. In the summer of 1912,he was sworn into the Irish RepublicanBrotherhood. He worked closely with PatrickPearse in planning the Easter Rising. In late 1915they began to make and store munitions at St.Enda’s school. Eamon played a significant part inthe insurrection. Under orders from Pearse, heheld a position as sniper on the roof of the GPO

and he hoisted the Irish flag along with a secondgreen flag with the inscription “Irish Republic”over the GPO. Bulfin was among thosecondemned to be shot, but like Eamon De Valera,his sentence was commuted on account of hisforeign birth. He was imprisoned with the Irishrebels in Frongoch internment camp in Wales. TheArgentine consulate intervened and Bulfin wasdeported to Argentina in 1919. Following theelection of the first Dáil, or parliament, in January1921, Eamon De Valera appointed Bulfin as theconsul of the Irish Republic in Buenos Aires.Although it was an unofficial meeting, animportant step was the decision a year later bythe Argentine Foreign Minister to receive SinnFéin representative Laurence Ginnell as the firstIrish Ambassador in Argentina in August 1921.They worked to rally political and financialsupport in Buenos Aires among prominent andwealthy members of the Irish-Argentinecommunity for the new Irish Republic. Supportwas fractured once the 1921 Treaty partitioningIreland was signed. Eamon returned to Ireland in1922, settling in Birr, County Offaly, until hisdeath in 1968.

BulfinEamon

BUENOS AIRES

WESTMEATH

EASTER RISING1916

I R I S HIND E P E ND ENC E

(1892 – 1968)

GAELICLEAGUE

The Irish flag was firstraised over theGeneral Post Office(GPO) during theEaster Rising of 1916by Eamon Bulfin, anIrish-Argentine rebel.

He was born inBuenos Aires in 1892to parents WilliamBulfin of Birr, CountyOffaly and AnnO’Rourke ofBallymore, CountyWestmeath. Eamon’sparents met whileworking on a cattleranch in the Pampas.When they movedto Buenos Aires,William wrote shortpieces about theIrish-Argentinediaspora in theSouthern Cross, aweekly English-language newspaper.