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The wild geese: The Irish soldier in exile
A history of Irishmen leaving Ireland and fighting in foreign lands, including in the U. S. and Mexico.
- GenresIrelandHistoryNonfiction
227 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
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August 23, 2020
Even if one acknowledges that the subject matter of this work is simply too vast to capture in a couple of hundred pages, Maurice Hennessy's book barely scratches the surface and is little more than a thinly woven tissue of poorly researched anecdote.
With later chapters given up to the Irish in the Americas, wives of those who served in European armies and even the two Irish 'brigades' in the so-called Boer wars, this overly romanticised and desperately misleading book fails to give more than passing mention to the many hundreds of thousands of Irish soldiers who served in the army of Ireland's closest if unbeloved neighbour. It is a matter of measurable and undeniable fact - though those bent on pushing the divisive narrative continue to expend their energies in attempting to deny it - that many, many more Irishmen have worn the red and khaki of the British Army in defence of the British Empire than ever picked up the sword against it.
I am surprised that Hennessy, a former British colonial officer, a wartime officer of the Nigeria Regiment and university lecturer could make such trite observations as to suggest that the totally southern Irish regiments of the British Army, were of suspect loyalty simply because their ranks were filled with 'nationalists'. The ranks of today's close-knit Royal Irish Regiment contain many Irish nationalists (I would have counted myself as one when I served), but the proven loyalty of that Regiment is no more nor less than that of the old Royal Irish (18th of Foot), The Connaught Rangers (Despite the events of 1921), The Leinster Regiment, The Munster Fusiliers and The Dublin Fusiliers. The simple fact is that the Irish regiments of the British Army (And indeed the Irish soldiers who swelled the ranks of almost every other regiment in that army) were by extreme, and continue to be, the most potent and important manifestation of the Wild Geese spirit.
That the author seemed unable to distinguish the Faugh O'Ballaghs [Sic] from the Enniskillen (page 104) is so rudimentary an error (The Faughs are the Royal Irish Fusiliers, a quite separate and distinct regiment from the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers) suggests a true paucity of research and makes one wonder what other inaccuracies he has embedded in the fertile minds of his unsuspecting university students. Hennessy suggests, on page 200, that a list of reports on officers refers to some 27th regiment of the United States army, whereas they quite famously refer to the subaltern officers of the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment.
The main body of the work focuses on the many nobles who flew to Europe and made themselves comfortable in the courts of France, Spain, Austria and Russia while offering far too little evidence of the thousands of listed soldiers whose miseries and torments gained far lesser reward while buying what bloody glory was to be had at Fontenoy. That the nobles who led them did so in the name and service of their own English king, is passed over all too briefly and leaves the unwary reader with a misinformed and misrepresented version of the facts.
In his concluding chapter Hennessy asserts that, "If history is to be really valuable, then it must be devoid of sentiment." He is guilty of failing his own test.
With later chapters given up to the Irish in the Americas, wives of those who served in European armies and even the two Irish 'brigades' in the so-called Boer wars, this overly romanticised and desperately misleading book fails to give more than passing mention to the many hundreds of thousands of Irish soldiers who served in the army of Ireland's closest if unbeloved neighbour. It is a matter of measurable and undeniable fact - though those bent on pushing the divisive narrative continue to expend their energies in attempting to deny it - that many, many more Irishmen have worn the red and khaki of the British Army in defence of the British Empire than ever picked up the sword against it.
I am surprised that Hennessy, a former British colonial officer, a wartime officer of the Nigeria Regiment and university lecturer could make such trite observations as to suggest that the totally southern Irish regiments of the British Army, were of suspect loyalty simply because their ranks were filled with 'nationalists'. The ranks of today's close-knit Royal Irish Regiment contain many Irish nationalists (I would have counted myself as one when I served), but the proven loyalty of that Regiment is no more nor less than that of the old Royal Irish (18th of Foot), The Connaught Rangers (Despite the events of 1921), The Leinster Regiment, The Munster Fusiliers and The Dublin Fusiliers. The simple fact is that the Irish regiments of the British Army (And indeed the Irish soldiers who swelled the ranks of almost every other regiment in that army) were by extreme, and continue to be, the most potent and important manifestation of the Wild Geese spirit.
That the author seemed unable to distinguish the Faugh O'Ballaghs [Sic] from the Enniskillen (page 104) is so rudimentary an error (The Faughs are the Royal Irish Fusiliers, a quite separate and distinct regiment from the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers) suggests a true paucity of research and makes one wonder what other inaccuracies he has embedded in the fertile minds of his unsuspecting university students. Hennessy suggests, on page 200, that a list of reports on officers refers to some 27th regiment of the United States army, whereas they quite famously refer to the subaltern officers of the 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment.
The main body of the work focuses on the many nobles who flew to Europe and made themselves comfortable in the courts of France, Spain, Austria and Russia while offering far too little evidence of the thousands of listed soldiers whose miseries and torments gained far lesser reward while buying what bloody glory was to be had at Fontenoy. That the nobles who led them did so in the name and service of their own English king, is passed over all too briefly and leaves the unwary reader with a misinformed and misrepresented version of the facts.
In his concluding chapter Hennessy asserts that, "If history is to be really valuable, then it must be devoid of sentiment." He is guilty of failing his own test.
Displaying 1 of 1 review