Matthew
J. Culligan & Peter Cherici's
THE WANDERING IRISH IN EUROPE
THEIR INFLUENCE FROM
THE DARK AGES TO MODERN TIMES
_______________
PREFACE
We
wrote The Wandering Irish in Europe to fill in the picture of the significant
Irish contribution to European civilization and history. The story of the invaluable labour of the
Irish monks in preserving the foundations of Western culture by copying the
texts of ancient and early Christian authors is well-known, as is the journey
of many Irish monks to Europe where they also copied texts from previous eras
and founded monasteries. But after this crucial and widely recognized task performed by the
Irish monks, the story of Irish involvement in the growth of
It
is not that the Irish involvement in
While
the role of the Irish in European culture and history has not been ignored, it
has not been presented in a cogent, comprehensive, systematic way. As far as we know, The Wandering Irish in
Europe is the first book to do this.
From extensive research over many years in a number of countries, we
gathered material on many Irish émigrés and their descendants in nearly all of
the countries of Europe. Our study was
motivated by our own curiosity stemming from our Irish background. We originally didn't intend to write a book;
nor did we even imagine that we would have written this book. But the more we got into our study, the more
we saw the reality and import of the activities of many Irish men and some
Irish women in most of the countries of Europe.
Because of the loyalty of the Irish to the monarchs and the conception
of the countries they emigrated to - which the Irish viewed as replacements of
their clans - their activities are ordinarily seen as part of the particular
historical activity and direction of the monarchs and the countries.
This
view of the activity of the Irish in relation to various European monarchs and
countries is not wrong, or even limited.
It is the usual view because it was the view the Irish themselves had of
their activities and roles. Looking at
the monarchies and countries to which they attacked themselves as their new
clans, the Irish saw their activity as benefiting these; their focus was on the
"clan", not on themselves.
Beyond this usual perspective however, with our Irish roots and
knowledge of Irish culture and history, we began to develop another, broader perspective
on the Irish in Europe as we gathered more and more material on this
topic. We began to see more and more
clearly that while the significance of different Irish persons was related to
historical events or circumstances in the different countries of Europe,
underlying the activities and roles of the Irish in different centuries in most
of the countries of Europe were traits and capabilities that were identifiably
Irish. While the various Irish over many
centuries and in widely separated countries of Europe had significant parts in
the reigns of different monarchs and the growth of different nations,
similarities in the traits and capabilities of the Irish led to a realization
that there was a connection among the activities and ideas of the Irish. Considering the workings of history, such a
connection among so many persons playing significant roles in such a number of
different European countries over such a long period of time undeniably had an
effect. We realized there was a
demonstrable Irish influence on Europe, a perspective which we present in this
book.
Although
our perspective is based on the Irish heritage of the men and women treated in
this book, more broadly, The Wandering Irish in Europe traces the growth
of European culture as a whole. For we do not see the Irish as injecting any characteristics or
determining any directions which were not inherent in European civilization as
a whole. The Irish were teachers,
leaders and innovators in different fields, counsellors, compatriots and
sometimes examples; they were not invaders, conquerors or rulers. Characteristics of the Irish, knowledge and
skills they had, and activities they engaged in helped to define certain major
or significant characteristics in European culture and to concentrate certain
trends and directions. For instance, there
were Irish military men who led the modernization of the tactics, armaments and
organization of the armies of major European countries; and there were Irish
diplomats, advisors and political leaders who played important roles in the
movement in some European countries to become nations.
The
Irish were able to uniquely have such a part throughout most of Europe because
their skills and capabilities were often readily put to use by the rulers and
upper classes of the countries they emigrated to. The obvious reason for this is that the
rulers and upper classes could benefit from the skills and capabilities of the
Irish with virtually no risk to themselves.
As outsiders, the Irish had no power base in the different countries
which might threaten the rulers or upper class.
Besides, the Irish had earned a reputation for loyalty to the rulers
they served; and the Irish welcomed the opportunity to put their skills and
capabilities to use in their new circumstances in foreign lands. But underlying these logical reasons for the
unique part of the Irish in European history is the question of why different
generations of Irish could have such a part over so wide a geographical
area. The answer to this is that the
Irish uniquely bore the heritage of the Celts, the race that dominated Europe
from Spain to Austria to Ireland from 800 B.C. until Caesar conquered the Galls
in roughly the area of France in the 1st century A.D. Although a warrior culture, the Celts were
unable to resist the relentless legions of Rome, and in later centuries, the
hordes of Germanic tribes sweeping down from the north to topple the Roman
Empire in the 5th century A.D.
During
these centuries, Celtic culture was overlaid by Roman civilization and the
cultures of the barbarian tribes. Nonetheless,
Celtic culture was too deeply rooted in the peoples of these large geographical
areas to die out. Toward the end of the
Dark Ages, when the Roman Empire had vanished long ago and the stagnation of
the barbarian rule was becoming onerous, the reinvigoration of Christianity and
the stirrings of the Carolingian Renaissance brought on the origins of Western
culture. Monks from Ireland played
central roles in both of these seminal occurrences. Earliest among these Irish monks was
Columbanus, who arrived in France in 591 A.D. and over the next two decades
founded monasteries at Annegray, Luxeuil, Fontaine, Breganz and Bobbio. With respect to the Carolingian Renaissance,
Charlemagne - King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor - invited Irish monks
from throughout Europe to come to his court at Aix-la-Chapelle to teach and to
pursue their scholarship; and he sent envoys to Ireland to invite monks from
there to come to his court as well.
The
repression of the Irish by the English in the late Middle
Ages and another period of intensified repression in the 1600's after
The
areas of Europe where the Irish had the most effect are the areas where Celtic
culture was dominant. These areas are
roughly the modern-day nations of France, Spain, Portugal and Austria. Although Irish émigrés travelled to
It
was Celtic Christianity, especially the concept of the White Martyr who would
leave his brethren and homeland to become a missionary, which the early Irish
monks brought to Europe. The rulers and
local populations were hospitable to this mixing of Christianity and Celtic
culture. The monks appealed to the
spiritual yearnings of the Europeans toward the close of the Dark Ages; and
they had practical skills to offer which had been lost in the turmoil of the
barbarian invasions or scorned by the warrior cultures of the barbarians. This acceptance of the early monks and the
unique position they had with the rulers and local populations laid the ground
for the acceptance of later generations of Irish émigrés. The major difference of the Irish - namely
their reflection of Celtic culture unaffected by the historical tides that
flowed across Europe - was not a difference which set them apart from the
peoples of the European continent but, rather, a quality which made the Irish
more appealing to them. This quality of
representing Celtic culture was enhanced by the Christianity of the Irish monks
since the European mainland was ripe for the growth of Christianity at the time
of their appearance. The practical
skills that the monks and following groups of émigrés had to offer to the
rulers and the population of the countries they went to were another reason the
émigrés were readily accepted and had a noticeable influence. The benefits of the skills of the Irish in
medicine, crafts and agriculture were immediate and self-evident.
The
elements of Celtic culture preserved by the Irish and brought by the Irish
émigrés to major European countries and the ancestral memory, desires and
directions of these countries at different historical moments and phases
complemented each other in a unique - and even remarkable, it can be said -
way, so that Irish émigrés had an extraordinary influence on the history of
Europe and the development of Western culture.
This influence extended to matters both large and small - from roles in
victories in decisive battles to the shape of household articles. If you look at history as a migration, you
can see the reason for this extraordinary influence of the Irish. A nomadic people who migrated to most parts
of Europe, the Celts possessed a core of cultural traits and abilities which
they adapted to the particular conditions of the different places they migrated
to. In such adaptations, the Celts did
not change so that their traits and abilities were dissipated. Rather, by the process of such adaptation,
the Celts came to dominate the areas they migrated to - so that Celtic culture
came to dominate most of Europe.
The
place of the Irish émigrés in the history and culture of Europe is
similar. In different historical times
and to diverse places, Irish men and women migrated, bringing with them the
core elements of their culture rooted in the ancient Celtic culture and
adapting to the historical and regional conditions they encountered. In the process of their adaptation, certain
characteristics of the Celts as transmitted by the Irish to Europe came to be
basic aspects of Western culture. In The
Wandering Irish in Europe, we give an overview of the place of the Irish by
focusing on particular influential Irish émigrés. So the reader can understand what the émigrés
brought to European culture, we treat to some extent Celtic and Irish
culture. And for readers to understand
the reasons and causes behind the Irish emigrations in different periods, we
summarize certain periods of Irish history.
We
hope that our book adds to knowledge of the place of the Irish in European
history and culture, and also to the knowledge of the formation and course of
Western culture.
As
we mentioned earlier, when we first undertook a study of Irish culture and
emigration, we were not planning to write a book. At this time, we were simply pursuing our
personal interests arising from our Irish ancestries. We read many books on different subjects
relating to Ireland; but this reading was based more on our feelings or
curiosities at different times rather than a systematic study. When we travelled to Ireland or France or
other countries of Europe, we visited national and local libraries to search
through relevant archives. Before meeting for the first time in 1991 while working on the
re-publication of Matthew J. Culligan's book The Quest for the Galloping
Hogan, both of us had spent many years pursuing our similar interest in
Irish history.
At
this time, after discussions which led to a growing sense of the
interconnection of the diverse material we had covered and the larger issues it
suggested, we decided to turn our informally pursued interest into a systematic
study. Peter Cherici had focused on
ancient and medieval Celtic-Irish history while Matthew J. Culligan had
gathered material on the Irish in Europe in the centuries after the Renaissance. It was then that we began to read and collect
books on Irish
histories, biographies of Irish people, Irish emigration, Irish and Celtic
culture, and histories of countries many Irish émigrés travelled to. These many books which were resources for The
Wandering Irish in Europe are listed in the Bibliography.
Besides
these books documented in the time of our formal study, there are also a number
of historical documents from European countries which were sources of this
book. Among these documents are edicts
by King Joao V of Portugal concerned rewards given to different members of the
émigré family named Hogan for outstanding activities of theirs; a French
military document about a duel between two officers of the Irish Brigade; and a
genealogy of Leopold O'Donnell, a notable descendant of Irish émigrés in
Spain. As these and a couple of other
similar documents were collected at the early stage of the research which
ultimately went into this book, we do not have precise references for where
they can be located. We can name the
European libraries where we found them, but cannot name the precise files. Librarians at these institutions may be able
to direct anyone interested in seeing the originals of these documents to where
they are kept. We do, however, have
photographs of the originals or good copies of them from which we can make
copies for anyone interested in these.
Requests for such copies can be made through the publisher.
Interviews
with descendants of Irish émigrés and other persons who know about the
activities of particular émigrés or the influence of Irish émigrés in different
countries were another source for the book.
Fernando Terry in Spain provided a great deal of information about his
ancestors, as did Philippe de MacMahon in France.
The
perspective on the Irish influence on European history and Western culture
presented in this book is derived from varied and numerous sources studied over
fifteen years. In order to keep our book
in the style for the general reader, which we wanted, we did not include
footnotes. We hope that the reader finds
that this makes the book more readable without detracting from the credibility
of the material. Besides, our
perspective comes from the accumulation of diverse, but interrelated, accounts
of the roles of Irish émigrés and understanding of fundamentals of Western
culture, not scholarly analysis. We
trust that the reader will come to the perspective we present the way that we
did - not by filling in the pieces of a historical puzzle (as with the question
"who first discovered America?"), but by the growing recognition of
what in the end is the undeniable phenomenon of the Irish influence on the
formation of Europe in light of the wealth of material in support of this
subject in our book.
We
were sustained over the years of our research not only by our interest in the
study from our Irish backgrounds, but also by the interest and support of
family members and friends. We would
also like to thank Henry Berry for the editorial hand he brought to our book. A freelance editor, he helped on our book
from conception to the final writing. As
he often told us, he wanted to have us do a book which awakened every reader to
the story we had to tell as he saw it materialize from our voluminous research.
We
hope we have succeeded in this.
Matthew
J. Culligan
Peter
Cherici
New
York, September 1998
_______________________
INTRODUCTION
See, cut in woods, through flood of twin horned Rhine
passed the keel and,
greased, slips over seas -
Heave
men! And let resounding echo sound our
heave!
The winds raise blasts, wild
rain-storms wreak their spite
but ready strength
of men subdues all -
Heave
men! And let resounding echo sound our
heave!
-
The Boat Song of Columbanus, c. 610
A.D.
One
of the first of a long line of Irish émigrés to strongly influence affairs on
the European continent was a monk named Columbanus. Accompanied by twelve of his followers, he
voyaged to France in 591 A.D., forever abandoning his native Ireland. Columbanus was forty-seven years old, an
advanced age for such a bold undertaking in an era when many people died young
from disease and hardship. But his
desire to perform missionary work seemed to meld with the penchant for
wandering in his Celtic heritage to create in him an overwhelming urge to
voyage abroad.
Columbanus
chose to leave behind the security of his monastery and the companionship of
his brother monks because travelling abroad was the only way he could become a
"White Martyr". This was a
uniquely Irish concept of how a man or woman could gain spiritual merit. Since monks like Columbanus enjoyed high
status and prestige in the Christian communities of Ireland, they could escape
the temptation of pride from their social prominence only by travelling to a
distant land where they would live humbly among strangers who would not give
them special status. These Irish monks
were not like the traditional "Red Martyrs" of the Christian faith
who were tortured and executed for their beliefs, securing eternal rewards
after enduring a relatively brief period of torment. Instead, the "White Martyrs"
suffered daily pangs of loss for the family and friends they would never see
again, an anguish they would carry with them all of their lives. According to the Celtic version of
Christianity, both Red and White Martyrs earned equal amounts of virtue.
The
urge which inspired Columbanus and his fellow monks to forsake their monastic
home and companions in Ireland for the unknown of continental Europe went
deeper than their professed desire to become White Martyrs for their Christian
faith. This urge to wander was a part of
their Celtic cultural heritage. For more
than a thousand years before them, the Celts had roamed extensively throughout
Europe and parts of Asia, spreading out from their traditional homeland in the
Danube River basin. When a new community
of Celts grew so large that the surrounding forests were stripped bare and the
streams polluted, some members of the community would leave to take the strain
off the dwindling resources and to find a new place where they could
settle. This cultural practice ingrained
in the Celts a readiness to move to new locations as a way to overcome
undesirable conditions and an ingenuity for adapting
to new circumstances and recognizing their promise. As generation after generation fell into this
pattern of migration, the idea of wandering became a part of the Celtic
worldview. It was seen not only as a
practical answer to troublesome conditions, but also as a challenge and
adventure testing the character and the ingenuity of an individual. The idea of wandering took a central place in
the lore of the Celts. It is reflected
in the intricate spirals and repetitive motifs of Celtic art. This idea of wandering could take the form of
an entire clan seeking a new place to live or an individual joining a foreign
army as a mercenary or journeying alone to explore the wonders of the world. The religious concept of the White Martyr
which prompted Columbanus and his followers to leave their homeland for France
was yet another manifestation of the Celtic desire to wander.
By
591 A.D., what is now modern France was broken into three kingdoms - Neustria
along the Atlantic coast, Austrasia in the north, and Bergundy in the central
and eastern part. Each kingdom was ruled
by a descendant of Clovis, a warlord who had temporarily united all of France
in 480 A.D. Each king bitterly hated his
cousins, and they endlessly fought petty wars that impoverished both peasants
and nobles alike.
Columbanus
came ashore in Neustria and continued to wander with his band of monks to the
Kingdom of Bergundy, ruled by Childerbert.
Trudging across France, Columbanus passed peasants whose poverty made
their lives an endless grind of toil and misery. His own native land of Ireland had been
relatively prosperous with its fertile soil producing an abundance of food
which easily supported farmers, scholars and nobility. The rolling hills and lush meadows of France
were capable of producing similarly large harvests, yet privation plagued both
Neustria and Burgundy. Despite constant
attention by the peasants, the fields where they grew wheat and rye produced
only small yields.
Eventually
Columbanus's journey brought him to King Childerbert's stronghold in the Saône
Valley. Although he called himself a
king, Childerbert did not have much wealth.
The general poverty of the region affected even the King. He could barely administer his realm. Childerbert had only a small amount of gold,
and he did not even have the benefit of adequate supplies of farm products or
farm animals which could have made up for his deficiency of precious
metals. The same primitive agricultural
methods Columbanus had encountered in his journey across France were practised
in Burgundy - which left little surplus crops for the King. Childerbert had to pay his troops and
retainers with parcels of land, further diminishing his holdings and his
revenues. Yet he needed the continued
military support of many men-at-arms for wars of both aggression and defence
with his neighbours. Donations to
bishops and priests were also necessary so that they would support the king in
his squabbles with rebellious nobles and rival monarchs.
Adding
to King Childerbert's difficulties in governing his realm was his domineering
mother, the Queen Regent Brunhilde.
Beautiful and ill-tempered, she controlled Childerbert and many of the
other nobles in Burgundy with the strength of her personality. Her sole concern was to ensure her personal
power. Historical accounts portray her
as a vicious and vindictive woman who used poison, torture and the garrotte to
eliminate anyone who displeased her. She
had been a princess from Visigoth Spain married off to Sigebert of Burgundy to
form an alliance. When Sigibert
mysteriously died from poison in 576 A.D., she became Queen Regent. Even after her son, Childerbert, came of age
and was made king, she remained a sinister power behind the throne, overseeing
his every move.
When
Columbanus explained to Childerbert that he had come to Burgundy to perform
missionary work, King Childerbert was greatly impressed with the monk's
spirituality, which sharply contrasted with the greed and the conniving of the
local priests. Because Childerbert could
make no decision without Brunhilde's approval, he urged his mother to let these
Irish wanderers stay in his land. He
sensed in these foreigners a source of knowledge and education that could make
his kingdom wealthy and strong.
Brunhilde's yielded to her son's wishes because she saw no threat to her
power from the Irish monks. She
permitted her son to grant Columbanus a remote plot of land where he could
found a monastery.
In
the Vosges hills of Alsace near modern Annegray, Columbanus settled with the
twelve followers who had accompanied him from Ireland. He chose to build his monastery on the ruins
of a Roman temple to Diana because the site was considered holy by the local
pagans. Celtic Christians often
incorporated pagan customs into their religious practice when these customs did
not contradict the fundamental beliefs of Christianity. The nobles and warriors in the royal court
gave this outpost little prospect for survival.
Surrounded by a thick and tangled forest, the monks laboured day and
night to clear the land in order to grow enough food to feed themselves. The soil was barren, and the first summer's
crop was meagre. But in later harvests,
the monks' patient husbandry produced fields of wheat and alfalfa. Each year they cleared more land until they
were cultivating large tracts and raising fat herds of cows, sheep and
chickens.
Agriculture
was one of the skills that Columbanus and his twelve Irish followers had
practised in the monasteries of Ireland.
Farming was essential to the survival of a monastery during a time when
there was little trade between communities.
In addition to learning Latin, Greek, mathematics and astronomy, the
monks had to master the fundamentals of planting, harvesting and animal care to
ensure that they could produce enough food for their tables.
The
Frankish tribe surrounding Columbanus' monastery and fields at Annegray were
known as the Suevians. Despite being an
outsider, Columbanus was accepted by them because he was quick to share his
knowledge of agriculture, medicine, crafts and other useful, beneficial
skills. Impoverished and barbaric even
by the primitive standards of the Franks, the Suevians were impressed by the
monks' peaceful way of life that reaped such evident material rewards as full
harvests. Before long, many young men of
the local tribe were asking Columbanus and his band of monks to be converted to
Christianity, believing that there was a connection between the religion and
the ability of the monks to provide regular, adequate meals. The Irish monks welcomed them into the
Christian faith despite the suspect motives of the Suevians. Soon there were so many novice monks to feed
and house that Columbanus had to found two new monasteries, one at Luxeuil and
another at Fontaine. All three of
Columbanus' French monasteries flourished throughout the Middle
Ages, with Fontaine lasting until the French Revolution when it was destroyed
by Republican extremists.
Despite
his notable achievements in the areas of agriculture and education and the high
regard he was held in by the Franks, Columbanus remained at heart a Christian
monk devoted to a spiritual ideal. As he
grew older, his missionary zeal became even stronger and he became a
fire-and-brimstone preacher who foretold dire consequences for anyone who
strayed from the Christian path of righteousness. His message offended many local bishops and
priests of the Arian and Roman sects who had become very materialistic. The contemporary historian Gregory of Tours
wrote that the Christian clergy was corrupt, openly
engaging in murder, theft and sexual excess.
Often they ignored the spiritual needs of the impoverished peasantry,
concentrating on the wealthy aristocrats who could give them land and gold.
Even
as he enjoyed the fruits of his success by establishing prosperous monasteries,
Columbanus was planting the seeds of his undoing. He frequently denounced the Frankish bishops
and priests in sermons that predicted divine retribution for their
misdeeds. Angry clerics countered by
denouncing him, and outraged bishops demanded that he appear before them for
judgement. Ignoring their challenges and
plots to discredit him, Columbanus was shunned by the clergy and their
supporters among the aristocracy.
While
this religious controversy was going on, King Childerbert died, and his son,
Theodoric, succeeded him as King of Burgundy.
The new king openly enjoyed relationships with many women. At the same time, Theodobert, another son of
Childerbert, became King of Austrasia.
Brunhilde continued to dominate her grandsons as she had her son,
maintaining control over both realms.
When
Columbanus learned of the loose sexual conduct of Theodoric, he began to
denounce the king along with his regular denunciations of the materialistic
local clergymen. Brunhilde could not
tolerate the spectacle of a foreign monk preaching against the king. As far as she was concerned, the words of
Columbanus were more seditious than spiritual.
So she demanded that Theodoric test the loyalty of Columbanus by asking
the monk to publicly bless the illegitimate sons of the royal household. When Columbanus refused to comply, as
Brunhilde was sure he would, she banished him and all of the Irish Celtic monks
from the kingdom.
Brunhilde
was as shrewd as she was wicked. In one
clever stroke, she rid her realm of an annoying troublemaker. But she allowed the monasteries that
Columbanus had founded to continue operating, inhabited only by Frankish monks
who had learned the Celtic Irish farming techniques. From Annegray, Luxeuil and Fontaine, the
knowledge of the improved methods of agriculture continued to spread throughout
Burgundy.
Columbanus
was determined to remain in Europe after his banishment. He wandered down the Rhine, settled in
Switzerland for a time, and founded a new monastery at a place called Bobbio in
the part of northern Italy known as Lombardy.
Wherever he settled, he was welcomed for his knowledge and learning, and
he was careful not to openly criticize the behaviour of any king or queen.
The
tale of Columbanus marks the beginning of the relationship between Irish
émigrés and European countries which would continue for the following fourteen
centuries. Columbanus's reasons for
leaving Ireland, his contributions to the local European culture, and the
tightrope he had to walk between fulfilling his aspirations and adapting to the
local authorities and society represent typical aspects of the story of Irish
emigration which endured throughout the medieval and early modern periods.
Like
Columbanus, many other Irish monks were prompted to pursue their calling in the
lands of continental Europe. These early
missionaries left Ireland for spiritual reasons - to fulfil their vision of the
White Martyr and to spread the Christian faith.
For the most part, later generations of Irish émigrés did not follow a
spiritual calling, but rather were driven from their homeland by oppressive
political, social, and economic conditions.
In the centuries following the Middle Ages, changing historical conditions
gave different waves and groups of Irish émigrés different motives and reasons
for leaving Ireland. But like the vision
of the White Martyr, the varying specific motives and reasons were
manifestations of the ancient Celtic desire to wander to different lands to
seek better fortunes and to test oneself.
The pattern of migration of the ancient Celts became a pattern of
emigration for Irish society in later centuries. Because of its link to the migration of the
Celtic tribes who were their forebears, emigration was a natural, acceptable,
and common practice in Irish society.
With its roots in Celtic culture, medieval and modern Irish society saw
emigration as an opportunity.
When
the people of Ireland ventured into different parts of Europe, they usually
found that their skills and viewpoints were highly valued. Sometimes they saw possibilities in commerce
or diplomacy that no-one had noticed before.
Other times, they offered competence and loyalty, earning the respect of
both nobles and peasants. Wherever they
went, they instinctively recognized the needs of their adopted lands and took
positive steps to fill these needs.
Their well-balanced political sense and their holistic approach to
spirituality helped the Irish to fit into the cultures in the lands where they
settled, thus allowing the Irish émigrés of both the medieval and early modern
periods to become a distinctive and enduring influence in European society.
The
basis for the success of the Irish émigrés throughout Europe was their education. Learning in all fields - philosophy,
mathematics, and language primary among these - was a central concern of Irish
culture. Compared with the educational
standards of the early modern era, the émigrés had practically the same level
of learning as the scholars of the universities in Europe. In most cases, however, the Irish differed
from scholars and academics by having an eclectic educational background,
rather than one focused on a specialized subject. The mix of intellectual disciplines and practical
skills which were a part of the education of the early Druids and which were
the model for the education of the Christian monks of Ireland remained the
model for Irish education into later eras.
This mix of intellectual training and practical skills enabled the Irish
to be effective in a range of areas beyond the disciplines and formal education
in universities. The eclectic basis of
their schooling came into use in fields ranging from military service to agriculture
to commerce. With their educational
background, in military affairs, Irish émigrés could take advantage of the
local terrain to deploy an effective defensive position; the background would
enable them to implement productive agricultural practices across large parts
of a country. In the field of commerce,
the émigrés brought with them an international perspective, as well as contacts
with Irish émigrés in other countries, all of which broadened the economic
activity of the countries where they settled.
As artists, Irish émigrés were able to represent by pictures or words
feelings and experiences that were universal.
By
filling needs of the various European societies, the Irish were accepted into
them. It was usually the royalty or the
aristocrats of the societies who recognized the value of the émigrés and were
best able to put to use what they had to offer.
In many cases, émigrés were given or reached positions of military and
political leadership. In addition to
their evident military or political abilities, the Irish émigrés were untouched
by palace intrigue and were not tied to any faction which might be manoeuvring
for power or impeding a monarch's wishes.
Thus, besides being effective in whatever tasks they were assigned, the
Irish gave their loyalty only to the monarch.
As long as the monarchs and warlords of Europe saw the Irish as
non-threatening, they were tolerated.
But if the Irish émigrés in their service became involved with a
bothersome faction or tried to change any of the society's basic cultural
practices or beliefs, they would quickly lose their position and be ordered out
of the society.
Although
they had a high regard for education and gave educated persons such as monks
and teachers a high status, the Irish were basically a practical people. Because of their Celtic heritage with its
tradition of migrating and wandering, the émigrés were able to assess the
dangers and the opportunities presented by a new situation - and thus they were
usually able to make the best of their circumstances. Also, the Celtic child-rearing practices of
gossiprage and fosterage made the émigrés accustomed to dealing with persons
outside of the narrow context of the family; and loyalty to the clan enabled
the Irish to give their devotion to the structures and inter-workings of larger
entities such as a monarchy or state.
That the Irish were not enmeshed in nostalgia was another advantage they
had as émigrés. They did not pine for
the life they left behind; nor did they endeavour to recreate a facsimile of it
in their new lands. The Celtic lore
involving shape-shifting and the view of life as a journey, represented in the
intricate spirals of the Celtic artists which had been carried into Irish
culture, led the émigrés to see their changed circumstances not as a loss or a
change of the fundamentals of their lives, but simply as another appearance of
them. As the spirals of the Celtic
artists suggest, the past, present and future are interwoven. This view led the Irish to see each new
situation as a step in the journey of life which presented new challenges and
new opportunities.
The
Irish contributions to European civilization were widespread - and they are
immeasurable. Because the early Irish
emigrated with a spiritual purpose and later émigrés gave their loyalty and
devoted their skills to the monarchs and governments of the different European
countries, the Irish do not stand out the way individuals of other cultures do
in the history of the countries where they settled. The breadth of contributions from many Irish
were absorbed into the cultures of the various parts of Europe so that they
have become a part of them rather than noted particularly as "Irish
contributions". During the Middle Ages, Irish monks and scholars preserved a vast
amount of learning which might otherwise have been lost forever. They were also the founders and
administrators of many universities.
Attracted or invited to the court of Charlemagne in France, Irish
scholars, intellectuals and clerics had a significant role in the Carolingian
Renaissance of the 9th century, which is often looked to as the origin or
Western civilization. The hundreds of
monasteries established by Irish monks all over the Continent not only provided
spiritual guidance, but served as centres of learning and culture.
Irish
ideas about the independence of individuals and communal government were
reflected in the artistic and political ideas which emerged in the European
Renaissance that brought the Middle Ages to an
end. These Irish ideas developed into
the concepts of democratic government and society in the latter part of this
era. During the early modern period of
1500 to 1800, large numbers of Irish soldiers and notable diplomats helped to
shape the nations which were arising in Europe.
Because of their numbers, the regularity of their emigration, and their
practical skills and ability to fill the needs of the countries they travelled
to, the Irish émigrés had an effect on Western European culture greater than
any other group from outside of the indigenous populations. The Irish influence is often not recognized
because it has been so thoroughly absorbed into European culture. Because Irish culture was in many ways the
successor of Celtic culture, the Irish émigrés can be viewed as bringing
aspects of this Celtic culture back to the people of Europe whose roots in
Celtic culture had been lost under the dominance of the Roman Empire or was
displaced by invading German tribes.
To
understand what it was particularly that Columbanus and the subsequent Irish
émigrés brought to Europe, and why they were usually readily accepted as valued
members of the different societies in a way that no other emigrant groups were,
we must go back three thousand years before Columbanus to the plains and
valleys and mountains of prehistoric Europe.
During
the Bronze Age - about 2000 B.C. - the Celts began to become a distinctive
group within the Indo-European people who had migrated from the steppes of
Russia to nearly all of Europe and parts of Asia Minor and India. By 1000 B.C., centres of this Celtic culture
had grown around forts in Hallstatt, Austria, and in La Tène, Switzerland. The concentration of Celtic tribes in these
areas and the permanence of the settlements allowed Celtic culture to develop in
ways which had not been possible in preceding eras. It was in the Hallstatt and La Tène regions
where Celtic culture emerged by developing cultural traits which diverged from
those of the older Indo-European culture and which distinguished the Celtic people
from all of the other branches of the Indo-Europeans which had taken root in
areas of Europe, Asia Minor, and India.
In
these regions, the clans, the agricultural methods, the style of warfare, the
independent spirit, the equality of women, and the pagan spirituality which
have come to be recognized as the hallmarks of Celtic culture were first
developed. It was this culture which
would be preserved and further refined on the distant island of Ireland. At the time, Ireland was known as Inisfall,
or North Island - and to the Celts who had spread across continental Europe and
whose culture was flourishing in the central European centres, it was little
more than a remote, quasi-mythological land.
CHAPTER
1
The
Civilization of the Celts
To
live, to err, to fail, to triumph,
To
recreate life out of life
-
James Joyce
THE ORIGINS OF THE
CELTS
Because
the Irish inherited many of the traits and outlooks of their Celtic ancestors
and carried these into modern times, many aspects of the Celtic way of life had
a remarkable historical continuity.
These customs and beliefs that originated in the distant past endured
the unpredictable currents of time and history to serve the Irish as cultural
moorings in both the medieval and modern worlds. When Irish émigrés found themselves in
strange and exotic lands, Celtic traditions long embedded in their society
helped them deal with their new circumstances.
The
saga of the Celts began in the southern steppes of Russia more than 8000 years
before Christ. At that time, the Celts
were not a culturally distinct people.
They had yet to emerge from the great tribe of nomads called
Indo-Europeans whose language, behaviour, and view of the world would become
the foundation of the heritage of all Europeans. Between 5000 and 3000 B.C., the Indo-Europeans
began to migrate westward in successive waves which broke into small groups as
they travelled further from their homeland.
Indo-Europeans
were patriarchal and warlike. Their
principal gods were males who were usually portrayed as warriors. Indo-European society was organized into
clans led by a chieftain. In this rigid
social hierarchy, warriors enjoyed the highest status while women held the
lowest. A man's wealth was measured by
the number of cattle he owned. To
increase the amount of grazing land available for their herds, clans sent bands
of mounted war parties to conquer neighbouring tribes. Because the Indo-European warriors were so
successful in defeating the less warlike societies they encountered, they
became the dominant society in Europe; and hence their beliefs and customs
became the foundation for all later European civilizations. The acceptance of their symbols throughout
Europe which continued into the modern world demonstrates the enduring impact
of the Indo-European way of life. Black
was the colour of death; evil was represented by the serpent; the bull
illustrated male virility; and the sun was the emblem of life.
During
the millennia of their migrations, some of the Indo-Europeans went south into
Turkey and settled; while later generations of the Turkish branch resumed
roaming as far as India. Other groups
travelled into Greece and Italy. By 3000
B.C., the Indo-Europeans had spread across all of Europe and much of Western
Asia.
After
this period of migration, when they had been settled in an area for several
generations, the people who had been Indo-Europeans began to develop varied
cultural traits which would distinguish them from one another to some degree. As time passed, the far-flung groups
originating from the Indo-Europeans of the steppes became more and more
distinct from one another in overt ways.
The groups developed their own languages, building styles, clothing,
tools and weapons - and even customs and mythology after a time. The link of these varied people to their
Indo-European origin could not be erased, but as time when on, it became more
and more attenuated.
The
group of Indo-Europeans which settled in Central Europe along the Danube River
was the group that would become known as the Celts. The Celtic language, the fierce warrior
ethic, and the clan structure which was more or less a large extended family
were aspects of their Indo-European heritage which they retained, although in a
refined or modified form. Aspects of
Celtic culture developed in this central European setting that varied from
other Indo-Europeans were a relatively high status for women, a decentralized
system of government and the tripartite nature of their deities. This period of cultural development, during
which the distinguishing cultural elements of the Celts formed, lasted for
roughly a little more than a millennium.
When
between 800 and 600 B.C. the resources of the Danube River region became
strained by the growing population of the Celts, bands of Celts and larger
groups, sometimes entire clans, moved out of this incubator of Celtic
culture. From the area of Hallstatt,
Austria, which by 800 B.C. had become the centre of Celtic society, the Celts
migrated to other parts of Europe.
Towards the end of this time of Celtic expansion throughout Europe,
about 500 B.C., the centre of Celtic culture had shifted to the La Tène region
of western Switzerland. The westward
expansion of the Celts primarily from these two cultural centres brought them to
the Atlantic islands of Britain and Ireland between 500 and 300 B.C. By this time, the distinctive culture of the
Celts formed in the Danube Basin had spread over all parts of Europe. Wherever the Celts settled, they carried with
them the same cultural practices and beliefs that had developed in the Danube
Basin.
The
Celts got their name from the Greeks.
When the Greek geographer Herodotus of Halicarnassus (c. 490 - 425 B.C.)
encountered a group of strangers from the north, he called the Keltoi,
which meant strangers. The Romans named
the Celts in the area from the Alps of northern Italy to the Atlantic Ocean, in
what is roughly present-day France, the Galli, or Gauls, after the Roman
name for the area. Because the Romans
regarded the Celts from other areas as culturally similar to the Gauls, with
the same basic language, social structure, weapons and ornamentation, the
Romans used names for these Celts containing the root "Gal". When the Romans encountered a group of Celts
who had migrated into Turkey after being defeated by the Greeks in a battle
near Delphi in 279 B.C., the Romans called these Celts the Galatians. For the Celts of Spain, the Romans used the
name Gallicians. However, some Roman
geographers and historians relied on Greek writers for their information and
referred to the Celts of Spain as Celtiberians.
The Celts described themselves simply as tuatha, or people.
The
waves of Celtic migration came to an end about 300 B.C. From the
This
vast territory was not an empire in the usual sense of this term. For the Celts had not set out from their
Danube Basin settlements with political or imperialistic ambitions, but rather
for the purpose of finding new land and resources for the growing population. Although there was a pattern to the
migration, it was not systematic. The
pattern was determined not by the desire for conquest, but always by the needs
for new land and resources as populations of existing Celtic settlements grew
beyond the capacity of local resources to support them; and a segment of these
settlements would in turn migrate farther westward or north-westwards to a new
location. Although in their aim of
finding a suitable location to support a new settlement, the Celts readily
drove off the inhabitants of a location they found desirable, the Celts did not
take on the position of a "ruling class", but followed their
customary tribal way of life.
Although
Celtic tribes and clans dominated most of Europe, their tradition of
independence and their communal form of government based on the clan precluded
a political organization or network throughout this area. Nonetheless, because the far-flung Celtic
people all had the same origin and followed the same way of life, there was a
homogeneity and stability over this area.
Wars between Celtic tribes were fought by small numbers of warriors; the
vanquished peoples did not become strong enough to challenge Celtic dominance;
and the Celts occupied all the land that was available to them, so their
migrations came to an end.
Evidence
of the Celtic migrations and settlements has come largely from Celtic grave
sites, often marked by a heap of stones which archaeologists call a
tumulus. Celtic chieftains and warriors
were sometimes buried beneath vertical boulders capped with a large flat rock -
a type of grave site called a dolmen.
Most of these graves have been found in clusters along rivers and
streams. The Celts often buried their
dead by rivers or streams because they believed that flowing water weakened the
barrier between this world and the Otherworld.
Believing in reincarnation, the Celts thought that the dead could most
easily return to this world near a place where the water flowed. For the needs and solace of the dead during
their time in the Otherworld waiting to be reborn, the Celts buried with them
tools, clothing, weapons, jewellery, vases and other familiar articles.
The
grave sites along with the articles in them provided a guide by which the
migrations of the Celts could be traced, and helped considerably in reconstructing
the way of life of the Celts. Many of
the blanks in the picture of Celtic history and society began to be filled in
when numbers of Celtic grave sites were discovered in Central Europe in the
late 1800's. Assessment of iron ploughs
along with other findings in the graves led archaeologists to the conclusion
that the Celts had been cultivating crops from 1000 B.C. The durability of the iron ploughs compared
to the bronze agricultural tools of other cultures of the region also led
archaeologists to conclude that the Celts practised advanced agricultural
methods. The Celtic migrations were
linked to these advanced agricultural methods, which would have yielded an
increased food supply, leading to an increasing population outgrowing the
resources of an area, and thus prompting the initial migrations.
Findings
in these grave sites and other discovered later also disclosed that Celtic
society was advanced in other ways compared to the surrounding cultures. Blades of weapons were made of iron, when
weapons of most other cultures were still being made of bronze. The intricately designed handles of weapons
and the designs of jewellery showed a superior skill in metalworking.
Because
of the steadiness of the Celtic migration and the advanced practical skills of
the Celts, Celtic culture came to dominate most of western and central
Europe. It continued to dominate until
the Celts were conquered by the Romans, first in Spain by Scipio in 204 B.C.
and later in Gaul by Caesar about 53 B.C.
After Caesar's conquests, Celtic society was confined to parts of
central Europe, around the original Celtic lands of the Danube Basin, and the
islands of Britain and Ireland. After
German tribes pushing down from the north overran the Danube Basin lands and
Rome conquered much of Britain, Ireland became the centre of Celtic
culture. From 800 B.C. when the Celts
first spread out from their Danube Basin settlements until about 50 B.C.,
Celtic culture exerted its influence on Europe mainly because it was mostly
benign, its clan structure offered a balance of security and independence, its
mythology and spirituality were relevant, and it had much to offer in the way
of agricultural methods and practical skills.
The tolerance, capabilities, practicality, skills, and power of example
the Irish would bring with them when they emigrated to Europe centuries later
were evident in the Celtic tribes and clans which had spread across Europe.
GREEK AND ROMAN
DOCUMENTATION
Archaeological
evidence confirms that the Celts were a dominant force in Central and Northern
Europe during the first millennium B.C.
But the picture derived from this evidence is far from complete. Having no written language, the Celts left no
documents relating to their way of life - only fragments of artefacts. Observations by Greek and Roman historians
help to fill in the picture to some extent.
But these observations have to be taken with due scepticism because
these historians were biased against the Celts.
Taking the prevailing perspective of their own cultures which regarded
themselves as being self-evidently superior, the Greek and Roman historians saw
the Celts as crude and primitive; although they did acknowledge their fierce
warrior pride and joy in fighting. Roman
historians especially played up this warrior image to explain the defeats that
Roman legions periodically suffered at the hands of the Celts.
Greek
and Roman historians did not rely exclusively on first-hand sources such as
their own observations. They often based
large portions of their work on the writings of earlier historians. Thus, when it comes to the ancient historians
who wrote about the ancient Celts, it is difficult to sort truth from
half-truth and fact from misconception.
With some historians, the Celts appear as fierce savages lurking in
untamed forests; while other historians saw them as noble, but unsophisticated,
warriors.
In
his Historiai, or Researches, the Greek historian Herodotus of
Halicarnassus wrote that the Celts occupied a vast area north of Greece. He commented on their "simplicity"
and the absence of cities and money in their culture. Coming from the perspective of a complex
urban society of the Mediterranean, he believed that the wandering lifestyle of
the primitive Celts promoted honesty and innocence. In the Eudemian Ethics, Aristotle
gives an ambivalent portrait of the Celts - admiring their courage, but in the
same breath questioning their sanity. He
remarked that "anybody would be mad or completely bereft of sensibility if
he feared nothing: neither earthquake nor wave of the sea, as they say of the
Celts." Aristotle was referring to
the practice of some Celtic warriors of battling against the sea or the land
with their swords. The warriors believed
these features of nature were living beings.
They would beat their swords against the seashore or slash at incoming
waves; or they would beat their swords against the ground, particularly when
the earth tremored.
The
Roman historian Diodorus (c. 60 - c. 21 B.C.) was the first to describe the
physical appearance of the Celts. In his
Bibliotheca Historica, he wrote they were "tall of body with
rippling muscles and white of skin, and their hair is
blond. But not only naturally so ...
they also make it their practice by artificial means to increase the distinguishing
colour which nature has given it ... they wash their hair in lime water. The clothing they wear is striking - shirts
which they have dyed and embroidered in varied colours, and breeches ... and
they were striped coats, fastened by a buckle at the shoulder."
Greek
and Roman historians often portrayed the Celts as barbarians. Their criticisms were usually exaggerated and
their praises were granted only grudgingly.
Because Roman legions were frequently defeated in battle by hordes of
Celtic warriors, classical historians portrayed the Celts as formidable
warriors. A Roman historian of the first
century B.C. named Poseidonius noted that the Celts were "belligerent in
their customs. They often have single
combat at dinner in which real injury is possible and even the death of the
combatants. There is great rivalry for
the champion's portion."
Besides
the Roman and Greek historians, Mediterranean artists have also left an image
of the Celts. In sculpture, the Celts
were identified by a torc around their necks which was a sign of
leadership. Statues and scenes on
friezes often depict Celtic leaders releasing captured prisoners, portraying
the Celts with a primitive fierceness balanced by courage and a personal code
of honour. A Roman frieze from Civitas
Alba in northern Italy shows Roman gods driving Celtic raiders out of a temple,
but the Celts appear defiant despite the daunting supernatural power arrayed
against them.
Greek
and Roman descriptions of the Celts often vary from the archaeological evidence
and the oral tradition of the Celts which survived long enough to be recorded
by Celtic Christian monks during the medieval period. Nonetheless, writings of the Greek and Romans
record how other societies viewed the Celts.
Weighed with the archaeological evidence, such writings help in giving a
fuller understanding of the Celts and their culture.
WOMEN IN CELTIC
CULTURE
Many
other Romans, not only the historians and artists, were intrigued by the Celts who
dwelled along the northern fringes of their Empire. They were fascinated by the Celtic way of
life, by the practices and beliefs that seemed so strange, so different from
the customs of Mediterranean society. Of
particular interest was the behaviour of Celtic women, which Roman observers
often found scandalous.
While
Celtic society was a patriarchy, women enjoyed higher status than in other
cultures descended from the Indo-Europeans.
They had the right to bear arms, form contracts, and engage in a profession
such as physician or scholar. On the
field of battle, women warriors often led troops. In the epic poem Táin Bó Cualinge,
Queen Maev of the Irish province of Connaught instigated a war with
neighbouring Ulster and oversaw the battle of her troops. To try to drive the Roman invaders from
Britain, Queen Boudicca led the Iceni tribe into battle.
When
Christianity first came to Ireland, women were allowed into the priesthood and
given a full spiritual role and full spiritual powers, such as administering
the sacraments and consecrating the host.
Since women could become Druids in the older Celtic society, the Celts
expected that women could naturally become spiritual leaders in the new
religion. Although this practice of
letting women into the priesthood was objectionable to the Roman Christians,
the turmoil following the collapse of the Roman Empire during the early part of
the Dark Ages, when Christianity was becoming widespread in Ireland, prevented
them from interfering with Celtic customs.
During the 5th century, the quasi-mythical Brigid was elevated to the
position of bishop so that she might consecrate other female priests without
having to allow any men into her enclave of celibate females living at her
monastery in Kildare. For the next
several centuries, the Abbesses of Kildare who succeeded her had the authority
of a bishop. As late as 703 A.D., women
were still present in the priesthood and some of them achieved high status in
the clerical hierarchy. The Venerable
Bede records in his Opera Historica that Beverly, who was Bishop of
Hexham, ordained him a priest in that year.
The last records of women serving as priests are from the 8th century,
after which Roman Christianity began to exert a stronger influence on Celtic
Christian practices.
Although
women were denied the opportunity to become priests when the Roman version of
Christianity gained ascendancy over the Celtic version, women continued to
remain their status in the traditional Celtic culture. One prime example of the role and influence
of women in this culture was their ability to shame a warrior or other man who
was behaving dishonourably by becoming partially, or sometimes fully, naked
before him. In such an instance, a woman
would stand before the man and bare her breasts or more of her body as if the
man were forcing her to disrobe. In the Táin
Bó Cualinge, the destructive rage of the warrior Cúchulain faded when he was confronted by women who
had bared themselves in front of him.
But when Celtic women assumed that this practice would produce shame in
non-Celtic warriors, the results were disastrous. At the siege of Gergovia in Spain when the
Romans were mistreating their Celtic prisoners, Celtic women descended from the
walls of the city and bared their breasts to try to shame the Romans. But instead of feeling disgrace, the Romans
ravaged the women, responding to their nakedness as a
stimulation to rape.
Marriage
did not constrict the rights of women.
Virginity was not important as a criteria to
determine the desirability of a woman as a wife. Dowries were passed to the husband before the
bonding ceremony, but remained the property of the woman. If a woman found the marriage dissatisfying,
she could easily divorce her husband, taking her dowry with her along with all
other property she had acquired independently from her husband. The purpose of the Celtic marriage was
children, and a woman could find grounds for divorce in a wide variety of
circumstances which interfered with procreation. Male impotence, sterility, homosexuality and
obesity were sufficient to dissolve a marriage.
In addition, a Celtic woman could also form legally-sanctioned
relationships for procreation with several men at the same time, a polyandrous
custom that Romans and Greeks found shameful and outrageous.
While
most of the descendants of the Indo-Europeans traced their ancestry through
their fathers, the Celts traced their lineage through their mothers. A mythological Celtic king was known as
Cónchobar mac Nessa, Cónchobar son of Nessa, his mother. Even Christ was referred to as mac Mhuire,
the son of Mary. The custom reflected
the fact that children could never truly know the identity of their fathers. Since women in Celtic society could choose
the person who impregnated them, and often had multiple sexual partners to
increase the chances of procreation, no man could be absolutely certain if any
child was indeed his offspring.
In
the patriarchal societies surrounding the Celts, the rough equality between the
genders in Celtic society was scorned by Roman writers and historians as
further evidence of their barbarism.
This difference with respect to women between Celtic-Irish culture and
the Romanized cultures of Europe continued through the medieval period and into
modern times. When Irish women began
emigrating from Ireland as the wives of soldiers and merchants who made up the
large majority of the émigrés in the 17th century, they were restricted to the
roles of housekeepers, mothers, and wives in keeping with the view of women in
the patriarchal societies of Europe.
Only within the Irish communities were Irish women given their customary
status and able to engage in activities open to them in Irish society. Women could act as physicians only in their
own communities. There were also
occasions when the wives of Irish soldiers took part in battles, temporarily
taking on the role of the female combatants of ancient Celtic culture.
THE CELTIC FAMILY
The Celts had a strong family structure based on the
extended family. It was not unusual for
sons and daughters to reside with their parents even after they grew into
adulthood and formed their own families.
A Celtic extended family included everyone in a clan who could trace
their descent from a common ancestor, even if the ancestor lived many
generations in the past. This family and
clan loyalty was reflected by Celtic law making each member of a clan
responsible for the behaviour of other clan members.
To
teach the children to behave in accordance with the norms of Celtic society and
not to bring disgrace upon the clan, the Celts followed a child-rearing custom
called gossiprage. The adults constantly
observed a child's conduct and reported to the parents both the good and the
bad behaviour. Within the local area of
a Celtic settlement, every adult assumed a degree of responsibility for raising
children by acting as a surrogate parent, even if the degree of kinship was
remote.
Fosterage
was another child-rearing practice of the Celts, whereby a child was formally
placed in a household of another clan.
Young Celtic men or women placed in fosterage lived as an adopted member
of the clan until they were adult.
Sometimes fosterage was used to form an alliance between clans. Other times it was used so children could
learn a particular skill from their adopted parents. Both gossiprage and fosterage demonstrated a
high degree of community involvement in family affairs which caused children to
develop loyalty to the entire clan.
The
Celtic practice of fosterage helped the Irish to adjust to life in European
societies. With their familiarity with
this age-old Celtic practice, new émigrés saw Irish communities abroad as large
families to whom they could easily attach themselves while getting their
bearings in the foreign lands. When the
émigrés were ready to take a larger role in their new societies, this step was
taken smoothly because the émigrés readily gave their loyalty and services to a
monarchy or nation, which they viewed as an enlarged clan. Because by custom the Irish were loyal to
clans and received loyalty in return and were used to interacting with all
types of persons beyond the unity of the family, Irish émigrés readily adapted
to their new circumstances and opportunities in the different societies of
Europe.
But
even after emigrating to
The
bonds of the Irish with their extended families enabled many Irish émigrés to
thrive in the countries they journeyed to.
It gave the Irish a sense of familiarity and comfort in their new
lands. In so doing, it served as a means
for adapting to them and also as a foundation for taking an initiative in their
various fields of endeavour.
CELTIC RULERS AND
WARRIORS
The
Celts developed a form of government suited for the small, independent
communities of their agrarian society.
The families in an area formed a clan cluster whose members would elect
a chieftain. If he was not a capable
leader, the clan replaced him by electing another chief. When threatened by an enemy, the clan chiefs
would elect a warlord to lead them into battle.
After the war ended, the warlord relinquished his authority.
In
those regions of Ireland and Britain where Celtic culture survived the longest,
it was nonetheless affected by the form of government of the cultures that
dominated parts of Europe, including parts of the British Isles. This form of government was a hereditary
monarchy. Following this form, clan
chieftains who had been elected became petty kings whose position was filled by
their eldest son upon their death. This
development in Celtic culture rarely extended beyond the clan. No charismatic or powerful ruler rose to unite
a number of the clans into a permanent kingdom or nation.
The
closest the Irish came to a united system of government was when clan chiefs
began electing a High King during the early Middle Ages, about the 5th
century. Mythology tells of even earlier
High Kings in Ireland who behaved more as local warlords than monarchs by
engaging in frequent wars with rival clans.
The authority of the High King was limited and his effectiveness as a
ruler depended on his ability to persuade the clan chieftains to agree with his
decisions. In matters affecting all of
the clans, the High King had to call a convention of chieftains to decide the
issues and could not act on his own initiative.
The
failure of the Irish to form a unified, cohesive government is one of the main
reasons for the surge in Irish emigration in the late Middle
Ages. Acting independently from one
another, the clans were unable to resist the Anglo-Norman invasion of the 12th
century. Although the invaders were
vastly outnumbered by the Celts, the Anglo-Normans permanently established
themselves in many parts of Ireland.
Once all of the clans were defeated, the Anglo-Norman overlords
instituted a strict rule decreed by the English Crown. By this rule, the Irish had negligible
political and civil rights. Farmers
could arbitrarily have their land taken from them, and Irishmen could hold no
political or judicial office. This led
to ineffective rebellions by the Irish against England during the closing
centuries of the medieval period. By the
early modern era, the Irish came to realize that they were not going to free
themselves from English oppression and they began to emigrate
in large numbers to various countries of
Although
they were ineffective in their wars with other societies, such as the Normans
and before them, the Vikings and the Romans, the fierceness and bravery of the
Celtic warriors was often noted by those they fought against. In his work Geography, the Greek
Strabo wrote that "the whole race is war-mad, and both high-spirited and
quick for battle.... For those that wish to defeat them by stratagem, they
become easy to deal with. In fact,
irritate them when, where, and by what pretext you please and you have them
ready to risk their lives with nothing to help them but might and daring."
The
Celts favoured individual combat between opposing champions instead of the
coordinated deployment of disciplined units.
Julius Caesar was struck by the tactics of the Celtic charioteers. In writing about one of his encounters with
the Celts in his conquest of Gaul, Caesar described these charioteers as
driving "in all directions hurling spears.
Generally, they succeeded in throwing the ranks of their opponents into
confusion just with the terror caused by their galloping horses and the din of
the wheels. They make their way through
their own cavalry, then jump down from their chariots and fight on foot ...
thus they have the mobility of cavalry and the staying power of infantry." As Hannibal in his invasion of the Italian
peninsula and as Caesar himself recognized in his own use of Celtic warriors in
his army, with appropriate leadership and used in certain ways in warfare, the
Celts made formidable soldiers. But
their loose, compulsive and sporadic style of warfare was no match for the
organization and persistence of Roman legions and other well-disciplined
enemies the Celts faced in their history.
While
a loose political organization based on clans was suited for the Celtic way of
life, it did not allow the Celts to muster an effective defence when attacked
by the legions of Rome. This was
particularly evident when Julius Caesar easily conquered Gaul in a way that
began in 58 B.C. Some Celtic clans sided
with the Romans while other clans watched with indifference as their neighbours
were overrun by the invaders. By 53 B.C.
Caesar believed that Gaul was pacified.
But the clan chiefs had finally awakened to the danger posed by Rome. They elected Vercingetorix of the clan
Arverni to be their warlord. Under his
leadership, twenty-nine Celtic clans revolted against Rome in 52 B.C. Caesar's legions were soon surrounded in a
fortified camp, defending themselves against constant Celtic attacks. But after suffering a large number of
casualties without annihilating the Romans, the Celtic chieftains withdrew
their support of Vercingetorix and returned to their homes. Vercingertorix was captured by Caesar and
ritually executed in Rome as an example to dissuade other potential Celtic
warlords from defying Rome.
Although
Caesar admired the courage of the Celts in Gaul, he was disdainful of the way
that they gathered military intelligence and made important tactical
decisions. He wrote in his Commentaries,
"in the town, a crowd [of Celts] gathers around traders and forces them to
say what country they are from and what information they have gathered
there. Influenced by these reports, even
when they are hearsay, the Gauls frequently adopt plans about important matters
which they are bound to regret almost immediately.... They are slaves to
unsubstantiated rumours and most of the people they question make up answers
they think will please them." This
tendency of the Celtic warriors to make decisions based on unreliable
information enabled Caesar to deceive them as to the strength and deployment of
his forces.
At
times, Celtic warriors from different clans would join together to form a
sodality. This was a band whose members
followed a charismatic leader and closely supported each other in combat. But the warrior sodality was more than a tactical
unit. It was also a way of life based on
honour among the members of the sodality and loyalty to a military ideal that
superseded allegiance to clan or kin.
These warrior groups formed an integral part of Celtic society, distinct
from the social classes of nobles, scholars and peasants. The concept was immortalized by the hero of
one Irish myth names Finn MacCumhail.
His young warriors called themselves the Fianna and were led by his son,
Oisín. In times of peace, they practised
their military skills by hunting and fighting in lands far from their own clan
territories. When Finn's land was
threatened by enemies either mortal or supernatural, the individual champions
of the Fianna vied with each other for the privilege of engaging in a death struggle
to protect Finn's territory. Most of the
warrior sodalities were exclusive male fraternities who disdained the company
of women. But the Irish epic poem Táin
Bó Cualinge mentioned a female warrior band led by a woman named Scáthach,
who also trained the hero Cúchulain in the use of weapons. This mythical female warrior sodality
demonstrated the level of equality between men and women in ancient Celtic
society.
The
warrior sodalities provided a socially acceptable outlet for young Celtic men
with an excess of leisure time on their hands.
They gave warriors military training while forging bonds with other
young people from different clans.
During times of war, the sodalities provided a highly-trained force that
was prepared to engage an invader while other warriors gathered to meet the
foe. In
Because
of the Celtic tradition of the warrior sodality, many Irish émigrés were
prompted to join the armies of different European countries. In some cases, so many émigrés filled the
ranks of an army that they were made into a special military unit. There were also instances of émigré soldiers
presenting themselves as a unified unit, complete with Irish officers. The model for these all-Irish military units
was the warrior sodality of traditional Celtic culture. Although these fighting forces wore the
uniforms of a foreign land and were often led by foreign officers, the strong
bonds of camaraderie among their members and the fighting spirit they found in
the company of one another was the same as with the medieval warrior sodalities
which bravely, and sometimes desperately, tried to keep Vikings and
Anglo-Normans from occupying Irish soil.
There were times in European history when such Irish military units
turned the tide of battles, and in some cases played a major part in winning a
war. At Cremona in 1701, the Irish
Brigade of France transformed defeat into victory by driving the Austrians from
the city; and the Ultonia Regiment of Spain blocked a critical supply line of
Napoleon's army by withstanding a year-long French siege of Gerona.
By
the early modern era, Irish soldiers had adapted to the methods of contemporary
warfare. They no longer approached the
field of battle as champions seeking fame and glory in individual combat
against an enemy champion, but rather plunged into battle as a cohesive,
coordinated fighting unit. Such a unit's
movements and objectives were usually a part of an overall battle plan. But in recognition of the exceptional
courage and enterprise of the Irish soldiers, in most cases their units were
given wide latitude in their actions on the battlefield.
Because
of the fierce loyalty of the Irish émigrés to their adopted lands, the kings
and queens of Europe were not concerned about enlisting the services of so many
foreigners in their armies. The Irish
were not mercenaries offering their swords to the highest bidder. Instead they generally fought for the benefit
of their adopted lands and for the kings and queens they had sworn allegiance
to. Even when they found themselves in
combat with other Irish émigrés, their sense of duty to their adopted
countries, which they saw as their foster clans, prevented any compromise with
their cousins and former neighbours.
The
casual political system and the style of combat of the Irish were unable to
stand up to the powerful Anglo-Norman forces which invaded Ireland in the 12th
century. The Celtic virtues of
individuality and clan ties became fatal weaknesses in the increasingly complex
and highly-organized societies of the late Middle Ages
and the early modern era. Although these
Celtic virtues could not save Ireland, they did save a number of foreign
monarchs and societies when the émigrés put them to the service of their
adopted lands. As with other virtues and
skills, the military abilities of the Irish émigrés enabled them to take
leading roles in the armies of foreign lands.
THE DRUIDS AND
EDUCATION
The
Druids were the spiritual leaders in Celtic society, and were given a social
status equivalent to the warriors. They
were known as the men and women of "special gifts", the áes-dana. They were shamen and seers articulating the
unique Celtic vision of the world and the role of people in it. Spiritual guidance was only one of their
activities. They were also scholars who
served their society as doctors, lawyers, priests and poets. For the Celts, these were not separate professions
as they were in other parts of Europe.
Any áes-dana had the knowledge and skills to compose entertaining
verse, decide a complex question of property rights or set a broken bone.
Many
years of study were required for a person to become a Druid. Although most Druids were men, women could
become Druids too. The Celtic association
of knowledge and spirituality comes from the recognition of the value of the
Druids to Celtic society. Julius Caesar
wrote that a person had to study for twenty years before he or she could be
made a Druid. This study included both
formal education and apprenticeship with a Druid. During this time of study, the Druid had to
learn a large body of law, the intricacies of human anatomy, the Celtic oral
literature and the rules and rhetoric of poetics, and also the Celtic spiritual
system and its rituals. Druid formal
learning ordinarily took place in a fixed location at schools which were called
colleges by the Romans. To complement
this formal study, students would also travel about the countryside practising
their skills and learning how to interact with the communities. Students, as well as Druids, would visit
different clans performing rituals, reciting myths and poems, healing the sick,
and rendering other services in exchange for temporary lodging.
Because
of their authority in Celtic culture, the Druids were singled out by the Roman
historians for particularly hostile criticism.
Many Romans believed that the Druids wielded dangerous supernatural
powers. Roman generals also recognized
that the Druids were a rallying force in Celtic culture that stiffened
resistance to Roman territorial ambitions.
In their chronicles, the Romans often accused the Druids of bizarre
practices, only some of which have been confirmed by archaeological evidence. Diodorus claimed that Druids would attempt to
predict the future with "a strange and incredible custom: they devoted
[i.e. sacrificed] to death a human being and stab him with a dagger in the
region above the diaphragm, and when he had fallen, they foretell the future
from his fall, and from the convulsions of his limbs." Pliny the Elder during the 1st century A.D.
suggested that the Druids engaged in a ritual animal slaughter to prepare a
magical potion of blood mixed with mistletoe.
While the Roman historians do mention the legal, medical and philosophical
roles of Druids in Celtic society, they dwell far longer on the lurid and
sensational, as if they were the tabloid journalists of their age. It is from writings of Roman historians that
many of the European folktales about Druids sprang to life. Because the early Celts had no form of
literacy, accurate knowledge of Druid practices can come only from
archaeological evidence which allows modern scholars to reconstruct Druid
rituals.
One
such reconstruction was based on the perfectly preserved body of an ancient
Celtic man retrieved from a peat bog near Lindow, England, in 1984. He had died around 60 A.D. from the
"triple death" - a ritual slaying involving garrotting him into
semi-consciousness, severing his jugular and drowning him before he bled to
death. Archaeologists assumed that each
separate act was an offering to a different god. Because the victim was not bound and because
he enjoyed a sumptuous meal prior to his death, archaeologists also concluded
that he was a volunteer victim for the fatal ceremony. The evidence of Lindow Man together with the
Celtic bodies recovered from other parts of Europe confirmed the Roman
assertion that the Druids engaged in ritual slayings as part of their rites.
By
58 A.D., the mystique of the Druid loomed large in the minds of the Roman
occupiers of Britain. In that year,
concern over the Druids dictated military decisions of the Romans in their
measures to put down a Celtic rebellion.
Boudicca of the Iceni clan led her warriors in rebellion against the legions
of the Roman Emperor Claudius. The Roman
military commander, Gaius Seutonius Paulinus, decided not to deploy his
soldiers against the insurgents, but instead marched north to the Druid enclave
located on the island of Anglesey. He
knew that the Iceni warriors would easily be able to assault his undefended
headquarters at Londinum (London), but he believed that the magic wielded by
the Druids was a more serious threat to the Romans in Britain. The Druids at Anglesey were defended by only
a few warriors, and the battle was brief.
The Roman legions quickly cut them down, despite the supposed magical
powers of the Druids. Paulinus then
marched his legions back to Londinum and defeated the Iceni rebels.
With
the characteristic determinations and methodicalness that they exhibited in all
of the territories they conquered, the Romans undertook the Romanization of the
parts of Britain they controlled.
Londinum soon became an important, thriving administrative, military,
and commercial centre. Roman legions
were stationed far north of Londinum as a deterrent against incursions into
Roman territory by the warlike, unpacified Picts. The natural bellicose inclinations of the
Picts had been heightened even further by a wave of refugees of fellow Celts
fleeing from the advance of the Roman army.
Once the bulk of Britain had been pacified, a network of trade and
information exchange was formed among the conquered territories and the
outlying areas. Given the proximity of
Ireland to Britain and the varied activity of this network, Celtic culture in
Ireland was inevitably exposed to elements of Roman civilization. Nonetheless, Celtic culture maintained its
distinctiveness not only due to the independent spirit of the Celts, but also
because of Ireland's unique geographical position which kept it safe from any
Roman territorial ambitions.
Writing
was one of the elements of Roman civilization which found its way into Celtic
culture. With their recognition of the value
of knowledge, the Druids of Ireland, like the Druids of Britain, quickly
grasped the importance of writing and realized its uses. About 200 A.D., the áes-dana of
Britain and Ireland developed a script known as ogham. This was a runic form of writing in which
each letter was represented by parallel lines inscribed at different angles
from a main vertical line or stem. It
resembled the runic scripts used in Scandinavia and Germany at the time. Although modern scholars disagree on the
origin and purpose of ogham, many of them believe that the keen interest
in writing among the Druids was prompted by the success of Christian
missionaries in spreading this religion by emphasizing reading and copying the
Gospels.
Within
Celtic society, the Druids were secretive about the use of ogham and
discouraged the development of other forms of writing in order to guard the
secrets of their herbal remedies and religious rituals. It was used extensively on tombstone
inscriptions, suggesting that it may have had a significance
in religious rites for the dead.
Contemporary Roman observers record that the Druids occasionally passed
messages to each other written in ogham runes carved on wooden
staves. To the Roman, this script seemed
to be magical symbols, which they related to the supernatural powers attributed
to the Druids. This Roman
misunderstanding is the basis for the "magic wand" which frequently
appears in the myths and folklore of the British Isles. The wizard Merlin of the Arthurian legends
and his "magic wand" and other supernatural powers are based on the
Druids of Celtic culture.
The
Celts of the British Isles who embraced Christianity spread their religious
message by using the Latin form of writing.
When the Christians of Ireland saw how easily spiritual doctrine could
be transmitted with just a few scratches on parchment, every monastic school
began to teach the invaluable skill in order to attract converts to the new
religion. During the early Middle Ages, the Celtic passion for education inspired monks
and nuns to use their newly-acquired literacy to copy thousands of intricate
manuscripts such as the famous Book of Kells, thus preserving a vast
trove of Celtic and Christian wisdom for future generations. They also wrote down their own ideas and observations
in chronicles and in the margins of manuscripts, putting their personal
interpretation on historical events and social practices. At the same time, they preserved a
substantial body of literature, philosophy and law.
To
relieve the tedium of copying manuscripts, the monks played elaborate Latin
word games with each other in which they invented words and altered grammatical
rules. This eventually produced enough
variations of standard Latin to create a language of their own which was called
"Hisperic-Latin" by later historians.
Because only the Celtic Christian clergy understood this language, they
used it whenever they wished to pass secret messages to each other, much as the
Druids used ogham. This practice
was particularly useful when the medieval monks of Ireland communicated with
other Irish monks who had settled in Europe.
Because of the rivalry between the Celtic Christians and the other
Christian sects in Europe, they wanted their messages to be understood only by
the intended recipients.
As
Celtic society evolved, Christian clergy gradually took the place of the
Druids. Yet the high reward of Celtic
society for intellectual pursuits based in the reputations and importance of
the Druids was not lost. The Irish monks
of the medieval period were noted for their intellectual achievements as well
as their religious work. Only persons
convinced of the crucial importance of the written word would have anonymously
toiled the long hours many of the monks did in copying classical and Christian
writings. Many Irish monks had leading
roles in the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century. Many of the early monasteries in Ireland and
later in Europe were founded to provide education for students and scholars
from near and far as well as serve as religious centres. The outlawing of education for the Irish
under the oppressive rule of the English during the early modern era could not
stamp out the Irish desire for learning.
This prompted numbers of Irishmen to emigrate
to European countries where they could pursue the studies denied to them in
their own land. It was mainly for this
reason that the Irish Colleges at Paris, Salamanca and Rome were founded. The respect for education in Irish culture
and the realization of its role in the well-being of society, the abilities and
ingenuity of individuals, and in the practical arts such as medicine and
agriculture can be traced back to the place of the Druid's in Celtic culture.
CELTIC ART
The
Celtic view of reality, which was also a manifestation of their spirituality,
was embodied in their works of art. Like
many other ancient cultures, the Celts had a holistic view, or sense, of
reality. There was an interconnection
among all things in the world of nature, and human beings were a part of this. Birth and death were experiences belonging to
the natural processes which governed the life of a person. The essence of a person, or soul, was
endlessly reincarnated in the world of nature.
While their spirituality was similar to that of other ancient cultures,
the objects and articles the Celts made to express their spirituality had a
sophistication and permanence that set them apart from the artistic creations
of other cultures.
The
distinctive style and imagery of Celtic art were developed in the La Téne
region about 500 B.C. The most primitive
Celtic art was carved into stones.
Stones with the loops and interlacings which are the chief
characteristic of Celtic art have been found throughout Europe. These loopings and interlacings represent the
central matters of Celtic spirituality - the interconnection of all things, the
patterns of nature, reincarnation. This
imagery was also used for the metalwork and the jewellery made by Celtic
artisans. It appears frequently on metal
shields and the handles of swords.
Brooches, rings, bracelets, clasps and other pieces of Celtic jewellery
were often made in the form of such imagery, or else the imagery was carved
into the jewellery.
Celtic
jewellery appealed to people of the more developed, urban cultures of the
Mediterranean for its exceptional workmanship and attractiveness of its
patterns. However, people from these
other cultures did not realize the symbolic value such jewellery had for the
Celts. They saw it being worn by the
Celts merely for personal adornment. As
the Greek Strabo wrote, the Celts had a "fondness for ornaments ... both
chains around their necks and bracelets around their arms and
wrists." Strabo remarked only on
the Celts' fondness for jewellery, not its meaning for them.
One
of the most impressive works of art of the Celts is the Gundestrup
Cauldron. Dated at approximately 100
B.C., it was discovered in the bogs of Denmark at the beginning of the 20th
century. The silver Cauldron symbolized
life and death for the Celts. Carvings
of myths and scenes relating to life and death ring the Cauldron. One of these depicts a goddess dipping slain
warriors into the Cauldron to restore them to life. Another scene shows figures - probably
prisoners of war - with decapitated heads lying between their legs. This scene tends to confirm Roman assertions
that the Celts decapitated their prisoners.
The
art forms of the Celts were not confined to moulded metal and carved
stone. The Celts were also skilled
poets, using imagery and metaphor to articulate their beliefs about the
interrelationship between humans and the world around them. In the Irish Book of Invasions, a
collection of Celtic myths from early Ireland, a poem attributed to Amhairghin
showed the interconnection of all living things.
I
am the wind which breathes upon the sea.
I
am the wave of the ocean.
I
am the murmur of the billows.
I
am a powerful ox.
I
am a hawk on a cliff.
I
am a beam of the sun.
I
am a wild boar in valour.
I
am a salmon in a pool.
I
am a lake in a plain.
I
am a word of science.
I
am a lance point in battle.
I
create in people the fire of thought.
Amhairghin was not merely like the things
he named. In his mind and the minds of
his audience, he became a hawk on a cliff and he became a lance point in
battle. His words underscore his belief
in shape-shifting, in the ability for his spirit to enter the bodies of
animals, the inanimate objects around him, and even abstract concepts such as a
word of science. Like the intricate
knots etched into Celtic stone and metalwork, the power of Amhairghin
demonstrated that the Celts believed that all natural phenomenal were
interrelated.
The
elements and subjects of Celtic art remained the major influence on Irish
artists into the medieval and early modern period. The Irish artists continued to use recurring
patterns when making stone engravings or working with metal, and often used
recurring imagery in their poetry.
Because of its connection to the Celtic art of ancient times, the art of
the Irish émigrés during these periods had a universal quality. For this, many Irish artists gained
prominence in countries they emigrated to, just like émigrés with military
skills, intellectual abilities, business aptitude and other skills. In some instances, an émigré was made the
poet laureate in his new country, to write verse to entertain the monarch and
his royal court. In the 9th century, the
Frankish Queen Ermingarde took a liking to the poetry of the Irishman Sedulius;
and she rewarded him with special recognition and riches. Later in the Middle
Ages, Irish poets had a strong influence on the metaphor and imagery used in
Norse sagas. Many Celtic art forms
endured into the modern period, with the Irish émigrés becoming especially
noted for their Celtic-style jewellery.
Celtic
art forms were part of the cultural inheritance of the Irish émigrés during
modern times. The theme of the
interconnection of all living things contained in Celtic art became an integral
part of the Irish view of the world and helped émigrés feel connected to their
adopted European societies. The themes
of Celtic-Irish art also reflected the émigré's belief that although they may
appear outwardly Spanish, French, or Austrian, they remained Irish in spirit.
The
close connection between ancient Celtic culture and the Irish émigrés was
brought about by a series of historical events which began approximately 300
B.C. and continued for more than a millennium.
During this time, the Celtic way of life vanished from continental Europe,
and the British Isles became the last place where Celtic culture survived.
CHAPTER
2
The
Evolution of Celtic Culture in Ireland
They came from a land beyond the sea,
And now o'er the western main
Set
sail in their good ships, gallantly,
From the sunny lands of
"Oh,
where's the isle we've seen in dreams,
Our destined home or grave?"
They
sang they, as by the morning beams,
They
swept the Atlantic wave.
-
The Coming of the Milesians [The first Celts in Ireland were named
Milesians after their leader, Mil.]
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
GEOGRAPHY AND IRISH
HISTORY
The
geography of Ireland played a major role in the preservation of Celtic
culture. On the north-western fringe of
the Continent, Ireland was separated from Europe by a span of sea wide enough
to make invasion difficult, but narrow enough to allow commerce. Had it been closer to the European mainland,
Roman soldiers could have launched an invasion armada against the Irish
Celts. Had it been further away, the
Irish missionaries of the Middle Ages would not have
been able to reach the European mainland in their primitive boats.
This
position first played an important part in the preservation of Celtic culture
between the 2nd century B.C. and the 1st century A.D., when a relentless tide
of war and conquest inundated Celtic civilization on mainland Europe. During these centuries, the legions of
These
refugees were not the first Celts to reach Ireland. Celtic clans had migrated there as early as
the late Iron Age, about 500 B.C., and established permanent, prosperous
communities. Although far removed from
the main centres of Celtic culture on continental Europe, the Irish Celts
nonetheless continued to follow the same cultural practices. The round strongholds they constructed,
called ring forts, were similar to forts built by Celtic tribes in
north-western Spain and on the Atlantic coast of France. Brooches and swords discovered by
archaeologists in Celtic burial sites in Ireland are like ones found in Celtic
burial sites throughout Europe. There is
no agreement on how the first Celts got to Ireland. There is some archaeological evidence to
suggest, however, that they came to Ireland from Spain, after migrating there
from Celtic cultural centres in central Europe.
The mythology of the Irish Celts supports this origin too. The Lebor Gabála - The Book of
Invasions which is a medieval compilation of early Irish myths - names Mil as
the chieftain of a group of Celts that came from Spain to settle in Ireland in
order to escape a famine. After winning
a battle against the Tuatha de Danaan who inhabited Ireland, Mil's people
claimed Ireland as their new home.
The
first Celts in Ireland - wherever they came from - maintained contacts with the
Celts in mainland Europe by being a part of the trading network among the
Celtic settlements. There is evidence
that the Irish Celts traded with cities as distant as Tyre in Phoenicia and
Alexandria in Egypt. In turn, the
mainland Celts uprooted by the Romans and Germans were aware of the Celtic
communities in Ireland as well as in Britain; and numbers of them saw the
distant island as a sanctuary from the warfare and uncertainty of the
Continent.
The
influx of Celtic refugees arriving in the 1st and 2nd
centuries B.C. helped to concentrated and advance the Celtic culture in
IRELAND AND THE
ROMAN EMPIRE
Because
Because
the Celts almost conquered Rome before the city had grown powerful enough to
build an Empire, the Romans came to regard the Celts as a threat to their
survival. This experience motivated the
Romans to ultimately destroy Celtic culture in western
Europe and attempt to conquer all of Celtic Britain. The first conflict between Romans and Celts
occurred in 390 B.C. when Rome sent delegates to the neighbouring Etruscan city
of Clusium to mediate a dispute between the Etruscans and a clan of Celts. Since about 650 B.C. Celtic raiders from the
La Tène and Hallstatt regions had threatened the city-states of Italy. By the time of the confrontation at Clusium,
the number of Celts who had migrated into Italy from Switzerland and Austria
was large enough to concern both the Etruscans and the Romans. Because the people of Clusium refused to
consider the Celts' demands for land to settle on, the negotiations mediated by
the Romans quickly broke down and a skirmish followed between the Etruscans and
the Celts. The Romans joined the brief
battle on the side of the Etruscans, angering the Celts with their flagrant
violation of neutrality. Under the
leadership of the chieftain Brennius, the army of the Celts abandoned their
attack on the Etruscan city of Clusium and marched south to the greater prize
of Rome.
Unable
to halt the Celtic advance, the Romans built barricades around the Capitoline
Hill to protect the Senate and the Forum.
The Celts entered the city, burning and looting and laying siege to the
Capitoline Hill. For seven months they
tried unsuccessfully to defeat the Romans.
Then, after sacking the city, the Celts abruptly departed. Historians are at a loss to explain the Celts'
sudden departure from Rome. The Roman
chronicler Polybius wrote that the withdrawal was due to their concern over the
Venetti and Etruscans endangering the Celtic route back to their homeland to
the north. The historian Livy thought
the Celts departed because many of them became sick after encamping near the
mosquito-infested marshes of the Tiber River.
The devastation wrought upon Rome left the inhabitants of the city with
a hatred for the Celts that would fester for centuries.
For
the next 150 years, the enmity between Roman and Celts was intensified by
ongoing conflicts between Roman soldiers and the warriors of wandering Celtic
clans. During the Punic Wars of the 2nd
century B.C., the Celts of Spain were allies of Carthage, a city on the coast
of North Africa which was the rival of Rome for control of the western
Mediterranean. When Hannibal made his
famous passage across the Alps to invade Italy and threaten the city of Rome,
his troops were mostly Spanish Celts.
After a series of crushing defeats in battle, the Romans fell back to
the city of Rome where they were soon besieged by Hannibal and his mostly
Celtic army. Unlike the previous siege
in 390 B.C., this time the city was better defended - with a high stone wall
encircling it. Nonetheless, this second siege inevitably recalled for the Romans their earlier
humiliation when they had been reduced to cringing in their fabled city while
bands of Celtic warriors surrounded them and were free to pillage the
countryside. With Hannibal at their
head, Celtic warriors had reopened an old wound.
This
siege of Rome was lifted as mysteriously as the previous siege after the
victories of the Roman general Scipio in Spain.
Hannibal abandoned the siege of Rome and departed the Italian peninsula
to return to Carthage. He left no
reasons for this sudden departure, but most historians attribute it to the need
to defend Carthage from Scipio's armies after the fall of Spain. With their defeat by Scipio, the Iberian
Celts - called Celtiberians by the Romans - were now subjects of the Roman
Republic who could be used as soldiers against Carthage.
Hannibal's
withdrawal ended the immediate threat to Rome from the Celtic warriors. But it did not end Rome's problem with the
Celts. Seeing the prosperous, peaceful
Roman colonial provinces along the Mediterranean coast of Gaul (present-day
France) as easy targets for raiding parties seeking precious metals, domestic
supplies, and slaves, the Celts frequently assaulted the towns and cities. Occasionally, their raids extended to the
cities and farms of northern Italy. The
small Roman military garrisons in these areas were unable to control these
raids by the Celts, who would appear suddenly, ravage rich, defenceless targets,
and vanish just as suddenly into the wilderness of central Gaul.
The
Celts had been making such raids before the threat to Rome from Hannibal, and
they continued making them after the threat ended. Having twice been humbled by Celtic warriors
and having been victorious over their Carthaginian rivals, the Romans were
anxious to end the destructive, unsettling raids by the Celts which diminished
Roman treasure and terrified Roman subjects.
In
125 B.C., Rome sent legions into the Rhone Valley to subdue the Celtic tribes
bordering Roman territory. This was just
the first step in a long conflict between the Romans and the Celts that would
not end until Julius Caesar finally pacified all of Gaul in 56 B.C. After Caesar's conquest of Gaul, independent
Celtic culture in continental Europe was confined to the Danube Basin; but the
defeated Celts of Gaul could not flee towards the Danube because of the threat
posed by Germanic tribes migrating westward into the lands between the North
Sea and Switzerland.
The
Celts of Ireland felt no impact from Roman expansion during the 3rd and 2nd
centuries B.C. when
After
vanquishing the Celts in Gaul and establishing garrisons throughout the
territory, Caesar turned his sights to Britain.
As the superior strategist he was, Caesar knew he had to subdue the
recently defeated Celtic warriors who had fled to Britain and were likely to
return to the mainland to harass Roman forces or raid Roman cities and farms as
Celts had done throughout Rome's history.
Caesar desired to have Britain under Roman rule not only because this
was a military imperative, but also so he could then be able to return to Rome
in triumph to increase his chances of ruling the Eternal City and the far-flung
lands he had newly brought into its imperial fold.
Caesar
opened his planned invasion of Britain with a reconnaissance-in-force in 55
B.C. Having gauged the strength of
Celtic resistance, the following year he led a Roman army large enough to
defeat the Celts and establish a Roman stronghold which would be the basis for
the eventual conquest of the entire island - the pattern which he had followed
with success in his campaigns in Gaul.
But Caesar's carefully laid plans were dashed when a storm in the
English Channel destroyed many of the ships carrying supplies to his forces
which had landed in Britain and at the same time, a rebellion broke out in
northern Gaul. Caesar withdrew his
legions from Britain to deal with the uprising in Gaul. After putting down the revolt, Caesar never
returned to finish the conquest of Britain.
When a political crisis developed in Rome, Caesar set off on his famous
"crossing of the Rubicon" and the fate that awaited him in the
Imperial City.
Caesar
might not have been concerned about attacks from the British Celts. Without the treat of Roman legions facing
them, the British tribes and the Celts who had fled to the island from Gaul
could not unite so as to pose any threat to Rome. The British Celts remained safe from Rome
until 42 A.D., when the Emperor Claudius decided the time had come to add
Britain to the Roman Empire. Under the
leadership of the Roman general Aulus Plautius, an army of four legions landed
near Dover in 43 A.D. They moved inland
and met fierce resistance from a hastily formed alliance of several Celtic
clans at a battle near Camolodunum (London), where Celtic champions charged at
the Romans in chariots. But the
efficient battle tactics of the Romans eventually prevailed over the
undisciplined Celts. Camolodunum became
the main encampment of the Romans from which they succeeded in conquering the
southern half of the island.
Gradually,
year by year, campaign by campaign, the Romans increased their British
domain. After Roman legions had
conquered almost half of Britain, a rebellion erupted in 61 A.D. led by the
Iceni clan who inhabited a territory north-east of London. They were soon subdued, but the Romans
continued to have difficulty in subduing the Celts of Britain, a land far from
the Imperial City. Between 61 and 84 A.D.,
the forces of Rome continued to press northwards, but never conquered the
entire island. Rome was unwilling to
commit the expensive military resources needed to subdue northern Britain, a
land the Romans considered too rugged to produce much tribute in any event. In 119 A.D., the Emperor Hadrian ordered the
building of a wall across the border with present-day Scotland, then the home
of the warlike Picts.
The
Roman conquests in Britain divided the Celts into two cultural groups. One group of Celts lived outside the
boundaries of the Roman Empire and continued to follow their traditional
customs and beliefs. These Celts lived
in Scotland, beyond the northernmost Roman garrisons of Carlisle and Newcastle,
and they passed on their enmity for Rome from generation to generation. The second group of Celts lived within the
boundaries of the Empire in the southern part of the island. These Celts gradually became Romanized by adopting many aspects of Roman culture.
Because
Ireland and Britain were near to each other, traders regularly exchanging goods
and information introduced Roman ideas into Ireland. In addition, sea raiders from Ireland in
search of plunder and slaves abducted Romanized Celts from Britain and brought
them back to Ireland. These British-Celtic
captives taught the Irish about Roman government, religion and methods of
war. Despite these influences, Ireland
remained essentially Celtic during the Roman occupation of Britain, since the
Irish could choose which Roman ideas to accept rather than having them imposed
on their society by Roman legions. The
Irish borrowed some Roman ideas, such as writing, and adapted them for use in
their culture. But the influence of
Roman civilization was not strong enough to disrupt the cultural continuity of
the Celts in Ireland, who were the only Celts following a way of life that had
vanished in continental Europe.
CHRISTIANITY COMES
TO IRELAND
As
the Roman world gradually embraced Christianity, the Celts inevitably came in
contact with the new religion.
Christianity was introduced to Ireland by British traders, adventurers and
missionaries who crossed the Irish Sea, and by captives brought back to Ireland
by raiders. During the early medieval
period, Christianity had a profound effect on the development of Celtic culture
in Ireland.
The
earliest Christian symbols in Britain have been dated from 315 A.D., about the
time that the Emperor Constantine sanctioned the public practice of the
religion throughout the Empire. The
Venerable Bede, an eighth-century Saxon historian, claimed in his Opera
Historica that Christians worshipped secretly in Britain from the 1st
century A.D. Bede wrote that the
faithful practised their rituals in the "forests ... or secret
dens". Despite the laws against Christianity,
the religion took root in Britain and developed a widespread following.
Just
how and when Christianity took root in Ireland is not known. The use of Latin-derived words for aspects of
Christianity in the Irish language by the beginning of the 5th century
indicates that Christianity was having an effect on Celtic culture by this
time. The Irish word caplait for
Holy Thursday was derived from capitalavium, the word that
Latin-speaking Christians used for Holy Thursday. Peccatum, the Latin word for sin,
became the Irish peccath, which also meant sin. Irish ortha, or prayer, was derived
from Latin oratio. These words
demonstrate the presence of Christianity in Ireland during the time when Rome
occupied Britain.
In
most European lands, the arrival of Christian missionaries sparked religious
conflict when pagan spiritual leaders tried to maintain their dominance over
societies against the growing influence of the new religion. But in Ireland, there was little conflict
between Druids and Christians. Because
of their tolerance for other points of view, the Druids did not use their
influence to stifle Christian missionaries.
Legend claims that the 6th century Welsh Druid Teliesin spoke for all
Druids when he said, "In Asia Christ was a new thing. But there was not a time when the Druids held
not his belief." Celtic Druids and
Christian missionaries focused on the similarities of their beliefs, not the
differences. During the 4th and 5th
centuries, Christian and Druid beliefs gradually blended to form a distinctive
version of the Christian religion which incorporated many aspects of Celtic
culture into its practices and doctrines.
Since most Irish saw no distinction between priest and Druid, the
converts to the new religion viewed the Christian clergy as the philosophers,
physicians and law-givers of their society, just as they had viewed the
Druids. This hybrid religion, which came
to be called Celtic Christianity by modern historians, continued to thrive in
Ireland during most of the medieval period and was carried to mainland Europe
by Irish monks.
ST. PATRICK
Folklore
has enshrined a 5th century Christian bishop named Patrick as the person who
converted the Irish to the new religion.
But in reality, he was not as successful as legends which sprang up
around him in the 7th century portray him to be. While he did convert many Irish Celts to
Christianity, his influence was in fact limited because the Irish resisted as
too rigid the doctrines and administrative structures of Roman Christianity
which Patrick tried to impose on them along with the spirituality of
Christianity.
Patrick
was born in western Britain about 418 A.D., in a time when the power of Rome
was waning. In 401 A.D., the Emperor
Honorius ordered the bulk of the Roman military forces in Britain to Gaul to
help defend it from hordes of Visigoths who had crossed the Rhine River. Only a few years later, in 405 A.D., the
Emperor lost control of Britain when the Roman soldiers stationed there named
several of their own officers as candidates to be the Emperor of Rome; although
they lacked the means to enforce their claim.
By 410 A.D., with the Empire crumbling, Honorius abandoned Britain by
decreeing that he would no longer send troops to Britain for its defence if the
Scottish or Irish Celts attacked Roman lands.
To add to the uncertainty facing the Roman colonists and Romanized Celts
of southern Britain at the time of Patrick's birth, Irish raids along the
coastline had increased. Some Celtic
chieftains had even gone so far as to establish permanent military outposts in
Wales and Cornwall.
Patrick
was captured by raiders of the Irish clan chieftain Milchu near modern
Dumbarton on the Clyde River and brought to Ireland. For the next six years, he laboured for
Milchu's clan as a captive shepherd.
Being already a devout Christian, Patrick prayed daily for deliverance
from his pagan captors. According to
legend, he escaped when a divine voice in the night directed him to Gaul, where
he studied for the priesthood. In 461
A.D. he returned to Ireland as a missionary consecrated as a bishop by Bishop
Amatorex of Gaul especially for his task of converting the Irish.
To
move freely throughout Ireland and perform his missionary work, Patrick had to
obtain permission from the High King of Ireland, named Laeghire. So the first thing Patrick did when he
arrived in
King
Laeghire had heard of the Christian religion before Patrick's arrival, but he
was not particularly interested in Patrick's religious ideas. It was in keeping with the Irish tradition of
tolerance for the free exchange of ideas that he gave permission for Patrick to
preach wherever he chose.
Patrick
went north to the citadel of Emain Mhacha, the seat of power of Clan Uliad in
Ulster, and established a church near the present-day town of Armagh. In this part of Ireland, Christianity was
unknown; and he was able to convert some warriors and bondservants to form his
first congregation. Patrick consecrated
as bishops some of his more devout followers so that he could institute a Roman
Christian administrative system of dioceses.
The Celts at the time found this system excessively rigid for their
pastoral communities. During the late
medieval period, the Bishops of Armagh claimed ecclesiastical leadership over
all Irish Christians based on succession from Patrick - a claim which other
Irish Christians rejected.
While
folklore praised Patrick and his deeds, it also portrayed him as a dogmatic man
whose intolerant behaviour went against the Irish Celtic tradition of eclectic
scholarship. Although St. Patrick lived
in the 5th century, it was not until the 8th century, when Roman Christianity
began to gain acceptance in
Although
Patrick did not convert large numbers of Irish to Christianity as he had hoped
for, the lore which grew up around his life and his activities in Ireland had a
strong impact on Irish Christians of later centuries. When the rivalry between Roman and Celtic
Christians intensified during the Middle Ages, the
Roman Christians adopted Patrick and made him the patron saint of
MONASTICISM AND
CELTIC CHRISTIANITY
Although
Patrick is commonly given most of the credit for conversion of Ireland to
Christianity, this was accomplished primarily by Irish monks after Patrick's
death in the late 5th century. These
monks were involved in the monastic movement originating in the Near East and
introduced to Europe in France by Martin of Tours, a 4th century Roman soldier
who became a monk after serving with the Roman legions on the Hungarian
border. The strict religious ideal
followed by the Near Eastern and European monks became known in Ireland through
a manuscript named The Life of Martin which favourably described the
regimen of the monks in their monasteries.
The
first monastery in the British Isles where a community of monks could follow this
ascetic way of life was at Whithorn, a place in Strathclyde in north-west
Britain. The monastery was founded in
the early 5th century by the monk Ninian after he met with Martin of Tours
while stopping at Martin's monastery on his way back to Britain after visiting
Rome. Legend has it that Martin lent
Ninian stonemasons to build his monastery.
Ninian's monastery helped to establish Christianity in the British
Isles, and served as a model for the founding of similar monasteries in Ireland
from which Christianity spread with surprising success. As greater numbers of Irish were converted,
the number of Irish desiring to follow the monastic life also grew, so that
within a hundred and fifty years there were scores of monasteries scattered
throughout Ireland.
The
idea of a man or woman who abandoned hearth and kin to battle with the desires
of their bodies in a struggle for perfection appealed to the Irish notion of
the heroic. In pre-Christian mythology, Celtic
heroes would often enter spiritual realms to struggle with supernatural forces
in a quest for wisdom. The Christian
monks believed that the internal spiritual conflict emphasized in the ascetic
ideal was another form of the heroic quest found in Celtic mythology. The monks of Ireland drew inspiration from
these legends and myths, viewing themselves as spiritual warriors who followed
a path similar to the one once trod by traditional heroes.
In
the early 5th century, the monks modelled their regimen of the strict
asceticism of the monasteries of Egypt and Gaul. They shut themselves away from the world to
devote themselves to purely spiritual matters.
On the windswept Atlantic islands of Skellig Michael and Inishboffin,
ascetics fasted and prayed in a life of voluntary hardship which would merit
them eternal salvation at the end of their lives. They sought perfection in a daily battle with
the urges of their bodies. A Celtic monk
named Faustus summarized this monastic ideal in an essay entitled De Gratia
where he wrote:
"It is not for quiet and security
that we have formed a community in the monastery, but for a struggle and a
conflict. We have met here for a
contest. We have embarked on a war
against our sins.... The struggle upon which we are engaged is full of
hardships, full of dangers, for it is a struggle of man against himself."
During
the 5th century A.D., many of the Irish monks turned the focus of their concern
from themselves to the spiritual and physical welfare of the communities beyond
the walls of their cloisters. The
traditions of the Irish Celts placed monks in the position formerly occupied by
the áes-dana, the Druids who gave spiritual guidance to people. The Irish Christians who had not chosen the
monastic life expected that the monks would interact with them on a regular
basis, providing the leadership once provided by the Druids. This tradition stimulated the monks to
abandon their solitary quest for perfection and leave the confines of their
monasteries to act as teachers and healers for the entire Christian
community. By this time, much of Irish
Christian life and culture centred around the monks
who instructed the young, healed the sick, and dispensed justice.
From
the example of the Druids, the Irish monks realized that knowledge was the key
factor to their influence and prestige in their society. The Christian communities also recognized
that the education of the monks made them valuable members of society. This appreciation of the benefits of
education inspired the monks to establish schools in the monasteries. By the close of the 6th century A.D., monks
could learn the fundamentals of reading, writing and philosophy in their local
monasteries; and they could study agriculture, mathematics and astronomy at the
larger monasteries at Whithorn, Bangor and Moville.
Although
all branches of Christianity accepted the Gospels, the practices and doctrines
of the Celtic Christians emphasized aspects of the religion different from
those emphasized by the Roman Christians who were becoming the dominant
Christian sect in Europe during the early medieval period. In general, the Celts focused on Christianity
spiritually while the Roman Christians stressed sin and the redemptive aspect
of the religion. In Ireland, the few
Celts who followed the Roman version of the religion did not have sufficient
power and authority to dictate doctrine and ritual to their neighbours.
When
Celtic Christian monks travelled to continental Europe, however, they often
became embroiled in disputes with Roman Christians over the fine points of
doctrine. One of these disputes
concerned the ideas of the Celtic theologian Pelagius who emigrated
from either
The
relationship of Pelagius's ideas about human nature and morality to the Celtic
spirit of independence and also the rigorous, ascetic life of the early Irish
monks is evident. But Pelagius's ideas
which were embraced by the Irish variation of Christianity conflicted directly
with those of Augustine of Hippo, who was the leading theologian of the
time. In was
Augustine's theological ideas which were approved by the authorities in
When
Pelagius recorded his ideas in a book called On Faith, he was denounced
by the clergy in Rome who followed Augustine's doctrines. In 410 A.D., Pelagius fled to Africa and
settled near the city of Hippo where Augustine was bishop. Angered by Pelagius's arrival in Africa,
Augustine called the Council of Carthage to condemn Pelagius as a heretic and
ban his teachings. This decision
prompted Pelagius to flee again, this time to Jerusalem where a specially
convened synod reversed the decision of the Council of Carthage. After this synod in Jerusalem, no further
record exists of Pelagius's activities.
But the doctrinal controversy he inspired continued to rage among Roman
Christians until 494 A.D. when Pope Gelasius I placed On Faith on the
Index of Forbidden Books and condemned Pelagius's teachings as heresy. The Celtic Christians, however, continued to
accept Pelagius's doctrines.
During
the 5th and 6th centuries A.D., incorporating the teachings of Pelagius into
their beliefs, the Celtic Christians accepted personal responsibility for
improving their own spiritual condition as well as the spiritual condition of
others. In addition, they also
recognized that most people were not ascetics.
Because the Celts believed that the Gospels, along with their own
cultural traditions, should dictate the nature of Christian doctrine, they
rejected the ideas of Augustine that either supplemented scripture or did not
conform to Celtic customs. However,
Augustine's teachings about grace and original sin became a fundamental part of
the Roman version of Christianity, sparking many disputes between Roman and
Celtic Christian theologians during the Middle
Ages. When logical arguments failed
them, the Roman Christians often resorted to name-calling such as Jerome's
description of Pelagius as "a great mountain-dog through whom the devil barks" who was "full of Irish
porridge".
The
Celtic Christians were far more tolerant of different religious doctrines and
beliefs than the Roman Christians. This
tolerance gave Celtic Christianity the capacity to graft traditional Celtic
ideas such as Druid shape-shifting onto Christian teachings. Because the principle of shape-shifting was a
part of the essence of pre-Christian Celtic spirituality, incorporating it into
Christianity helped the new religion gain rapid acceptance. Long before Christianity arose in Ireland,
Druid shamen had been performing a ceremony during which they would go into a trance-like
state where they saw themselves as entering the bodies of animals or other
persons. The Celts believed that this
communion with other living beings of the universe brought about a greater
wisdom for those who could engage in it.
As the shamen adapted to Christianity, they
taught that Christ was a divine shape-shifter - a god whose spirit had entered
a human being. This understanding of
Christ enabled Irish Celts to readily embrace Christianity by expressing
profound and often perplexing mysteries of Christ's nature in terms of a
spiritual principle the Celts had been long familiar with.
In
the western mountains of Kerry and Donegal, large pockets of pagan belief
endured throughout the Middle Ages. As late as the 13th century, the English geographer
Gerald Cambrensis commented on the widespread non-Christian practices and
rituals that he encountered in western Ireland.
He was especially shocked when he observed a newly-elected clan
chieftain publicly copulating with a white mare in a ceremony for making him
leader of the clan. Pagan practices
existing side-by-side with Christianity exemplified the Celtic tolerance of
different types of spirituality and customs of different cultures. This tolerance kept differences over
religious issues from leading to the civil and religious strife which occurred
in many European countries. The
tolerance also enabled the Irish monks to perform their missionary work
effectively; and it was a trait that enabled Irish émigrés down the generations
to ease their way into their new societies.
The
formation of Celtic Christianity to meet the spiritual needs of the Celts was
not an accident resulting from historical or geographical isolation, but
instead evolved from a series of choices made by the Celts. The Celtic priests and monks of the 4th and
5th centuries were aware of other versions of Christianity from their regular
travels to mainland Europe to attend councils and synods. At these assemblies, they argued heatedly with
Roman and Arian Christian theologians about acceptable variations in practices
and doctrines. Although the Romans and
Arians often described the Celts as obstinate, the decision of the Celts to
follow their own version of Christianity was a reflection of the tolerance and
other unique characteristics of their society.
The Celts believed that no outside authority had the right to dictate
how they should structure their church and which beliefs should receive
official approval. Like legal and
political matters, religious matters were governed by clan consensus.
Because
many monks became uncomfortable with their high status in Irish communities
after leaving the walls of their monasteries, they developed the idea of the peregrinatio
pro Christo, the journey for the sake of Christ. This lent religious purpose to the
traditional Celtic urge to wander. The peregrinatio
was a journey away from friends and family to preach the new religion to
strangers in another part of Ireland.
But once Ireland became largely Christian, the monks who made the peregrinatio
were revered and welcomed in most parts of the land. Their very success in converting the Irish to
Christianity made them holy wisemen whose opinion was sought on all
matters. Early law tracts indicated that
they had status equal to a king.
This
recognition granted to the monks ran against the ascetic ideals they saw as
their primary calling. Not wishing to be
in surroundings where they might be tempted by the sin of pride, however remote
this might be for them, the monks expanded the concept of the peregrinatio
to include lands outside of Ireland. In
the late 6th century, the concept of the peregrinatio evolved into the
notion of White Martyrdom, a way to gain the spiritual rewards of martyrdom
without being put to death. To become a
White Martyr, monks had to leave Ireland with no intention of returning. In place of being put to death for their
beliefs, they would suffer the pangs of loss for the friends and kin they would
never see again. During the early
medieval period, White Martyrdom became the motive for Irish emigration, a new
stimulus for the traditional instinct of Celts to migrate.
Because
of the equal status of men and women among Celtic Christians in Ireland, women
were not barred by social custom from becoming White Martyrs. But they usually chose not to voyage
abroad. Although Christian women in
Ireland often lived in the same cloistered monasteries with monks and could
become the spiritual leaders of them, they knew the difficulties that a
wandering woman ascetic would have in the patriarchies of mainland Europe. No matter how wise their words, women would
be met with scorn and disdain. Swords
and daggers were forbidden by their Christian principles, so they could not
protect themselves if they were attacked by soldiers or brigands. For Celtic women in the early Middle Ages, a peregrinatio pro Christo in mainland
The
Celtic concept of the White Martyr was not found in other versions of
Christianity. In the lands around the
Mediterranean, only Red Martyrs who died in pain for their beliefs could be
assured of salvation. The White Martyr
reflected the Celtic Christian belief that human beings could effectively
strive towards perfection in this world.
The Roman Christians rejected the idea that perfection was attainable,
preferring to adopt the view of human nature found in Augustine of Hippo's
doctrine of grace and original sin. When
Irish monks arrived on the European continent, this difference in essential
doctrine became a constant source of conflict between Celtic and Roman
Christian theologians. But the attacks
against the Irish Celts launched by Roman Christian bishops and scholars had
little effect on the great majority of Europeans, who did not have the literacy
or education to fully understand the fine points of Christian doctrine. The ordinary Europeans accepted the Celtic
monks as wise and holy visitors with a great deal to offer to their adopted
lands.
COLUMCILLE OF IONA
The
foremost of the early White Martyrs was an abbot named Columcille. He was born a member of the royal family of
Leinster, clan ó Donnell, in Donegal in 521 A.D. He founded his first monastery in Derry in 545
A.D. when he was only 24; and according to legend, he founded 300 more before
he was 40 years old. Columcille's
pathway into Irish legend as one of the first White Martyrs began with his
taking liberties with a Vulgate Bible of Jerome that he borrowed from the Abbot
of Moville, named Finian. In the middle
of the night, Columcille copied this Bible unbeknownst to its owner, the
Abbot. When Finian learned of this, he
complained to Dermot, the High King of Ireland at the time. Dermot summoned Columcille to appear before
him at Tara, the site of his throne.
When Columcille did so, Dermot made the pronouncement, "to each cow
her calf, to each book its copy", and ordered Columcille to give Finian
the copy of the Bible he had made.
Columcille rejected Dermot's ruling with the rejoinder "The wrong
decision of a judge is a raven's call to battle."
Dermot
could not allow such a brazen, direct rejection of his authority to go
unchallenged. After dismissing
Columcille, Dermot sent warriors to seize the copy of the Bible. But Columcille was intent on resisting
Dermot's ruling further. He gathered warriors
of his clan ó Donnell to prevent Dermot's warriors from taking his Bible. The two opposing forces met at Cùl Dreimne in
a conflict which became known as The Battle of the Books. Columcille won the battle - but in subsequent
events he came out the loser in this disagreement with Dermot. Disturbed by Columcille's
lawlessness leading to so much bloodshed between Irish Christians, the abbots
of
Columcille
left Ireland with twelve of his followers in 563 A.D. They set off from north-east Ireland in
coracles, small boats made of none and hide.
Columcille had no particular destination in mind for himself and his
followers. Once away from Ireland out in
the Irish Sea, he left his course in the hands of God. The tides carried the coracles to Iona, a
small island off the western coast of Scotland which had once been the site of
a Druid school. Columcille decided to
build a monastery there.
Iona
was part of the kingdom of the Celtic clan named Dal Riada, Irish immigrants
who had fled to the Argyll coast of Scotland after a famine in the early part
of the 6th century A.D. The Irish clan
chieftains of Munster claimed annual tribute from the Scottish colony, using
the threat of invasion to extract payment.
Although the Dal Riadans bridled at their political subservience, when
Columcille arrived in Scotland the Dal Riadan king Connell nevertheless
grudgingly allowed the Irish monks to stay on the island of Iona because he
assumed that a new monastery would benefit his realm. After Columcille established his monastery,
he regularly intervened in the politics of the Dal Riadans. When Connell died, it was Columcille who
crowned the new king, Aeden the Wily.
Involved
as he became in the politics of the Dal Riadans, Columcille wished to see an
end to the annual tribute the Dal Riadans paid to the Irish clan
chieftains. The Convention of Drumceat
convened by the High King in 575 A.D. gave him a chance to try to accomplish
this. Conventions were meetings of many
clan chieftains to decide on political and legal issues which had arisen since
the previous Convention. In 575 at the
Convention of Drumceat the chieftains were to consider the matter of the Dal
Riadan independence which would bring to an end the annual tribute. Columcille ignored the sentence of exile
which had been imposed on him to attend this Convention as King Aeden's
representative. He successfully argued
for granting independence to the Dal Riadans and ending the tribute.
After
later generations came to view Columcille as a model for all White Martyrs, his
attendance at the Convention of Drumceat posed a problem. Since the gathering was held in Ireland,
Columcille's attendance was a flagrant violation of his sentence of perpetual
exile. To justify his return to Ireland
with the ideal of the White Martyr, an ingenious folktale claimed that an angel
named Axal granted Columcille dispensation from his vows in order to
temporarily return to Ireland. Another
tale recounted that he kept his face buried in his cowl so he looked at no
former friends or kinfolk from his native land; and yet another, that he tied
clods of Scottish turf to his sandals so he never actually set foot on Irish
soil.
The
adventures of Columcille became legendary in his own day. Every monk desired to imitate the great Abbot
of Iona by embarking on a heroic foreign quest to gain salvation by spreading
the Christian religious message. Glossing over the fact that Columcille was more or less forced into
exile for his arrogant behaviour, the monks and other Irish thought of him as a
glorious White Martyr, a wanderer in foreign lands. As Ireland became predominantly Christian at
the close of the 6th century, the example of Columcille spawned a wave of Irish
monks crossing the seas to mainland Europe.
CHAPTER
3
The
Irish Monks in Europe
So, since your heart is set on those sweet
fields
And
you must leave me here,
Swift
be your going, heed not my prayers,
Although
the voice be dear ...
Since,
if but Christ would give me back the past,
And
that first strength of days,
And
this white head of mine were dark again,
I,
too, might go your ways.
- Colman, a 9th-century monk
EARLY MEDIEVAL
EUROPE
When
the Irish monks following the footsteps of Columcille and Columbanus came to
The
barbarian invasions destroyed many of the institutions of the Roman Empire and
disrupted the cultural practices - and these institutions and practices had
been the main elements of the unity of the Empire. In place of the universal Roman government,
barbarian chieftains established numerous petty kingdoms in France, Spain and
Italy. There was continual strife among
these kingdoms as various chieftains tried to enlarge their domains, increase
their wealth, and rule over larger populations.
But none of these covetous, bellicose chieftains succeeded in unifying a
large territory and widespread population.
During the Dark Ages, strife among the many barbarian tribes, and the
related fear and defensiveness, was the norm throughout the area of the former
Roman Empire.
With
survival the primary social concern, there was hardly any communication among
the multitude of petty kingdoms. Not
only political development, but also basis skills and crafts were neglected and
fell into a state of decline. The
barbarians themselves did not have well-developed skills and crafts, and the
artisans killed by barbarian attacks or conscripted into barbarian armies could
not be replaced. Even the immemorial,
necessary skill of agriculture fell into an impoverished state.
The
barbarian invasions stimulated a resurgence of paganism within the lands once
controlled by Rome. Although late in the
4th century the Roman Emperor Gratian made Christianity the official religion
of the Empire, much of the population continued to cling to their pagan ways in
the countryside away from the urban areas.
(The word pagan comes from the Latin paganus, meaning
"rustic".) In one part of
eastern Gaul, the religious leader Martin of Tours sent his monks into the
countryside to stamp out any signs of paganism.
Martin's monks followed his orders with excessive enthusiasm. They smashed pagan idols, wrecked shrines,
and even assaulted worshippers taking part in pagan rituals. In 395 A.D. Gratian's
successor, Emperor Theodosius, banned all religions other than Christianity. Yet despite the imperial decrees and virulent
attacks by Christian monks, paganism was not stamped out. Instead, just as the Christians had in the
early days of their religion when they were persecuted, the pagans observed
their spirituality secretly. They buried
their idols so the Christians would not destroy them, and gathered in secret
groves deep in the forests when they wanted to hold their rites. With the lifting of Roman rule and retreat of
Christianity, the secretive pagan populations of the former Roman Empire once
again brought their paganism out into the open.
Besides, although they usually had different gods and myths, the
barbarian invaders were themselves pagans and were not hostile to the ancient
religions of the peoples of the former Empire.
Although
Christianity had been decreed the official religion of the Roman Empire and had
been aggressively enforced by government officials and Christian clerics, the
religion practically disappeared in many parts of Europe controlled by the
pagan invaders. The sphere of organized
Christianity was reduced to the few square miles of the city of Rome, where the
Bishops of Rome - who became known as the Popes - were recognized as the spiritual
leaders. Once the worst of the anarchy
and bloodshed of the barbarian invasions subsided and the many barbarian
chieftains had carved up the former Roman Empire into their numerous petty
kingdoms, there was a recrudescence of Christianity. Neither the pagans of the former Roman Empire
nor the pagan invaders were opposed to Christianity once it was weakened so
that it could no longer offer any resistance to either their political or
religious practices.
During
the Dark Ages, Christianity was but one kind of religion along with various
types of paganism practised throughout Europe.
Because the pagans tolerated Christianity since it was not strong enough
to oppose them, Christianity maintained its roots throughout the widespread
lands of the former Roman Empire. In
some limited ways, Christianity thrived.
There was no central authority to bring unity to Christianity and guide
it through the historical developments and various religious practices of the
time. Although during the 5th and 6th
centuries the Bishops of Rome asserted that they had the authority to determine
the doctrines and rituals binding for all Christians, in reality they had
little influence on Christians beyond the city of Rome and neighbouring
communities.
The
Arian Christians were one flourishing sect which opposed certain doctrinal
positions of the Bishops of Rome. The
Arians' most serious challenge to the Bishops of Rome involved a fundamental
belief of Christianity - namely, the divinity of Christ. The Arians held that Christ was not divine
and co-eternal with God the Father, but rather was created by God the
Father. As the Visigoths in Spain, many
Frankish tribes in France and Ostrogoths in Italy gradually converted to
Christianity during the later Dark Ages, they embraced the Arian view of
Christ. It was not until the 7th century
that the Bishops of Rome and missionaries and ecclesiastic leaders sent out
from the religious colleges of the Roman Christians succeeded in overcoming Arianism
and bringing the large numbers of former barbarians tot he
belief in Christ's divinity.
Other
Christian sects also attracted large numbers of followers. In parts of Spain and France, Manichean
Christians taught that the world and the human body were creations of evil which
God had allowed Satan to create to test an individual's spirit. There were also some Nestorian Christians in western Europe. They
objected to calling Mary the "Mother of God" because they believed
that Christ had a divine nature fully separate from the human nature. Besides the several diverse sects,
Christianity was hampered from being a coherent, unified force affecting all of
the societies of Europe because a considerable proportion of the clergy of the
various sects failed to represent the Christian virtues of poverty and piety;
they had become corrupted by power and wealth.
Conditions
on the continent of Europe were very different from the conditions in Ireland
to which the Irish monks who became White Martyrs were accustomed. The chaos and brutality of the Dark Ages
throughout western Europe never extended to
To
survive and to be effective in their missionary work in the Dark Ages in
continental Europe, the Irish monks had to tread carefully. In teaching Christian beliefs and practices
opposed by the clergy of a local Christian sect or by just appearing to
threaten the ruler of an all-powerful petty king, the monks could be banished
from the community, and even sometimes killed.
In
7th century Europe, formal education was rare.
Europe was just beginning to recover from the Dark Ages. The Irish monks were well-educated by
continental standards, and were accustomed to tolerance of ideas and the
careful examination of points of view followed by debate. The Europeans, on the other hand, saw
theology as a form of science. Once a
doctrine was accepted by a council or a synod, it became dogma, an
incontrovertible fact that no-one was permitted to challenge. Only the small group of European scholars had
any learning at all, and the nobility and the clergy were not necessarily
members of this scholar class. The Irish
monks carried the torch of learning with them, but it flickered dimly in the
intellectual darkness of mainland Europe.
Because
of the constant warfare during the early medieval period, and the harsh way of
life that resulted from it, historians often call the 6th and 7th centuries the
"Dark Ages". To survive and
prosper in this hostile environment, the Irish monks who came to Europe during
this time had to tread carefully. One
misstep could lead to swift death from an angry warlord or bitter condemnation
from rival clergymen.
EARLY IRISH
MONASTERIES IN EUROPE
Despite the danger and difficulties facing the Irish
monks of the 7th century, they were prompted to travel to Europe by the heroic
example of Columbanus. The three
monasteries he founded in France continued to thrive even after his banishment
from Burgundy by Queen Brunhilde, and many Irish monks visited them as they
wandered throughout Europe. When
Columbanus's wanderings brought him to Switzerland and Italy, he founded still
more monasteries which became influential centres of learning in early medieval
Europe.
After
Queen Brunhilde ordered Columbanus to leave her kingdom, she took no chances
that the troublesome monk would return.
She instructed armed soldiers to escort him and his Irish companions as
far as Nantes and put them on a barque bound for Ireland. But once the barque was out at sea, a fierce
storm arose. The boat's captain believed
that the storm was a form of divine intervention to prevent him from taking
Columbanus back to Ireland - and he turned back to shore, where he quickly released
Columbanus and his band to wander where they wished.
Risking
Brunhilde's wrath, Columbanus led his followers back into France, where they
came upon the Rhine River. They obtained
some boats from villagers and followed the River south. Eventually they came to Breganz in
But
one of Columbanus's followers named Gall was too ill to travel. Nonetheless, Columbanus insisted that Gall
accompany him across the jagged, snow-capped Alps. When Gall refused, the two men quarrelled
bitterly. After hurling maledictions at
his former comrade, Columbanus left and journeyed southward into Italy, to a
place called Bobbio. Columbanus died
there shortly after founding another monastery.
Gall
eventually recovered and became a solitary hermit. The local mountain people began to come to
him for religious and practical advice.
Gall gained such renown that after the death of Theodoric and Brunhilde,
the monks of the monastery at Luxeuil in Burgundy founded by Columbanus elected
Gall as their abbot despite his solitary lifestyle far from their
community. Gall declined this position,
but could not prevent local followers from gathering around his hermit's
cell. He died in 640 A.D. A century later, the Benedictine order of
monks began construction of an elaborate monastery at the site of Gall's
cell. Upon completion, it became a model
for the design of monasteries throughout the Middle
Ages.
Although
St. Gall's was never exclusively an Irish monastery, it did act as a magnet for
many Irish monks. They contributed many
volumes to its library, which became the largest and best known in
The
patient labour of both Irish and European monks gradually remedied the shortage
of books for scholars. Even small
monasteries had libraries open to anyone who could read. But the task of creating manuscripts was so
painstaking and tedious that it caused one Irish monks to lament:
Ah
my poor hand,
How much white parchment you have scored.
You will bring the parchment glory
And
be the bare peak of a heap of bones.
Other
monks inspired by the example of Columbanus founded monasteries at Faremoutiers
in 627, Jouarre in 627 and Rebais in 636 in the Brie region of France. Rebais eventually became a popular way
station where travelling Irish clergy and traders could enjoy Irish meals and
converse with others in their native language.
Between 663 and 675 A.D., the monastery at Angoulême in France became a
favourite resting place for the Irish Christians travelling in Europe. During Roman times, it was a monastic centre,
but was destroyed by barbarian invaders.
The monastery was rebuilt by Ansoald, the Bishop of Poitiers, who put an
Irish monk by the name of Toimeme in charge.
He was succeeded by Ronan and Aillil, both Irish. At Angoulême, the Council of Bordeaux met to
coordinate the development of monasteries in France, which had previously
depended solely on the initiative of local monks. The Council established a plan that provided
for Church assistance for monks who wished to found monasteries. This resulted in the creation of even more
monastic centres under Irish guidance.
The
Irish felt a special affinity for the monastery founded by St. Martin at
Marmoutier near Tours. They regarded
Martin as an inspirational figure for Irish monasticism because of the
popularity in Ireland of the biography, The Life of Martin, and the
assistance that he provided to Ninian to build the first Celtic monastery in
Britain. By the 7th century, Marmoutier
was a large and thriving monastic centre with many chapels and dormitories
surrounding Martin's original humble cell.
Irish writers and illuminators contributed to the production of such
manuscripts as the Sermons of St. Martin and the Gospels of
Marmoutier and St. Gatien.
Within
a hundred years after the arrival of Columbanus in Europe, there were scores of
Irish monasteries scattered across France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. During the remainder of the Middle Ages, the success of these early monastic centres in
western Europe stimulated the foundation of more monasteries as each new
generation of Irish monks sought to match the achievements of their
predecessors. During the 10th and 11th
centuries, these early monasteries also acted as temporary stops for Irish
monks who wanted to settle in central and eastern Europe, regions that were
often too remote to travel to directly from Ireland.
CELTIC AND ROMAN
CHRISTIAN RIVALRY
During
the centuries of the early medieval period, the Roman Christians were winning
the religious struggle in western Europe. Unlike the Celtic Christian monks, the
Bishops of Rome often used their influence as religious leaders to arrange
alliances which helped win wars for the Frankish and Lombard kings who were
favourably disposed towards the Roman Christians. Eventually, the Bishops of Rome had enough
political support to assume exclusive use of the title "Pope", a word
derived from the Greek papas, meaning father, which had previously been
used for the religious leader of any Christian community. The Bishops of Rome often banned as heresy
competing interpretations of Christianity.
Although the Irish Celts were not branded as religious heretics by the
Roman Christians, the Irish often came dangerously close to official
condemnation. The Celtic Christians found
themselves under increasing pressure to accept Roman Christian dogma and
ecclesiastical authority.
The
suspicion towards the Celtic monks ran through the European ecclesiastical
authorities from the Pope down to the local clergy. In 813, the Council of Tours censured the
Irish wandering monks - "Hiberniae episcopi vagantes" - for their
extreme asceticism. The ostensible
reasons for this censure was that in following such a strict, forbidding ideal,
the Irish ascetics presented a remote, harsh picture of Christianity which
could interfere with the aim of converting the pagan populations of Europe to
the religion. But the real reason the
Irish were censured, so it seems, was that their asceticism sharply contrasted
with the comforts and political influence enjoyed by Roman Christian
clergy. At times, the Irish monks
explicitly criticized the relative luxury and political involvement of the
Roman Christian priests and bishops.
When they did so, the European clergy would quickly condemn the critical
Irish monks for some deviance from Roman Christian doctrine.
Since
the Celts came from a culture which recognized the importance of the
individual, they believed that people were responsible for their sins because
they could choose to do good or evil by using their free will without divine
assistance in the form of grace. The
Celts also believed that abbots and bishops could not be appointed by either
church or secular authority. But in
keeping with the Celtic traditions, the people should elect their own religious
leaders. The Celtic and the Roman
Christians also contested other doctrinal issues, often arguing heatedly and
rarely achieving full accord. Yet the
controversy over the fine points of dogma did not hamper the Irish Celts from
building monasteries and gaining converts for Christianity throughout Europe.
Quite
often, Roman Christian complaints about the Irish Celts focused on symbols
rather than essential doctrinal issues.
The Romans objected to the Celtic clerical tonsure made by shaving the entire
front half of the skull. The Druids had
shaved their head in this manner as a symbol of their authority in Celtic
society. The Roman Christians objected
to this because they claimed that it was the style of tonsure worn by the apostle Peter's arch-rival, Simon Magus, who Peter
excommunicated from the early Christian Church for claiming that spiritual
benefits could be purchased with money.
The Roman Christians came to associate heretical doctrine with the tonsure
of Simon Magus, who they believed to be a Druid who had embraced
Christianity. This issue of the tonsure
was important in the semi-literate world of medieval Europe because symbols
often expressed complex concepts that could not be otherwise grasped. The Roman Christians used every opportunity
to condemn the Celtic tonsure, and preached that it was a symbol associated
with pagan practices. Their clergy
instructed their flocks to revere only the men who wore the small circular
tonsure at the back of the head which they claimed commemorated Christ's crown
of thorns. At the Synod of Whitby in
664, King Oswy of Northumbria, who presided over the Synod, outlawed the Celtic
tonsure in his realm; and the Roman Christians encouraged other monarchs to
follow Oswy's example.
Another
point of controversy between the Roman and Celtic Christians was the way each
branch of the religion figured the date of Easter. The Celts celebrated the event on the
fourteenth day after the first full moon after the vernal equinox. Using this calculation, Easter could fall on
a weekday that sometimes coincided with the Jewish holy day of Passover. To avoid this scandalous coincidence, the
Roman Christians followed a different method to calculate Easter. It was Pope Felix III who decreed in 527 that
Easter would always be the first Sunday after the first full moon after the
vernal equinox, thereby insuring that Easter always fell on a Sunday. The Roman Christians pointed to the
reluctance of the Celts to adopt Pope Felix's computation as a sign of pagan
influences in Celtic religious practices.
When the settled in
Ar is cach beo beires breth besa
hea thoga
Everyone
alive bears the judgement which will be his choice
But
when spoken aloud, the Celtic syllables could run together in a completely different
combination to give a completely different meaning:
Héris cach bé ob hérisbreth bésa
hé a thucca
Every
source of heretical judgement is heresy, it will bring grief!
When the spoken words of Irish poets were
attacked by defenders of orthodox Roman Christian doctrine, the poets used the
written words to prove themselves innocent of
promoting deviant thought.
Although
Roman Christianity dominated mainland Europe, the Celtic Christians developed
refinements of doctrine and practice that the Roman Christians incorporated
into their doctrine. In the 4th century,
the theologian, Hilary of Poitiers, applied Celtic concepts of a triune god to
greatly enhance the Christian notion of the Trinity. In the Middle Ages,
the Celtic Christian practice of confessing in private gradually became the
standard practice. Prior to adopting the
Celtic practice, Roman Christians confessed in public, usually in church before
the entire congregation. Not
surprisingly, many people were reluctant to confess their sins in these
circumstances. The Irish practice of
private confession made it a common act engaged in by all Christians and was
formerly recognized as the approved method of confession at the Fourth Lateran
Council in 1215.
Another
practice of the Irish monks taken up by the Roman Christians during the Middle
Ages was the use of rules of behaviour known as penitentials. Originally, these rules applied only to sworn
celibates of the Irish cloister and were difficult to follow. Transgressions were punished severely. In the penitential attributed to Columbanus,
the penalty for needlessly exposing the body to another person was a lengthy
period of reduced rations. Eventually,
the penitentials became more moderate so they could be applied to all
Christians. They gave people a clear
guide for the practical interpretation of Christian doctrine in day-to-day
situations.
Although
the Roman Christians implicitly acknowledged that Celtic Christianity did have
some desirable views and practices to offer Christianity, they nonetheless
generally attempted to see that the Celtic Christians did not have any
significant influence on the version of Christianity observed in Europe. In Germany of the early 8th century, a bishop
named Boniface waged a particularly aggressive campaign against the Irish
monks. Whenever he found places where
Celtic Christianity was being practised, he sent out groups of monks to put an
end to it. With denunciations and the
fists of his fanatic followers, he persecuted the Irish so vigorously that he
earned the title "Hammer of the Celtic Church". He had a particular dislike for an Irish
abbot named Fearghal, who was also known as Virgilius and was famous for his
writings explaining his view of the cosmos.
When the King of Bavaria offered Fearghal a bishop's mitre, Boniface was
outraged. He complained to the Pope that
Fearghal's writings were unorthodox, and he urged the Pope to disqualify the
Irish abbot from any ecclesiastical position.
But after examining Fearghal's writings the Pope could see no doctrinal
threat in the work, and did not prevent Fearghal from becoming bishop.
Because
Boniface was a Devonshire Saxon named Wynfrith before he changed his name at
baptism, his dislike of the Irish Celts was rooted in the traditional enmity of
the Saxons for the Celts, who the Saxons had warred against for generations in
England. After the Saxons converted to
the Roman version of Christianity, they viewed the German lands inhabited by
their cousins as their exclusive territory for preaching. Boniface considered the Celts interlopers and
resented the success of the Irish Celtic interlopers in Germany. In his native England, Boniface had been
raised to view the Celts with loathing, a hatred which he carried with him to
Germany.
During
the Middle Ages, Celtic Christianity was gradually
eclipsed because of the growing political power of the Roman Christian
Church. The Roman Christians demanded
that the Irish monks who settled in Europe conform to Roman Christian
beliefs. The Irish avoided direct confrontation
whenever possible by masking their religious views with ambiguous words. Although the Roman Christians could prove no
outright heresy in the Celtic version of the faith, they remained suspicious of
the religious doctrines of the Irish monks in Europe and always believed that
all Irish Christians were strongly inclined towards pagan beliefs.
BRITISH CELTS IN
EUROPE
The
defeat of the Celtic Christians in Britain by the Saxon invaders sapped their
missionary inclinations. By the close of
the 6th century, a war in which each side tried to exterminate the other had
been fought sporadically between Celt and Saxon for more than a century, a war
that the Celts in Britain were losing.
Continual battle and frequent defeat undermined their morale and their
traditional way of life, making combat and survival their dominant concerns.
The
strife engulfing the British Celts began in 449 when a High King named
Vortigern sought the help of Saxon mercenaries in a conflict with neighbouring
clans. He hired a warrior band from
The
Celts of Britain were unable to resist the Saxons on the field of battle. The Celts were not accustomed to an enemy who
gloried in death and who indiscriminately skewered the vanquished and
non-combatants with sword and pike. When
the Celtic warriors were away from their homes, the Saxons slaughtered Celtic
women and children. After being
impoverished by Saxon bloodshed and pillage, Celtic warriors defeated in battle
gathered together the surviving members of their clans and migrated westward
into Wales and Ireland and northward into Scotland. In their anger and despair, the defeated
Celts resorted to the worst punishment they could imagine for the destructive,
victorious Saxons: after the warfare died down and the surviving Celts had
settled in their new locations, they declined to try to convert the Saxons to
Christianity, thereby denying their former foes the opportunity for everlasting
life in Heaven.
Some
of the British Celts fled to Europe, and a large group settled in Armorica, the
early medieval name for the French peninsula of Brittany. The only chronicler to record the attitude of
the British Celts who went to Brittany towards the Saxons was a monk named
Gildas who wrote a book called On the Ruin of Britain in 560. Gildas was born in approximately 518, about
the time of the Battle of Badon, the only Celtic victory in their long war
against the Saxons, which temporarily halted the Saxon advance in Britain. After their defeat in this battle, it took
the Saxons a generation to regain enough strength to renew their attacks
against the Celts. During this time of
relative peace, Gildas studied at monasteries in British territory still under
Celtic control. When Saxon attacks
resumed in the decade of the 540's, the Celts were unable to withstand the
onslaught, and Gildas was forced to emigrate to
Another
group of British Celts migrated to north-west Spain and settled in the area
which became known as Galicia, derived from the Roman word for Celt. These Celts felt that they had placed enough
distance between themselves and the Saxon menace. Contrary to the British Celts in Brittany,
the British Celts in Spain interacted with the local population. By the middle of the 7th century, they had
established monasteries and schools which admitted native Spanish in accordance
with the Celtic practice of universal access to education. The largest of these was the monastic centre
of Santa Maria de Bretona which flourished for most of the Middle
Ages. However, the British Celtic monks
in Spain had little impact outside the area where they settled because few of
them chose to become wanderers. They
felt as if they were already White Martyrs, living their lives far from their
ancestral home.
During
the Dark Ages, these pockets of British Celtic culture transplanted to mainland
Europe had an influence on the Goths of Spain and the Franks of France. They provided an example of the Celtic way of
life that was broader than the picture painted by monks. Complete with chieftains and farmers,
grandparents and grandchildren, these groups were fully functioning societies
demonstrating Celtic institutions and the Celtic way of life to their
neighbours.
For
the Irish Celts, the Saxons remained only a vague threat, a tale told around
the hearth to frighten children. During
the early Middle Ages, no outside force menaced the
homeland. Thus, the Irish Celts had a
great deal more confidence in their abilities to meet the challenges of
medieval Europe than their British cousins who had grown dispirited by
defeat. The Irish did not hesitate to
travel to foreign lands and actively participate in local society.
PRACTICAL KNOWLEDGE
OF THE MONKS
Although
the Irish monks journeyed to parts of Europe primarily to engage in missionary
work, they chose to live in self-sufficient monasteries somewhat away from
local populations. In Ireland, the monks
built the monasteries in order to create an environment where they could pursue
their ascetic, often solitary, daily regimens and their intensively religious
way of life. Such motivations also went
into the building of the monasteries in Europe; but in fact in Europe the
monasteries were a necessity providing the monks' basic needs. Material trappings enabled the monks not only
to continue to pursue their personal spiritual lives, but also to engage in
their missionary work. For in the early
Middle Ages, with Europe just beginning to recover from the disruptions of the
Dark Ages, there was little trading between regions and usually the state of
local crafts and skills was poor. In the
monks' circumstances, carpentry, masonry, needlework, agricultural, and woodworking
and metalworking skills which supported the monasteries in Ireland were
essential to them. As things went for
the monks in Europe, these skills not only enabled the monks to support
themselves, but were also abilities which attracted the local populations to
them, and in this way served as a means by which the monks introduced their
Christian spiritual message. Suffering
from the social impoverishment and stagnation of the Dark Ages, the western
Europeans found the monks' skills in agriculture, metallurgy and medicine
particularly welcome.
No
field shows the improvements that Irish skills and knowledge brought to general
European society more than the field of agriculture. The farm workers of Europe saw the ordinary
agricultural practices of the monks as highly imaginative and new. The bounty of the fields of crops cultivated
by the monks and the health and growth of their herds of farm animals were
proof of the wisdom of those practices.
Once the Europeans implemented the agricultural practices taught by the
monks, they enjoyed similar results. The
monks taught the far workers to follow a pattern of mixed farming, which
involved deep ploughing in spring, rotating crops and planting a cover of
winter grass in the fall. Another
productive farming practice the Irish monks introduced to Europe was the use of
large ox teams for ploughing, yoking four to six animals together to pull the
plough. Fertilizer was also essential to
the monastic farm. Near the ocean, monks
scattered seaweed and ground seashells onto the fields. Further inland they depended on animal manure
and lime. From time to time, they would
move their animal pens so that they could plant crops in the heavily manured
soil. The monks also taught the
Europeans to balance herds of domestic animals with one pig and one sheep for
each cow, so that if disease should strike any one type of animal, the others
were likely to remain healthy. They were
also careful to raise enough breeder animals to insure the replacement of
ageing or diseased meat animals in their herds.
On
mainland Europe after the fall of Rome, there were vast regional differences in
agricultural methods and technical knowledge.
In Italy, where the estate system of the Romans endured the longest,
farming was relatively advanced. In the
late 6th century, the Roman Christian Church owned much of the land in central
Italy. Farm production not only fed the
clergy but was an important source of revenue for the Church. Before becoming Pope in 590, Gregory the
Great was charged with reorganizing the estates of the Church to insure that
the fields continued to remain productive.
Because he performed this vitally important administrative task well, he
became prominent among the Roman Christian ecclesiastical leaders and was soon
after elected Pope.
But
in many other parts of western Europe, providing
enough food for the local population was a major problem. The Franks, Saxons, Goths, and Lombards who
had invaded the land in the previous century were nomads whose cultures were
based on warfare and conquest. Living in
one place generation after generation after they overran the Roman Empire was a
new way of life for them. The
aristocratic warrior class believed that farming was beneath them. Of course, they had to have enough food for
their own tables and enough surplus to support their
retainers, but they left the details of ploughing, planting and harvesting
crops, and raising herds of animals for meat and milk to the peasantry. The peasants were trapped between the demands
of their overlords for sufficient agricultural production and their own lack of
skills which had been lost when populations had been scattered or decimated by
barbarian invasions. They learned
agricultural skills by trial and error, and hoped that their fields would yield
enough to feed themselves and their families as well as satisfy their lords.
Compared
to the agricultural methods used by the Irish, the farming practices of Europe
were primitive. The nobles and peasants
of the regions surrounding the Irish monasteries could not help but notice the
productivity of the monks. Just as
Columbanus was besieged by Suevians seeking agricultural knowledge, so too were
other Irish monasteries thronged by local people seeking to learn the farming
methods of the monks. By example and
formal instruction, the Irish monks were usually willing to teach their methods
to anyone interested in them. Because
there were monks in different parts of Europe, this resulted in standardized
agricultural techniques across most of Europe.
The
monks' efforts played a major part in the emergence of the manorial system in western Europe during the 8th and 9th centuries. Like the monasteries, each manor was a
self-sufficient unit providing all the food needed to sustain its inhabitants,
from nobles to peasants. The
agricultural techniques of the manors closely resembled the ones taught by the
monks from Ireland, emphasizing manure for fertilization, larger plough teams
and crop rotation.
Metallurgy
was another skill that some Irish monks were highly trained in during the early
medieval period. All large monasteries
required specialists in metals to make tools, hinges, and other metal devices
so that they could be self-sufficient.
Many of the monks who crossed the sea to Europe were master blacksmiths
who forged iron, master whitesmiths who polished the forging until it gleamed,
and braziers who produced lightweight bronze for sconces, candelabra and altar
adornments. When the feudal lords of Europe
and their warriors saw the quality of the tools and ornaments produced by the
Irish monks, they gave the Irish metallurgists the task of making superior
swords, pikes, and armour. It was during
this period that warriors began to use plate armour, which was a solid piece of
metal covering a part of the body. The
Romans had used plate armour, but with the barbarian invasion of the Roman
world the processes required to make solid plates of armour moulded to cover
different parts of the body were lost.
The Goths, Franks, and Saxons who had swept over the Roman Empire used
less protective chain mail, which was a mesh made of metal rings easier to
forge than plate armour. With the
metalworking skills of the Irish craftsmen, however, plate armour resembling
the former armour of the Roman soldiers came back into use.
In
addition to monks with skills in agriculture and metallurgy, each monastery
tried to have at least one monk who was trained in the advanced medical
knowledge of the Druids. Hospitals were
common in Ireland and among them were speciality hospitals that treaded only
one type of illness. Physicians usually
prescribed herbal remedies, and surgeons had the skills to treat gaping wounds
or amputate limbs. Irish healers were
responsible for the outcome of their treatment programs and were subject to
fines if the patient did not recover due to a healer's ignorance or
incompetence.
The
monks with medical skills became especially valued by the armies of the
European lords since more soldiers died from disease than battle wounds. At times of battle, Irish monks would not
only pray for victory, but also tended to the wounded. In the infirmaries set up at their
monasteries, they would treat persons of all social ranks, from peasant to
noble. From the healing powers of the
Irish monks, which usually far surpassed those of local physicians, the
reputation of the Irish medical schools spread throughout Europe. By the 9th century, the medical schools at
the abbeys of Clonmacnoise, Cashel, Portunma, Clonard and Armagh in Ireland
were teaching Irish medical skills to students from all parts of Europe.
The
Irish monks settled in small groups in many part of Europe, separated by long
distances. As with the native
settlements and the petty kingdoms of the early Middle
Ages, there was hardly any communication or any other interactivity among the
monasteries. However, coming from the
isolated island of Ireland where Celtic culture had remained largely unaffected
by the tides of the Dark Ages, the monks had similar skills and knowledge which
had originated with the Celts and had made Celtic lands prosperous during the
centuries of the Roman Empire. The monks
introduced their skills and knowledge to most of western
Europe even though the various monasteries were not in contact among
themselves. With the permanent presence
of the monks, as well as their instruction, the beneficial Celtic skills and
techniques took root in European societies.
As the Dark Ages receded into the past and commerce, education, and political
consolidation once again became a part of European society, the uniform skills,
techniques and practical knowledge brought by the Irish monks spread from the
monasteries to become the foundation for crafts and arts throughout
Europe. The skills and knowledge derived
from the monks which came to be prevalent throughout
THE CAROLINGIAN
RENAISSANCE
A
formative, fundamental period in Western history which carried Europe out of
the backwardness and insularity of the Dark Ages was the Carolingian
Renaissance, initiated during the reign of Charlemagne in the early 9th
century. Irish monks who were already
established in European monasteries and also Irish monks acting on the
invitation of Charlemagne to come to his court to participate in his revival of
learning and spreading of knowledge had major positions in this Renaissance. The Irish monks were not the only scholars
who played a substantive role in the Carolingian Renaissance. One of the main characteristics of this
Renaissance, which helped carry Western culture out of the Dark Ages, was its
breadth and openness, which reflected the generous nature and desire for
learning of Charlemagne and his successors.
Although the Renaissance affirmed and advanced arts, architecture,
literature, religion, political forms, and other basic elements of Western
culture which had been clouded and fragmented in the Dark Ages, it also helped
to preserve classical Greek and Roman writings.
The rediscovery of classical ideas helped fuse the perspectives of the
barbarian invaders with Roman ideas of government, art and virtue; and included
principles of logic, mathematics and science developed in Greece, Byzantium and
the Near East. Even so, with their
established presences throughout western Europe, their
role in the revival of the crafts and practical knowledge among artisans and
peasants, and their educational skills and serious spirituality, the Irish
monks had a role in this early medieval Renaissance beyond that of other
scholars, clergy and teachers who took part in it. At a deeper level as well, with their
connection to Celtic culture, the Irish monks represented the values, beliefs
and way of that life that the Carolingian Renaissance affirmed and advanced
more than any other people involved in it.
Charlemagne
and the Carolingian monarchs of France were descended from Charles Martel. As "Mayor of the palace" for King
Childeric of Austrasia from 719-741, Charles made all the decisions necessary
for governing the kingdom because Childeric wanted to spend his time feasting
and hunting. Because the Moslems who had
invaded Spain were a threat to Christian France, Charles persuaded the Roman
Christian Church to use its wealth to strengthen the army of Austrasia,
Neustria and Burgundy into one realm. It
was his son, Pepin the Short, who gained the title "King" for himself
by deposing Childeric in 751 A.D. To
reduce the possibility that his bold act would spark a civil war, he struck a
bargain with Pope Zachary to gain the support of the Roman Christian
Church. In return for Papal backing,
Pepin promised to help Zachary regain Church lands seized by local Italian nobles. After he became king, Pepin kept his
bargain. In various military campaigns,
he captured the Church lands and turned them over to Zachary.
By
768 when Charlemagne came to share rule over France with his brother Carloman
after the death of his father, Pepin the Short, the Irish monks were familiar
figures in France. As Childerbert of
Burgundy had when he encountered Columbanus in the late 6th century, the
monarchs preceding Charlemagne recognized the value of
the Irish monks to their society, and respected their knowledge and
spirituality.
The
arrangement of shared royal power between Charlemagne and Carloman decreed by
Pepin before his death proved unworkable.
Civil war threatened; but in 771, before the supporters of Charlemagne
and Carloman came to blows, Carloman died.
After
Charlemagne became sole king of the Franks, the Pope asked for his aid in
regaining Church lands seized in northern Italy by the King of the
Lombards. The Pope also urged him to
conquer and convert the German tribes who were pagan. In 773, Charlemagne began a series of wars
with the petty kingdoms and feudal fiefdoms in Italy and Germany and he led his
armies to victory after victory. In 800,
Pope Leo II crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Romans,
a title that most historians believe has no direct connection to the later
Charlemagne
ruled over a vast area stretching from Saxony to Spain and from Rome to
Brittany. He established his Court from
which he ruled over this territory at Aix-la-Chapelle (modern day Aachen),
which became the centre of the Carolingian Renaissance. Affirmed by the Pope as the ruler over both
his inherited and conquered lands, Charlemagne's interests and energies turned
to learning and culture. He desired to
develop a Frankish culture to equal his exceptional military and political
achievements. One of his first measures
was to send emissaries to all parts of Europe and the Near East to invite
scholars to his Court. Many Irish
scholars answered his invitation. With
scholars from other regions, they copied classical manuscripts, communicated
with each other in Latin, and established a school using Roman architecture as
the model for the new buildings. For
copying manuscripts, the scholars devised a script that became known as
Caroline minuscule, which eventually became the standard for documents and
literature across Europe. The script was
still in use in the 15th century, when it became the model for the
moveable-type letters used in the new invention of the printing press.
In
a listing of scholars living at Aix-la-Chapelle compiled by an Irish monk named
Cappuyns, more than a quarter had names which were obviously Irish. In appreciation for the many Irish monks
answering his invitation, Charlemagne donated a large sum of money to the
monastery at Clonmacmnoise on the banks of the Irish River Shannon. As word of the endowment spread throughout
Ireland it prompted a new wave of Irish monks to go to the Court of the
Frankish king. Even after Charlemagne's
death in 814, his successors continued inviting Irish scholars to France. By 870, so many Irish scholars had arrived in
France that Heiric, Bishop of Auserre, lamented, "Almost all Ireland, despising
the sea, is migrating to our shores with a herd of philosophers."
Clemens
Scotus was a prominent Irish scholar who came to Aix-la-Chapelle in this new
wave of monks in the 9th century. The
name Scotus or Scot was a surname given to Celts by the mainland Europeans
regardless of their actual place of origin.
Clemens Scotus wrote a grammar book called Ars Grammatica which
he dedicated to the Emperor Lothar, Charlemagne's grandson who inherited the
Carolingian Empire in 840. Lothar was so
impressed with the book that he appointed Clemens as Master of the Palace
School, the position vacated by Alcuin of York when he left the post. Other prestigious Irish scholars were
Cruinnmael, who wrote a treatise on prose, and Dicuil, the first geographer of
the Carolingian Empire. An Irish monk
named Thomás gained popularity among scholars for his
intellectually-challenging puzzles.
By
the time of the Carolingian Renaissance, the motives for Irish emigration had
changed. White Martyr fervour faded for
the monks in Ireland as they sought personal comfort and were enjoying the fame
resulting from their scholarship. In
addition, the ideal of the White Martyr became more difficult to achieve
because of the success of the Irish monasteries in Europe. They had become flourishing centres of Irish
Celtic society, each one filled with numbers of Irish-born monks revered by the
local people. The monks of Ireland who
visited the monasteries of St. Gall in Switzerland or Bobbio in Italy were
greeted not by strangers, but by former countrymen. Only in eastern
Europe could a 9th-century Irish monk seeking White Martyrdom find the same
sense of loneliness and heroic adventure experienced by his 7th-century
predecessors.
When
the Vikings began to maraud the Irish coastline, they posed a major threat to
the monasteries and gave the monks a new reason to emigrate
to
Perhaps
the most prominent member of the Irish "herd" of philosophers was
John Scotus Eriugena, who was called Eriugena.
In the early 840's he arrived at the court of Charlemagne's grandson,
Charles the Bald. At the time, Charles
was not yet Emperor, but ruled over the Western Franks from Lyon. Charles granted Eriugena a post at the new
palace school that Charles had created to continue the scholarly work started
by his grandfather. Eriugena was a
daring and original thinker for his time, and he was the only scholar at
Charles' court able to read and write in Greek.
No other scholar had learned Greek because the Roman Christian hierarchy
had shunned it due to the ongoing quarrel with the Eastern Orthodox Christians
centred in Byzantium. The Eastern
Christians, who were considered heretical by the Roman Christians, used Greek
for their rituals. The Greek language
was such an anathema to the Roman Christians in the 7th century that Gregory,
the papal legate to Byzantium who later became Pope Gregory I, refused to learn
it, despite spending six years engaged in diplomatic negotiations with the
Byzantine Emperor.
Because
Eriugena was the only scholar who understood Greek, Charles the Bald
commissioned him to translate the writings of Dionysius the Aeropagite from
Greek into Latin. Charles thought the
work was important because he erroneously believed that Dionysius the
Aeropagite was the same man as St. Denis, the patron saint of the Franks whose
Latinized name was Dionysius. In
translating Dionysius's works, Eriugena came to accept the Greek Christian
perspective that human beings could gain some comprehension of divine mysteries
only by comparing them to events and circumstances they were familiar with in
the world around them. For instance, to
gain an understanding of the mystery of Christ's ascension into Heaven, an
individual had to picture Christ's body physically rising into the sky. Human beings could not directly comprehend
the divine, mystical nature of such a happening. The Virgin Birth of Christ and the
resurrection of Christ were other Christian beliefs Greek Christians believed
could be explained only by analogy. In
his book De Divisione Naturae, written after he came to the Greek
Christian way of thinking, Eriugena went so far ass to state the position that
human beings could directly understand nothing about God.
Greek
Christianity and Roman Christianity came down on different sides of the issue
of analogy as they way to know the nature of God. The Roman Christians had rejected the
importance of analogy by the 6th century because they believed this approach
would minimize Scripture by characterizing it as merely stories rather than
literal. Nonetheless, the challenge to
the Roman Christian view posed by Eriugena's book went unnoticed due to its
complexity and subtlety. Medieval
theologians read it, but they did not understand it to any depth.
On
the basis of Eriugena's contributions to the Carolingian Renaissance, his
erudite translation of Dionysius the Aeropagite, and his own learned
theological writings and scholarship, medieval theologians held him in high
regard. Because of his reputation, Pope
Nicholas I praised him in a letter to Charles the Bald. Desiring to bring even greater renown to his
court, Charles appointed Eriugena Master of the Palace School, a position in
which Eriugena could influence the studies off numbers of scholars and
theologians and have an effect on Charles' kingdom long into the future. For nearly 800 years, Eriugena was regarded
as a leading, and even a representative, medieval theologian. Then in the late 1600's, when a reprinting of
his De Divisione Naturae brought new scrutiny to his work, the basis of
Eriugena's writings in Greek Christian beliefs came to light, and Catholic
religious authorities hastily placed all of John Scotus Eriugena's writings on
the list of forbidden books.
Eriugena's
life was filled with more than study and philosophy. As a favourite of Charles the Bald, he was a
constant companion to the king. The
English chronicler, William of Malmesbury, claimed that once when the two men
were sitting together and drinking, Charles asked Eriugena what separated an
Irishman from a drunkard. Eriugena
replied, "The width of this table."
It
was not only the company and the wit of the Irish Celts that made them welcome
in the noble households of Carolingian Europe, but also their play on words,
their humorous tales, and their steadfast refusal to take themselves
seriously. A manuscript preserved in the
monastery of St. Paul in Carinthia, Austria, contains a brief poem written by
an anonymous monk from Kildare. It sums
up the light-hearted attitude that Irish monks often had towards their work:
I
am Pangur Ban my cat
'Tis
a like task we are at;
Hunting
mice is his delight,
Hunting
words I sit all night.
So
in peace our tasks we ply
Pangur
Ban, my cat, and I
In
our arts we find our bliss,
I
have mine and he has his.
During
the Carolingian Renaissance, many Irish monks with poetic talent sought wealth
patrons to support them. One of the most
famous of these, the poet Sedulius, attached himself to the Bishop of Liège,
whose name was Hartgar. Sedulius's poems
were read far and wide. By praising
Hartgar in his poems, Sedulius helped to give the Bishop of Liège a reputation
as an influential prelate who headed a cultured court. Hartgar rewarded Sedulius with a house and
land. He also gave Sedulius a great deal
of gold, which the famed poet used to start a poet's colony. The verse of Sedulius was so renowned that
Ermingarde, wife of the Emperor Lotha, embroidered passages from his poems in
silk tapestries.
Many
Irish bards gathered in Liège to share in Hartgar's beneficence. The poets Fergus, Marcus, Blandus and
Beuchell were permanent residents.
Sedulius called them the "Four Charioteers of the Lord" for
their religious poetry. Anomalously,
their verse was usually light and even frivolous, a stark contrast to the
solemn themes usually associated with religious poetry. Many Irish poets visited Liège for a time
before settling elsewhere. Some of the
poets wrote their signatures on manuscripts Sedulius had written, as if having
their names associated with Sedulius enhanced their own prestige as poets.
Throughout
the Carolingian Renaissance, Irish monks played a leading role in preserving
the knowledge of the ancients and establishing the curriculum that became the
model for education in Europe for centuries.
In addition, the Irish monks took the initiative in teaching craftsmen,
farmers, and other labourers practical skills which helped bring prosperity,
self-sufficiency and stability to Europe after the tumult and ignorance of the
Dark Ages. In various ways in religious,
intellectual, and practical fields, Irish monks played a major role in laying
down the groundwork for the development of European society. Since the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th
and 10th centuries is commonly regarded as the origin of Western civilization,
the place of the humble, indefatigable and selfless labours of the successive
waves of Irish monks in the formation of Western civilization is plain.
THE IRISH AND
EUROPEAN FOLKLORE
Although they were outsiders, the Irish monks affected
the societies where they constructed their monasteries and shared their
knowledge and skills so that folklore and legends often grew up around
them. Such folklore and legend might
recount events in the lives of certain monks, acknowledge the origin of a
valuable skill, or portray a monks' good works for the local population. Or a tale or legend might be like a parable
teaching some moral lesson or illustrate the spirituality of the monks. The folk tales and legends involving the
monks not only affected the place of the monks in the history of society, but
also helped to keep alive the virtues and spiritual message of the monks within
the society.
The
first Irish monk to make an impression in Europe, Columbanus, was among the
first to find his way into folk literature.
In the medieval tale of Columbanus's deeds, the storm which arose
forcing the boat carrying him back to Ireland to return to France was
attributed to Columbanus's own powers.
As medieval storytellers and villagers saw this event, Columbanus
summoned the storm so he could return to Europe to continue his missionary
work. In another improbable, yet
meaningful, medieval tale, the 8th-century Irish monk Renan of Brittany raised
from the dead an infant girl who had been murdered by her mother to hide the
child's birth. As with other characters
of medieval literature, supernatural powers and miraculous deeds which
delighted and instructed medieval audiences were attributed to various
memorable Irish monks when they were brought into the tradition of folk
literature.
The
memory of the presence and the deeds of the monks did not always die out with
the passing of the medieval era and the changing nature of literature in the
opening of the modern age. The
7th-century monk born in Wexford who came to be known as San Cataldo was the
spiritual guardian of Italy's armed forces during World War II. At first known by his Irish name, Cathal,
this venerable monk was shipwrecked near the Italian town of Taranto on his way
back to Ireland from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in about 666. Interpreting Cathal's unexpected appearance
as divine intervention to provide them with a spiritual leader, the local
people appointed Cathal as their bishop.
Because the Italian had difficulty pronouncing Cathal's Irish name, they
called him Cataldo. Cathal remained in
Taranto until his death. His body was
entombed in the local cathedral. As
legend tells it, when his sarcophagus was opened two centuries later, his body
had not decayed - and lying across his chest was a crucifix with the
inscription Cataldus Rachau, which referred to Rathan, the site of an old
monastery in Tipperary. Having survived
a shipwreck, Cathal became recognized as a protector of anyone facing mortal
danger, and because of his good works as Bishop of Taranto, was made a saint by
the Catholic Church. In the 19th
century, the newly independent nation of Italy adopted the saint as the
spiritual guardian of its armed forces.
Many
Irish monks such as Columcille, Columbanus and Gall enjoyed local veneration
and were elevated to sainthood after their death. Sometimes, the bones of long-dead monks were
enshrined. In Pisano, remains purported
to be those of the Irish Celt Fridian, who had been a hermit living on Monte
Pisano, are still kept in a glass case beneath a church altar. Other times, the bones of dead Irish monks
were disinterred and distributed to people for their reputed curative powers, a
practice which helped spread the local folktales surrounding many sainted Irish
monks as the bones were sold or given to sick people across medieval Europe.
The
Irish monks also consciously created myths.
The story of the Harrowing of Hell to encourage the pagans in Germany to
adopt the Christian religion was attributed to an 8th-century Irish monk named
Clemens. He learned that many pagans
resisted baptism, believing that the ceremony would separate them in the
afterlife from their ancestors who had died with no knowledge of Christ. Although it had no basis in scripture,
Clemens created the legend that after the crucifixion, Christ descended into
hell to liberate the souls of the righteous who had died before his coming. This would allow a joyous reunion in heaven
between converts and their pagan ancestors.
Because the tale was useful in gaining converts, orthodox scholars did
not attempt to suppress it.
Besides
the specific folktales the Irish monks devised in order to make Christianity
acceptable to pagans in foreign lands, and the folktales and legends which grew
around memorable monks in parts of Europe, the monks had an influence on
European folk literature with the notions of shape-shifting that was central to
Celtic spirituality. The frightening
figure of the werewolf - a creature half beast and half human - found in the
folktales of many European societies demonstrates the influence of
shape-shifting on the popular imagination.
Many other figures, both terrible and benevolent, of European folk
literature reveal the effects of the shape-shifting concept found in Celtic
spirituality.
The
Irish monks left behind sturdy stone monasteries, intellectual standards,
practical arts, and Christian spirituality as testament to their presence. But perhaps it is their works and teachings
preserved in folk literature in all parts of Europe that best illustrate the
lasting impression they made on the general populations. As well as imparting the wisdom and lessons
of the Irish monks, folktales were a way of distilling the memory of them and
transmitting it through the generations.
LATE MEDIEVAL
ASCETICS AND THE CRUSADES
From
the time of Columbanus in the early 7th century, there had been a steady stream
of Irish monks coming to Europe. During these
years, White Martyr fervour was a strong motivation, and there were plenty of
opportunities to do spiritual and useful work in a Europe benighted by the Dark
Ages. This flow of emigrations
inevitably slowed because of cultural changes in both Ireland and Europe, and
by the late 10th century it was no more than a trickle. Monasteries in both Ireland and Europe had
lost much of the spiritual fervour that characterized them in the early
medieval period. Abbots permitted many
monks from wealthy families to bring luxurious furnishings and exotic foods
into the monasteries. There were even
occasions of monasteries warring with each other over disputed grazing
land. Without the spiritual ideal of the
White Martyr, there was little incentive for the Irish monks of the times to
brave the hardships of travel and endure the separation from friends and
family. During the late medieval period,
most Irish monks were content to remain in the monasteries of Ireland. When they travelled at all, it was for a
specific purpose such as pilgrimage, study at a European scholastic centre, or
to attend a synod; and usually they returned home after a temporary visit to
foreign lands.
This
did not mean that no Irish Celts settled in Europe during the late medieval
period. Some of the monks embraced a
religious reform movement that sought to rekindle the ascetic spirit of the
White Martyr. They called themselves the
Cèli De, the vessels of God. But
their practices were so rigorous that the movement attracted relatively few
followers. Its most extreme form was the
inclusi, monks who walled themselves into a cell for their remaining
lifetime. The cell had a small opening
for food and waste removal, but all other contact with the outside world was
shunned. During the 11th and 12th
centuries, monasteries in Mainz, Obermunster, Vienna and Kiev had Irish inclusi
dwelling within their cloister walls.
Because these ascetics did not interact with others, they had no impact
on European society in general. Even
within their monasteries, the inclusi had little effect on the other
monks; few followed their example by embracing this exceptionally stark way of
life.
During
the 12th and 13th centuries, the Crusades to free the Holy Land from Moslem
control indirectly stimulated emigration by providing a new spiritual motive
for Irish monks to travel across Europe on their way to the Holy Land. Monks from Ireland again ventured abroad in
large numbers, intent on making the arduous journey to Jerusalem, which the
Pope ordained would result in forgiveness of their sins. Along the long and hazardous route, the
continental monasteries established by their predecessors became way stations
where a weary pilgrim could find a nourishing meal and a night's lodging. Sometimes sickness or advanced age forced
Irish monks to remain in European monasteries far longer than they had
originally intended. Other times, a monk
on pilgrimage would become interested in the way of life or the work performed
in a European monastery and settled there on the return trip from the Holy
Land. During the late medieval period,
these wandering monks who had come to Europe for reasons far different than the
White Martyrs maintained a cultural link between Ireland and the monasteries on
the mainland.
Due
to the constant presence of the Irish monks and scholars in schools,
monasteries, and royal courts, the French, Spanish, and Germans gradually
became accustomed to them during the Middle Ages. The monks' knowledge and scholarship became
as valuable to the kingdoms where they lived as supplies of food and weapons of
war. Yet these Irish wanderers had a
loyalty beyond their allegiance to the local king or political chieftain. They also adhered to their Celtic Christian
view that all knowledge complemented spirituality.
The
numbers of Irish monks who went to Europe concentrated on their own ascetic
regimens, the missionary work of spreading Christianity, and practical
instruction when this was sought by local populations. In these aims, the monks had considerable
success, which caused them to have a much broader effect on European
society. The monks embodied Celtic
culture as it had been preserved in Ireland unaffected by the widespread and
transforming historical developments of continental Europe in the centuries of
the dominance of Rome and the barbarian invasions. In contrast to the Celtic culture of Ireland,
the Celtic culture which had been the prevailing culture in Europe until Caesar
conquered Gaul in 50 B.C. had become mixed with Roman forms of government and
civic ideas; Greek forms of the arts which had been adopted by Roman
civilization; a perspective on Christianity growing out of Near Eastern
concepts of spirituality; and barbarian inclinations for destructive
warfare. Nonetheless, Celtic culture was
not abolished by these various influences.
Rather, Celtic culture was the matrix by which these influences affected
the societies of Europe; the matrix which allowed these influences to have
genuine, enduring effects upon these societies.
Despite
the strong influences on Celtic culture which changed it in significant and
irreversible ways, there was a continuity to Celtic
culture in
CHAPTER
4
The
Emergence of Irish Culture
...
to extend the bounds of the Church, to proclaim to a rude and untaught people
the truth ... to root out nurseries of vice ... we are pleased and willing ...
that you shall enter that island and do therein what tends to the honour of God
and the salvation of the people.
- Pope
Adrian IV from the Bull Laudibiliter, 1166 A.D.
THE VIKINGS AND
EARLY IRISH HISTORY
In the beginning of the 9th century A.D., Viking
raiders began to plunder the coastal communities of Ireland. At first, they seemed to the Irish like a
scourge sent by a malevolent god, invincible marauders who murdered anyone who
stood between them and the gold they sought.
As time passed, however, the Vikings settled in Ireland and formed
communities of their own. Through
marriage and commerce, they eventually forged friendlier relationships with the
Celtic Irish.
The
first Viking landing was in 795 at a town on the east coast of Ireland called
Howth, and was recorded in the Annals of Inisfallen. Like other Europeans, the Irish referred to
the marauders as Vikings, a name derived from the Scandinavian word for bay, vik. Vikings originally meant "men of the
bays". However, after suffering
Viking depredations, the term Viking became synonymous with "pirate"
for the Irish. During the next few
decades, dragon-prowed longships were a frequent sight in the coves and inlets
of Ireland. The tall and fierce Vikings
seemed invincible, a nightmare terror that feared no mortal force. Because their ships allowed them to move
rapidly along the coast, they could strike and retreat before any band of
Celtic warriors could gather to challenge them.
By 814, the Vikings had complete mastery of the coastline. They raided freely wherever they wished, and
established coastal settlements with no opposition. To be able to continue their peaceful and
solitary way of life, Irish monks from the island of Iona and monasteries near
the sea enlarged the inland monastery at Kells.
The monks of Iona were attracted to Kells not only because of its safer
location, but also because, like Iona, the original abbey of Kells was founded
by Columcille. The monks at Kells
created the illuminated manuscript named The Book of Kells, and in the
late Middle Ages the monastery became a centre of
Irish scholarship.
According
to the Book of Armagh, Viking raiders spent their first winter in
Ireland in 840. They build fortifications
around their encampments, which eventually grew into towns and cities. In 841, the Vikings made a camp which grew
into the city of Dublin; and within a few years other camps appeared at
locations which would become the cities of Wexford, Waterford, Limerick and
Cork. Because they now had permanent
bases of operations, the numbers of Norsemen in Ireland swelled. They were able to mount inland raiding
expeditions which posed a greater threat to the native Celts than the coastal
attacks.
For
more than a hundred years after the Vikings first arrived in Ireland, political
quarrelling prevented the Celtic clans from unifying to expel them. The Norse enemies of the Celts originated
from different Scandinavian lands and were similarly disunited. Norse and Celt engaged in sporadic conflicts
until 976 when a Celt named Brian Boru arose to become chieftain of the clan
Dál Cais, won the High Kingship and unified all of Ireland under his banner. Brian was an ambitious and ruthless warlord
who promised eventual Celtic victory over the Vikings if the chieftains
submitted to his leadership; but any chieftain who refused to acknowledge
Brian's authority was attacked by his forces.
Within three years of becoming king of the Dál Caisian clan, Brian
became the overlord of the clans of southern Ireland, and used his army to end
the Viking menace in the territory that he controlled. Over the next few decades he proved so adept
on the battlefield against both Vikings and rival Celtic clans that he was able
to force Maélsechlainn, the High King of Ireland, to relinquish his crown. Afterwards, the clan chieftains immediately
elected Brian to be the new High King of Ireland.
Brian's
success as a battle-leader and his ability to control the clan chieftains
through a mixture of fear and charisma made him the most politically and
militarily effective High King that Ireland had seen for centuries. Under his leadership, the Celts gradually
overcame the Viking strongholds in the rest of Ireland. In 1004, Brian led his forces into the
Brian
Boru's success in politics and battle stimulated new interest in the position
of High King of Ireland. He was the only
High King of Ireland during the Middle Ages to exact feudal fealty similar tot
he fealty commanded by monarchs in other parts of Europe. After Brian's death, however, no claimant to
the crown of High King was powerful enough or charismatic enough to continue
ruling all of the Celtic clans. Clan
chieftains resumed struggling among themselves to become the monarchs of entire
provinces, and every chieftain hoped to gain the throne of the High King.
It
took almost two centuries of constant Viking menace to prompt the Celtic clans
to overcome their tradition of factionalism and rivalry, uniting under Brian
Boru's leadership. Once the Viking threat
was eliminated, the clans returned to their customary feuds and skirmishes.
The
Viking presence set in motion many changes in Celtic-Irish culture beyond the
areas of politics and warfare. In the
early 9th century, the threat of Viking raiders fuelled the Carolingian
Renaissance by causing a sudden upsurge in emigration to Europe by the monks
who lived in the particularly vulnerable coastal monasteries. These monks were motivated not by White
Martyr fervour, but by the urge to survive.
The Viking raids, however, were not a temporary phenomenon like a brief
and violent storm passing in the night.
Skirmishes and pitched battles with Vikings became a continual aspect of
Celtic-Irish life for most of the 9th and 10th centuries. After a few decades, the Celtic monks reacted
to the Viking menace not be fleeing from it, but by building fortress-like
monasteries inland, hoping to find security behind stone walls. These monks also trained with sword and spear
to defend themselves against the Viking marauders. This combination of the religious and
military ways of life was a forerunner to the Knights Templar and the Knights
of St. John who battled the Saracens during the Crusades.
Although
the Viking depredations in Ireland terrified the Celts and kept them always on
their guard, the Vikings were not bent solely on pillage and rapine and then
returning to their homeland laden with captives and booty. They often settled in coastal areas building
fortifications and following the Norse way of life. They also introduced minted coins as the
primary medium of commercial exchange, and these coins gradually replaced the
Celtic system of barter. Because the
Vikings were a seafaring people, they maintained a continuous link between
Ireland and other parts of Europe. When
Celtic-Irish monks or adventurers set sail for mainland Europe after the defeat
of the Vikings by Brian Boru, it was usually in a Viking longship.
The
cities built by the Vikings gradually transformed Irish society by becoming
trade centres for Irish and European goods.
By the beginning of the 10th century, the Vikings permitted merchants
from many nations, including Irish Celts from clans not at war with the
Vikings, to live in the cities of Wexford, Galway, Cork and Dublin. These merchants reaped profits by using
Viking ships to transport Irish linen, wool and butter to markets in
continental Europe. They carried back to
Ireland spices, perfumes and exotic foods that could grow only in warmer
climates. During the later Middle Ages, the Irish came to depend heavily on the export
of their products to
When
Scandinavia was converted to Christianity by Roman Christian missionaries
during the 10th and 11th centuries, Nordic Roman Christians settled in the
Irish cities founded by the Vikings. These cities became centres of Roman Christian
belief, although the large majority of the Irish population, who lived in the
countryside, remained Celtic Christian.
During the decades following their foundation, the cities were Roman
Christian enclaves that lay outside of mainstream Celtic society. Prompted by the preaching of urban clergy who
desired to establish conformity with Roman Christian doctrine in all of
Ireland, more and more Irish people abandoned Celtic Christian practices. By the early 12th century, the
"Romani", the minority of Celts who favoured full acceptance of Roman
dogma, had gained sufficient power to hold their own synods and to reform the
Celtic marriage laws so that divorce was forbidden. Despite the Celtic tradition of religious
tolerance, the Irish "Romani" were intolerant of Celtic
Christianity. Prominent clergymen like
St. Malachy preached that all Irish should follow Roman Christian practices and
beliefs. The "Romani"
regularly appealed to the Pope for financial and spiritual aid to bring all of
the people living in Ireland into the Roman Christian fold. Nonetheless, Celtic Christianity remained the
dominant branch of the religion until the 13th century.
After
the Viking menace ended in the 11th century, fewer monks travelled to Europe
than in the early medieval period. Some
monks settled in established European monasteries, while a few wandered
eastward to found new monasteries in Russia and Poland. Many Irish monks visited shrines and
monasteries and attended ecclesiastical councils during brief journeys to
Europe. These travellers maintained the
link between
The
Viking invasion and settlement of Ireland caused a cultural crisis for the
Celtic Irish which lasted from the 9th to the 11th centuries. Celtic society found itself in turmoil and began
a process of reorganization that prompted the Irish people to turn to their
domestic problems. Celtic society was
flexible enough to meet the challenge posed by the Vikings and endured with its
fundamental beliefs relatively intact.
But in 1169, the Anglo-Norman invasion initiated a second cultural
crisis for the Celts, and set in motion a process of change that would
transform the Celtic way of life.
THE ANGLO-NORMAN
INVASION
When
the Anglo-Norman nobles of England led an army of invasion into Ireland in
1169, they were a far more formidable foe for the Celts than the Vikings. The Anglo-Normans were well-organized and
battle-hardened warriors with a mandate from their king to conquer the entire
island. The origin of the invasion was
in 1156 when an English king who was himself a descendant of the Norsemen
desired to add Ireland to his domains.
His name was Henry II, and he commanded some of the finest knights that
the medieval world had seen. His
warriors were Norman, descendants of the Norsemen from the French peninsula of
Normandy who had conquered England in 1066.
They combined all the physical hardiness of their Viking ancestors with
a newly developed discipline necessary for battlefield victories. Their tactics and their martial skills had
been honed in desert battles against Moslem armies during the Crusades.
To
help legitimize his territorial ambitions, Henry secured approval for an
invasion of Ireland from Pope Adrian IV, who had been an Englishman with the
name Nicholas Breakspeare before his election to the Papacy. In the Papal Bull Laudibiliter, Adrian
gave Henry Church permission to invade Ireland and use his secular power to
curb the practices of the Irish Christians which did not conform to Roman
Christian doctrine. In return, Henry was
to pay Rome one penny for each Irish household, a tax which became known as
"Peter's Pence" because the money went to St. Peter's successor, the
Pope. Although the Vatican claims to
have no copy of the Bull in its archives, the contents were confirmed in a
letter by Adrian's successor, Pope Alexander III. In 1175, six years after the Anglo-Norman
invasion, the letter was read publicly at the synod of Waterford in
Ireland. The Anglo-Norman chronicler
Giraldus Cambrensis heard the reading of the letter and recorded it in his
writings. The public disclosure of the
Bull stirred anger and apprehension in most of the Irish. But for the "Romani", who strictly
adhered to Roman Christian doctrine and ritual, whether they were ruled by
Irish chieftains or English kings mattered little as long as everyone was
brought into the Roman Christian fold.
Although
with the Papal Bull, Henry II now had ostensible grounds for invading Ireland,
he chose not to do so right away. Far
from putting off his aim, he was instead craftily looking for the appropriate
circumstances in Ireland which would make his intended conquest easier by
lowering Irish resistance. Henry II's
opportunity arose in 1166 when the loser in a quarrel between two Irish rulers
came to England seeking his aid. The
quarrelling rulers were Dermot MacMurrough, the King of Leinster, and Tiernan ó
Rourke, the Prince of Breífne. The basis for the conflict which broke out
between them was Dermot's romance with Devorgilla, the wise of Tiernan. One night - so the story goes - Dermot
carried Devorgilla off from Tiernan's castle.
Although Devorgilla was a willing participant in this abduction, the two
lovers spread the story that Dermot had taken Devorgilla by force in order to
try to protect Devorgilla's reputation.
Before long, Devorgilla tired of Dermot and returned to her husband,
Tiernan. Tiernan never forgot this
insult to his honour, and he never forgave Dermot. Fourteen years later Tiernan began a war with
Dermot. Dermot was defeated and fled to
England, where he approached Henry II for aid in returning to Ireland to defeat
Tiernan and recover his lost lands and position as king. In exchange for Dermot's pledge of fealty to
him, Henry II would allow Dermot to enlist the aid of any Anglo-Norman nobles
who wanted to help his cause. With
Dermot promising estates in Ireland for any noble who would offer him military
aid, the English King knew that Dermot would have no trouble enlisting
Anglo-Norman allies. Henry II would
begin his long-intended conquest of Ireland by landing a large, well-equipped
English army in Ireland in support of an Irish ruler trying to reclaim what he
had lost.
Maurice
Regan was a companion of Dermot's who went with him to England. In his poem, Song of Dermot, Regan
depicts Dermot's appeal to Henry II for aid in regaining his land and power in
Ireland:
"May God who dwells
on high
Ward you and save you,
King Henry
And
likewise give you
Heart and courage and
determination
To
avenge my shame and my misfortune
That my own people brought upon me.
To
you I come to make plaint, Good Sire,
In the presence of the
Barons of your Empire
Your
liegeman I shall become
On condition that you be
my helper
So that I may not lose everything.
You I shall acknowledge as
Sire and Lord
In the presence of your barons and earls."
While
Dermot was preparing to return to Ireland with his Anglo-Norman allies, he
learned about the new techniques of warfare developed by the Anglo-Normans in
the Crusades. Unlike the Irish, who
favoured wild and individual combat between champions of opposing sides, the
Anglo-Normans fought in formations. The
troops Dermot saw on manoeuvres moved as one body under the direction of their
general. After a victory, the
Anglo-Normans remained in the territory they had seized by force of arms,
quickly building fortified camps and stone castles. Using these fortresses as bases of
operations, the Anglo-Normans would range out and defeat any remnants of the hostile
forces. Then the Anglo-Norman nobles
would seek a charter from the English king to possess the land that they had
conquered on behalf of the king by pledging fealty and submission to the
crown. The king would "own"
the newly conquered land and grant it back to the conqueror, who would become
its protector in the name of the crown.
If the noble subsequently offended the king, the charter could be
revoked, often leading to bloody conflict between the king and a dispossessed
noble.
To
find Anglo-Norman nobles eager to acquire lands in Ireland, Dermot dispatched
Maurice Regan to Wales with copies of Henry's "Letter of Patent",
which pledged royal support for an invasion.
Among the first to answer the call were Richard de Clare, called Strongbow,
Robert Fitzstephen and Maurice Fitzgerald, all descendants of "the most
beautiful woman in Wales", Princess Nesta.
Many of the other nobles who accompanied these adventurers were the
younger sons of noble families who had scant prospects of living a life of ease
and luxury in England. Under the Anglo-Norman
rule of primogeniture, the entire family estate would pass to the eldest male
offspring of the lord, leaving the younger brothers without means of
support. In Ireland, they hoped to
create their own estates.
Strongbow
was by far the most influential of the Anglo-Norman nobles who decided to cross
the Irish Sea in aid of Dermot. His
grandfather had fought beside William the Conqueror at Hastings in 1066 and the
de Clare family had high standing among the Anglo-Norman nobility. Like his father before him, he was called
Strongbow because of his skill in archery.
He was a veteran of many battles and a skilled tactician. As an additional incentive to Strongbow to
lend his support to the Irish expedition, Dermot promised him the hand of his
daughter, Aiofe.
In
1169 a small group of Anglo-Normans under the command of Robert Fitzstephen
landed unopposed at Bannow, on the south-eastern coast of Ireland. According to The Song of Dermot, they
were soon joined by Dermot, who mustered five hundred Irish warriors supporting
his cause from the local countryside.
The joint force marched on Wexford, quickly capturing the city, which
was still inhabited mostly by Norse traders.
Fearing
he would lose out on the conquests, Strongbow sent his own advance guard under
the command of Raymond Fitzgerald, called Lo Gros. His orders were to secure a beachhead for the
main landing. In early May of 1170,
Fitzgerald came ashore at Baginbun Head, about five miles from Waterford. He hastily began construction of a stockade
fort and captured cattle to feed his troops.
Before his defences were complete, Fitzgerald was attacked by a
coalition of local Irish clans.
According to The Song of Dermot:
But many a wound was taken and dealt
And
many a life foredone
And stark lay knight and gallowglass
Archers
and kerne in motly mass
Before the post was won.
A less poetical account was written by the
contemporary historian Giraldus Cambrensis, who paints a less grim picture of
the battle:
"Being
besieged, by a general consent it was advised rather to rally and die manfully
than to endure a lingering siege.
Raymond then commands the gates to be opened, the cattle was driven forth and followed with shouts and cryes, to
offryght them, who braking on the Irish and put them into suche confusion as
that the English obtained an easy victory."
The
breachhead held until August 23rd when Strongbow landed with two hundred
knights and one thousand foot soldiers.
The reinforcements enabled the Anglo-Normans to break out of their
position and surround Waterford. Two
attacks on the city were repulsed. Then
Fitzgerald discovered a weak point in the defences and breached the walls. The Anglo-Normans swarmed into the city,
indiscriminately slaughtering the citizens.
Strongbow
chose Dublin as the next target, and advanced north with his knights and foot
soldiers. The High King of Ireland,
Ruaidri Ua Conchobair, mustered a large army and marched south to intercept the
invaders. But the Anglo-Normans bypassed
the Irish forces when Dermot - who had joined Strongbow in Ireland - led his
allies through the Wicklow Mountains by a shepherd's track. When the Anglo-Normans approached the walls
of Dublin, the Norse and Irish inhabitants sent Archbishop Laurence O'Toole to
parley with the enemy. Since the
clergyman was Dermot's brother-in-law, the Dubliners thought that he could
arrange a peaceful settlement. As the
two sides negotiated, Raymond Fitzgerald and Milo de Cogan assaulted the city
without orders, breaching the defences.
Asculf
MacTorkil, king of the city, rallied his warriors to repel the intruders. But the wild battle tactics of the Norsemen
and Celts were no match for the disciplined Anglo-Norman troops. After a brief skirmish, the Norsemen fled to
their longships and sailed for the Orkney Islands. Quite suddenly, Strongbow became master of
the largest urban centre in Ireland.
The
Irish lacked the military and political unity of the Anglo-Normans. No leader like Brian Boru stepped forward to
effectively guide them, no warlord roused the
countryside against the invaders. The
Irish who did not live close to the invasion points did not immediately view
the Anglo-Normans as a threat to their way of life. Invaders like the Vikings had come to Ireland
before and eventually had been defeated and assimilated. Only after the Anglo-Normans established
themselves by quickly expanding their territory and resisting all attempts to
expel them did the Irish learn that they intended to reshape Irish society by
destroying Celtic culture in the areas they conquered.
The
Irish who fought against the invaders were usually defeated by the superior
tactics and arms oft he Anglo-Normans.
The military disadvantage of the Celtic Irish was particularly apparent
in combat against a formation of Anglo-Norman knights who were steel armour
from head to toe. The Celtic Irish wore
only "soft" armour of leather, scant protection from a thrust from a
broadsword or a blow from a mace. To
reduce their casualties, the Celtic Irish resorted to the traditional Celtic
tactic of ambush and manoeuvre by attacking small groups of Anglo-Norman
knights who had strayed away from the main force. But this tactic was not effective in
preventing the conquest of large parts of Ireland by the Anglo-Normans.
The
Anglo-Norman invasion in 1169 signalled the beginning of the end of the purely
Celtic culture in Ireland. During the
next two centuries the invaders introduced their laws, language and methods of
warfare, which along with increasingly oppressive English rule gradually
transformed the Celtic way of life throughout Ireland. By the 16th century, the conqueror's policies
towards the native Irish had grown so tyrannical that they stimulated new waves
of Irish emigration to Europe.
ANGLO-NORMAN
IRELAND
The
first Anglo-Norman invaders conducted themselves as if they were members of an
elite warrior band under the leadership of Strongbow. Most of the leading knights were related by
blood and were closely bound by personal loyalty to each other and to their leader. In battle, their armament and tactics made
them invincible. After vanquishing
Celtic armed opposition, they carved out fiefdoms for themselves. The advisors of Henry II noticed the
cohesiveness of the Anglo-Norman knights, and warned the King that an
independent Welsh-Norman kingdom in Ireland was a possibility.
King
Henry was kept abreast of possible conspiracies by battlefield reports and
spies who reported on the activities of the Anglo-Norman knights. His own political instincts, as well as the
warnings from his advisors, led him to summon Strongbow to his court in
1171. Henry wanted to be sure that the
conquered lands would indeed by subject to his rule. Strongbow delayed responding to the royal
summons for almost a year. When he
returned to England, however, he submitted fully to Henry by ceding his Irish
territory to the crown without reservation.
Satisfied with Strongbow's pledge of loyalty, Henry granted the lands
back to him. Then Henry went to Ireland
to affirm his sovereignty not only over the territory conquered by the
Anglo-Normans, but over all of Ireland.
To
ensure the loyalty of Strongbow's men, Henry accepted their individual
submissions and granted them fiefdoms in the territories they had
conquered. At the same time, he sent
Hugh de Lacy to persuade many of the Irish clan chieftains who lived outside of
the territory controlled by the Anglo-Normans to pledge fealty to him. The Celts did not understand the feudal
concept of surrendering land to the king, who could potentially grant the land
to someone else. They believed that de
Lacy was a peace envoy from a monarch similar to their own High King. De Lacy encouraged the Irish chieftains to
perform a ritual of submission to Henry; which the Celts believed ended
hostilities, but which Henry believed gave him absolute control over Celtic
lands. The first conflict from this
misunderstanding occurred when Henry rewarded de Lacy by granting him 800,000
acres of ó Rourke land after Tiernan ó Rourke submitted to the crown. Believing that his trust had been betrayed,
Tiernan mustered his clan to battle the Anglo-Normans for possession of his
lands, but de Lacy assassinated him while the two men parleyed under a flag of
truce. The murder of Tiernan ó Rourke
inspired many other clan chieftains to recant their submission to Henry.
Although
Henry II and his successors, Richard I and John, continued to claim sovereignty
over all of Ireland, they did not enforce their claim outside of the territory
settled by the original Anglo-Norman invaders.
The Anglo-Normans were most powerful in the areas where the first
landings had taken place, in the eastern regions which became the counties of
Meath, Louth, Dublin and Kildare. By the
year 1200, they gained control of Galway on the west coast. This territory was connected to the eastern
Anglo-Norman areas by a route secured by military patrols through the
Celtic-dominated lands in the interior of Ireland.
The
relationship between the Celtic Irish and the Anglo-Normans began to stabilize
when the Anglo-Norman lords grew content with their current land holdings, and
stopped using their military campaigns to acquire new territory. They turned their attention to developing
prosperous manors to support their lavish way of life. In London, the Crusades and domestic problems
occupied the attention of the English kings.
They also stopped compelling the Anglo-Normans to force the Celtic
chieftains to submit to the crown outside of the areas they presently dominated.
During
the 13th century, the Anglo-Normans gradually introduced their way of life into
Ireland. They administered their
territory with a governmental system far more formal and structured than the
loose political organization of the Celts.
Many areas were divided into counties, which became the basis for many
of the modern Irish county demarcations.
Each county was administered by an earl with various barons appointed as
lords over local estates within the county.
The Anglo-Normans also used a governmental unit called the Liberty. This was a vast tract of land under the
direct control of a single Anglo-Norman lord.
Above the earls and lords of the Liberties was the king of England, who
ostensibly controlled the land in a pyramidal chain of command. By the mid-13th century, this system proved
inefficient when two lords of Liberties, de Lacy and Marshall,
died without male issue. The Liberties
were divided among the lords' brothers and sisters according to English
custom. This created many smaller
Liberties directly under the king, who had no deputy or viceroy in Ireland to
act on his behalf. Since London was far
away and communications were slow, the lords of the Liberties could often act
as if they were independent monarchs.
Because
the earls, barons and lords of the Liberties initially had little trust in the
Celtic Irish, they imported large numbers of Welsh and English peasants to work
the land. These immigrants lived by
foreign customs and spoke their native tongues of English and French. But the newcomers were not so alien that they
did not share some cultural common ground with the Celtic Irish. Celts and Anglo-Normans gradually began
trading their goods in marketplaces, their ideas in alehouses and their
affections in bed chambers. The Celtic
Irish grew accustomed to the foreigners living in their midst, no longer
viewing them as an immediate threat to their society. At the same time, the newcomers adopted
aspects of Celtic culture, forming the basis for a merger of Celtic and Anglo-Norman
culture.
THE ECLIPSE OF
CELTIC CHRISTIANITY
Before
the coming of the Anglo-Normans, many Irish Christians practised the Roman
version of the religion. All Irish
Christians recognized the authority of the Pope. Yet not all followed the Pope's decrees
regarding ritual and doctrine. During
the 11th and 12th centuries, the Roman Christians became increasingly
intolerant of all other beliefs, whether pagan or alternative versions of
Christianity. When the militarily
powerful Anglo-Normans arrived ostensibly on a mission from the Pope, the
"Romani" - who were Roman Christians - seized the opportunity to
attack Celtic Christian practice and beliefs.
Because
the Anglo-Normans had initially cloaked their territorial ambitions with
religious justification, the Roman Christians of Ireland used the pretence that
they had a clear mandate to act swiftly and vigorously to eliminate Celtic
Christian practices in the territories under Anglo-Norman control. To accomplish this, the
Irish Roman Christian clergy - whether Irish or Anglo-Norman - initially
supported the Anglo-Norman government, recognizing that Roman ecclesiastical
superiority was linked to English political domination. But during the 13th century, an ethnic rift
occurred between the Irish and the Anglo-Norman Roman Christians. The Anglo-Normans viewed all Christian
religious practices of the native Irish as potentially deviant, even the ritual
and beliefs of those who claimed to be Roman Christian. In the eyes of the Anglo-Roman clergy, it mattered
little which sect a priest or monk adhered to if the blood flowing through his
veins was Celtic Irish. This attitude
led the bishops of Anglo-Norman ancestry to oppose leadership positions for the
native-born clergy even if the Irish clergy completely conformed to Roman
Christian doctrine and practice. They
went so far as to propose to the Fourth Lateran Council held in Rome in 1215
that anyone of Celtic Irish heritage be excluded from the office of bishop, a
measure that was rejected by the assembly.
The Council was attended by many European monks with links to the Celtic
Irish, either because they had been born in
Undaunted
by their defeat at the Lateran Council, the Anglo-Norman clergy devised other
methods to further their ambitions of total religious supremacy over
Ireland. In the parts of Ireland under
English control, the Anglo-Norman Roman Christians established a diocese system
which placed all clergy and religious institutions in a region under the
control of a bishop appointed by the Pope.
The Celts had rejected this hierarchical system more than seven hundred
years earlier when St. Patrick attempted to introduce it. The Anglo-Norman clergy also invited the
mendicant orders of Dominicans and Franciscans to come to Ireland to replace
the monks of the local Celtic monasteries.
Both of these newly formed orders were directly under Papal authority. The Dominican monks and Franciscan friars
gave their allegiance not to the Celtic way of life, but to the Roman Christian
hierarchy.
Because
in theory the Church was above politics, the Anglo-Norman clergy maintained
that their claims of exclusive ecclesiastical leadership in Ireland were grounded
in spiritual, not secular concerns. They
ensured that an English-born bishop was installed in the important urban
centres. The first was John Comyn, who
was appointed Archbishop of Dublin in 1181.
His successor was Henry of London, who spent more time hunting red deer
than tending to the duties of his office.
Because Dublin was the most important city under Anglo-Norman rule,
Henry claimed complete religious primacy over Ireland. Henry's claim rankled
the Celtic Archbishops of Armagh.
Because of St. Patrick's original work in Armagh in the 5th century, the
Bishops of Armagh assumed that they were Patrick's successors and they alone
could claim leadership in Irish religious matters.
The
position of the Irish-born Roman Christians was undermined in 1213, when King
John of England took the unprecedented step of making feudal submission to Pope
Innocent III. On the surface, this meant
that the Pope became the suzerain of England and King John was merely his
vassal. In practice, it gave official Roman
Christian sanction for the political aspirations of England. Deeds both base and noble could be justified
as acts for the greater glory of the Church, and often Anglo-Norman priests
openly supporting English domination were named Archbishops.
The
Anglo-Norman clergy bound to Roman Christianity maintained its strong
determination to eradicate Celtic Christianity, and they continued to press
towards their goal by any means that they could. The vulnerable, subjugated position of the
Celtic Christians took an ominous turn for the worse in 1321 when the
Anglo-Norman Bishop Richard de Ledrede of the Ossory Diocese located near
Kildare obtained the authority to take the initiative in rooting out any heresy
in his diocese. For de Ledrede, Celtic
Christianity was a heresy. De Ledrede
was granted such broad and exceptional authority by a synod which he convened
in Ossory - specifically to grant him such authority. The means de Ledrede intended to use to reach
his goal of rooting out Celtic Christianity once and for all were associated
with the practices of the Inquisition.
De Ledrede intended especially to use Pope John XXII's Bull which
equated heresy with the diabolic art of witchcraft to reach his goal.
De
Ledrede was an English-born Franciscan monk who had been appointed Bishop of
Ossory by Pope John XXII. This same Pope
issued his edict against heresy in 1315 because he was troubled by recurring
dreams of seductive women that he believed were caused by spells cast by
heretics. Equating heresy with witchcraft
made sense in terms of medieval beliefs, which held that the world was
inhabited not only by human beings, but also by invisible demons that tried to
lure humans into evil. Since the Roman
Christians maintained that any religious belief contrary to their doctrine was
evil, it did not require much of a stretch of medieval logic to see opposing
beliefs as a sign that the religion they were part of was inspired by demons.
Since
de Ledrede's benefactor, Pope John XXII, had equated heresy with witchcraft and
witch hysteria was sweeping across Europe at the time, de Ledrede was led to
accuse Celtic Christians of being witches.
Adopting the Inquisitorial tactics stemming from the Pope's edict was a
way for de Ledrede to vigorously pursue his goal of eradicating Celtic
Christianity as well as curry favour with the Pope, thereby strengthening his
ecclesiastical and political position.
The
first person de Ledrede targeted as a witch was Alice Kyteller, the daughter of
a prominent Anglo-Norman knight. Alice
was accused of being the leader of a group of heretics. The accusation against her rested partly on
the fact that three men she had been married to had died, and her current
husband, Richard Le Poer, believed that she was slowly poisoning him. Alice was also accused of consorting with a
demon incubus named Robin mac Art, who was in fact probably her Celtic-Irish
lover by that name. Whatever the formal
charges, Alice Kyteller was targeted mainly because of her open practice of
Celtic customs and her Celtic beliefs.
Alice
was not such an easy target, however.
Besides being the daughter of a prominent Anglo-Norman knight, she was
also related by marriage to the Viceroy of Ireland, appointed by King Edward II
of England. Alice fled to Dublin, where
she would be under the protection of the Viceroy. Frustrated, de Ledrede tried to prosecute
Alice's son in her place. But this
landed de Ledrede in jail for violating due process required by civil law. The matter petered out when de Ledrede was
released from jail and Alice fled from Ireland.
Not to be entirely deterred, de Ledrede prosecuted Alice's Celtic maid,
Petronilla of Meath. The hapless maid
was the first person burned at the stake for witchcraft in Ireland.
De
Ledrede did not have much success in prosecuting alleged witches or initiating
a campaign against reputed heretics throughout Ireland, however. The Anglo-Norman civil authorities were not
willing to give up their own powers and prerogatives to the Anglo-Norman
clergy, or even to share such powers and prerogatives equally with them.
Moreover, with the tradition of tolerance for different religious beliefs and
ideas among the native inhabitants of Ireland, the Irish accepting Roman
Christianity were not willing to take part in de Ledrede's persecution. De Ledrede and the like-minded clergy met
with resistance from all sides. Even so,
there were occasional burnings of reputed heretics in Ireland during the 14th
century. One other infamous instance
besides Petronilla of Meath was Adam Dubh, a Dubliner who was sent to the stake
in 1327 for denying the doctrine of the Trinity and the authority of the Pope.
Although
de Ledrede's extreme plans were never put into effect systematically, the few
instances of public burnings and the presence of some Anglo-Norman clergy
allied with de Ledrede in different areas of Ireland did discourage the
practice of Celtic Christianity. With
both the large majority of Celtic Christians becoming guarded and even
secretive about their practice, Celtic Christianity went virtually
underground. For the most part, Celtic
Christianity became a religion observed by individual families in private, and
was passed on from generation to generation in an oral tradition. Despite the strong, continuing
appeal of Celtic Christianity among the Irish - which lasted well into the
modern era - the Roman Christianity favoured by the Anglo-Norman rulers
gradually, ineluctably, gained the ascendancy throughout
ANGLO-CELTIC
CULTURAL FUSION
As the Anglo-Norman newcomers settled into life in the
Irish countryside during the 13th century, a process began that the nobles of
England had not expected. Many of the
Anglo-Norman began to adopt the customs of the Celts. Men whose grandfathers once attended the
royal court in London grew their hair to shoulder length and shaved their faces
except for long, drooping moustaches.
Women whose grandmothers were bound by the feudal tradition that viewed
women as property now rode horses bareback across Irish fields and through
forests. In many households, the Celtic
tongue could be heard on the lips of the Anglo-Normans as often as French or
Middle English.
Intermarriage
between Irish Celt and Anglo-Norman was common in all levels of society. Many of the leaders of the Anglo-Norman
invasion immediately took Celtic wives after they staked out their fiefdoms,
sometimes for love, sometimes to cement their claim to Irish lands. As he was promised before the Irish invasion,
Strongbow wed Aiofe, the daughter of Dermot MacMurrough. Under English law, this gave him and his
children a legitimate right to the kingdom of Leinster once ruled by
Dermot. William de Burgh married the
daughter of Donal Mór ó Brien; one of their descendants was Richard, Duke of
York, whose claim to the English throne led to the War of the Roses in England
during the 15th century. Hugh de Lacy
married Rós O'Connor, daughter of the King of the province of Connaught. John de Courcey also took an Irish princess
for his wife. Eventually, the Irish
families of the Barrys, the Costellos, the Burkes (de Burghs), and the
Fitzgeralds were formed from Irish-Norman unions.
The
Anglo-Normans also embraced the Celtic child-rearing custom of fosterage. This form of adoption was an exchange of
youngsters between Irish and Anglo-Norman families. It forged bonds of personal loyalty that
transcended the gulf between cultures.
Since the Anglo-Normans grew accustomed to treating all children
equally, the issue of bastardy grew less important in Ireland than it was in
England. Although paternity of the
first-born male had to be certain to ensure inheritance under the practice of
primogeniture, it was not an important issue for the other children living in
an Anglo-Norman household.
The
Anglo-Normans even began to adopt the military tactics of their Celtic
neighbours for warfare. On a
battlefield, heavily armoured knights were the tanks of their day, relying on
their impregnable mass to sweep the enemy from their path. When a line of knights charged, they were
impervious to arrows and pikes. But when
travelling alone or in small groups through the fens and forests of Ireland,
they were highly vulnerable to ambush from the side or the rear. To defend themselves from Celtic insurgents,
brigands, and rival Anglo-Norman nobles, knights began to use the Irish tactics
of rapid manoeuvre, travelling without their armour so they could increase
their speed and mobility.
For
the Anglo-Normans, the Celtic way of life was alluring. By the early 14th century, they had adopted
so many practices and customs of the Celts that they could no longer be called
Anglo-Norman. They formed a new culture
that was neither Celtic nor English, but a blend of both ways of life. At first they were called the Anglo-Irish,
but the name was quickly shortened to simply the Irish from the Celtic name for
Ireland, Eire.
Much
of the attraction of the Celtic way of life for the descendants of the English
conquerors lay in its less stringent rules of personal conduct. Feudal England was a maze of rules and
regulations governing everything from which day of the week a knight could
settle a private quarrel to how long a prostitute should stay with her client
to receive payment. While Celtic society
had laws and regulations to maintain social order, they were far less pervasive
and intrusive than those in Anglo-Norman society. After a generation or two in Ireland, the
descendants of the original invaders could see no sense in living by rules and
customs that seemed rigid when compared to the Celtic way of life and relevant
only to life in England. Despite their adoption
of aspects of the Celtic way of life, however, most of the Anglo-Normans
remained partially tied to English culture.
They held to English customs and beliefs in major social and political
matters.
Although
Celtic culture did have a certain appeal for many Anglo-Normans and the large
Irish majority of the population continued to follow the Celtic way of life,
Anglo-Norman practices and perspectives dominated the fields of government, law
and religion. These areas were
controlled by the English kings who often attempted to suppress the tendency of
the Anglo-Normans to adopt Irish ways.
This made Ireland a divided society, with some Anglo-Normans adhering to
English customs while other Anglo-Normans adopted the customs of the native
Celts. The Anglo-Normans who remained
most tied to the English Crown and way of life lived near Dublin, while
Anglo-Normans open to aspects of the Celtic way of life lived in the rest of
Ireland. The divisions and different
cultural tendencies in Ireland were exacerbated by the succession of the
indecisive Edward II to the English throne in 1307. The Anglo-Irish - the Celts and Anglo-Normans
who had melded cultures - saw their opportunity to break free of English rule
during Edward's weak reign.
In
1315, a group of Anglo-Irish nobles urged Edward the Bruce of Scotland to come
to Ireland with a Scottish army to join with Irish rebel forces. When Edward landed in
Although
the Irish did not succeed in gaining independence from English rule, their
nearly successful rebellion led by Edward the Bruce exposed the vulnerability
of the English position in Ireland.
Despite its power, resources and support for the Anglo-Normans in
Ireland, the English Crown had not been able to ensure the security and the
position of the Anglo-Normans throughout Ireland. Although they abandoned their armed
rebellion, Irish nobles were quick to exploit the English weaknesses exposed by
it to improve their position. The
estates of many Anglo-Normans were seized by vengeful, opportunistic Irish
chieftains. Revenge and retribution for
excesses during the short war of Edward the Bruce became commonplace, forcing
large numbers of Anglo-Normans to flee the country until Edward II made
emigration illegal. The Irish clans of
Kavanaughs, O'Hanlons and O'Tooles exacted tribute from the Anglo-Normans loyal
to the English king in Louth, Dublin and Leinster. To preserve their wealth, dozens of
Anglo-Norman families publicly renounced their allegiance to the crown of
England. Some even changed their names,
transforming families like the Manderville into the clan MacQuillan, the De
Burghs into clan Burke and the De Angulos into clan MacCostello. This widespread repudiation of English
authority was encouraged by the former supporters who continued to hope that
the Irish would form a kingdom independent of England. The height of defiance was reached by the
Early of Desmond in 1341. He adamantly
refused to attend a Parliament in Dublin called by King Edward III. Other Irish chieftains of both Celtic and
Anglo-Norman heritage joined him in his act of defiance. The threat of insurrection forced the English
king to accept the insult and agree to redress a list of Irish grievances.
In
England, the nobility was enraged by the insolence of the Irish. They expected defiance from the Celts, all of
whom the English considered barbarous, but they were particularly angered when
the Celts were joined in their defiance by many descendants of the Anglo-Norman
conquerors who they expected to be loyal to English customs and
traditions. Edward III, who had
succeeded the weak Edward II in 1327, instituted a policy of hostage-taking and
bribery to keep Ireland at least marginally under control. For the first three decades of his reign,
Edward III was more concerned with waging the Hundred Years War in France than
he was with conditions in Ireland. But
in 1361, he sent his son, Lionel of Clarence, to Dublin as Ireland's first Lord
Lieutenant. On Lionel's initiative, the
Statutes of Kilkenny were passed by an assembly of nobles loyal to the
crown. These laws were designed to
suppress the Irish way of life among English subjects by outlawing ordinary
Irish behaviour such as riding a horse without a saddle, speaking the Irish
tongue, and wearing Celtic-style clothes.
The Statutes' preamble claimed that the Irish were "forsaking the
English language, manners, mode of riding, laws and usages, live and govern
themselves according to the manner, fashion and languages of the Irish enemies
aforesaid, whereby the said land and the liege people thereof, the English
language, the allegiance to our Lord, the King and the English laws there are
put in subjection and decayed, and the Irish enemies exalted and raised up
contrary to reason." In areas where
England had full political control, the Statutes were vigorously enforced by
agents of the crown. They were also the
first instance where the Irish were marked as "enemies of our lord, the
King." The London government was
sending an unmistakable message to its subjects residing in Ireland. Any Irish noble who wished to ensure the
patronage and largesse of the king had best remain connected to England not
only politically, but culturally as well.
Edward III attempted to stifle the desire to develop an independent
Irish state and culture by making the reward for conformity with English values
great and the punishment for defiance harsh.
In
the hinterlands of Connaught and Ulster, the threat of arrest for riding a
horse with no saddle and land confiscation based on a noble's hair length
seemed more foolish than menacing. For
the Celts and the Anglo-Normans who had adopted Celtic ways, words not backed
by a sword were meaningless, and onerous laws could be ignored. They continued to live their lives as they
chose, firmly establishing the new culture that was neither Celtic nor
Anglo-Norman, but Irish.
More
than a century later, in 1474, the English tried another stratagem to suppress
the development of emerging Irish culture.
They established a region around Dublin where English Common Law and the
authority of the king were vigorously enforced.
This area became known as "The Pale". Visitors from London or Bristol who set foot
in Ireland were warned to beware of the curious customs existing "beyond
the Pale" - customs which were a blend of the Celtic and Anglo-Norman ways
of life.
IRISH CULTURE AND
THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES
The
people of Ireland entered the 12th century as Celts and emerged from the 15th
century as the Irish. This was the
result of the gradual cultural merger of Celtic society with Anglo-Norman
society. Initially, each group adopted
customs and beliefs from the other.
Irish culture came about after a majority of the people embraced the
melded worldview during the 14th and 15th centuries, at which time it began to
evolve as a distinct culture. Use of the
Celtic tongue, respect for education, and loyalty to the extended family and
clan remained important aspects of Irish society during the late medieval
period and during the Renaissance. As
writers and storytellers used ancient Celtic mythic themes in their works,
Celtic myth enjoyed a resurgence of popularity in Ireland, thereby firmly implanting
traditional Celtic views about the meaning of birth, death and the events in
between into the new culture. Thus many
Celtic customs and beliefs that originated a millennium before the Christian
era were carried into the modern age relatively unchanged over time.
The
traditional Celtic urge to travel remained a part of the new Irish
culture. When domestic strife engulfed
Ireland in the later Middle Ages, emigration slowed as the Celts instinctively
attempted to deal with the problems created by political and cultural
change. Yet they could not completely
stifle their urge to travel even during these troubled times. As the new Irish culture
evolved after the arrival of the Anglo-Normans, the people of
During
the Renaissance, when England became a Protestant land and intensified its
oppressive policies against Irish Catholics, the Irish regarded the Catholic
countries of Europe as a haven from persecution. In the political and social changes of the
Continent as feudal kingdoms struggled to transform themselves into modern
nations, the ancient customs and beliefs of the Celts the Irish émigrés carried
with them helped them maintain their identity and social and political
perspective amid the unsettled conditions in their adopted lands. When encountering religious extremism, they
were more tolerant of the beliefs of their neighbours; when asked to
participate in political intrigue, they remained loyal to the monarch they
looked upon as their chieftain; when Irish émigré women were told by European
men that they could aspire to no ambition greater than tending a family, they
nonetheless became teachers and physicians.
During the early modern period, Irish émigrés found influential roles in
the fields of government, the military, and education; influential roles in
agriculture, metallurgy, education, and religion. The new waves of Irish émigrés brought to
European societies skills, knowledge and ingenuity
which helped them adapt positively to the changes of the period.
CHAPTER
5
Religious
Conflict and Irish Emigration
From where did I receive so great and beneficent a
gift
- to known and desire God,
relinquishing homeland and family for Him?
-
St. Patrick's Declaration, 5th Century A.D.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION IN EUROPE
AND IRELAND
Although Celtic culture was gradually transformed into
Irish culture during the two centuries after the Anglo-Norman invasion, religion
remained a central element in the new society.
Gradually, the Irish shifted away from the practices and doctrines that
were uniquely Celtic, conforming outwardly to the Roman Christian faith
followed in most of Europe. Because
"White Martyr" fervour faded as a motive for migration to
Christianity
as defined by the Roman Catholic Church had been a stabilizing element for
European civilization during the late medieval period. The name Catholic meant universal, and indeed
the religion was found everywhere in western and central Europe. By the beginning of the 16th century, the
Catholic clergy had grown widely corrupt as many priests, bishops and even some
of the Popes sought wealth and personal power.
For many people, the Catholic Church came to represent empty ritual that
did not adequately address their spiritual needs.
In
the last centuries of the medieval period, any individual suggesting reform was
swiftly condemned as a heretic by the Catholic hierarchy. But in 1517, a German named Martin Luther
openly challenged the Catholic Church, and garnered enough support from kings
and princes to make himself immune from physical
reprisal. His protest against Catholic
religious abuses swelled into the movement called Protestantism that spread
with astonishing speed. Jean Calvin in France and Ulrich Zwingli in
Because
force had been usually used to quell religious dissension during the late
medieval period, both Protestants and Catholics believed that oppression was
the best solution for religious controversy.
Civil unrest plagued kingdoms and embryonic nations because of religious
differences. Public executions called
"acts of faith" occurred in both Protestant and Catholic lands. By the end of the 16th century, the
allegiance of each nation to the Protestant or Catholic religion became firmly
established, despite continuing Catholic efforts to suppress rival doctrines
and the efforts of the various Protestant denominations to spread the reformed
creed. France, Spain, Portugal, Italy,
Austria and the Flemish Lowlands remained Catholic, while Germany, England,
Scandinavia and the Netherlands became Protestant. These religious loyalties would guide the
development of international alliances and conflicts over the next few
centuries.
The
religious strife that plagued Europe upset the traditional religious tolerance
in Ireland by initiating a conflict between Protestant and Catholic that has
endured until the present day. In 1534,
Henry VIII of England broke away from the Pope to form his own religion and the
London Parliament recognized him as "the only Supreme Head in earth of the
Church of England". This also
included his dominions in Ireland. His
new religion came to be called Anglican, and Henry ensured that it differed
little from traditional Catholic doctrine and ritual. Initially, points of major variation were the
rejection of the authority of the Pope and the affirmation of the right of the
English king to appoint bishops. But
Henry himself had not counted on the depth of desire for religious reformation
among his people. The excesses of the
Catholic clergy had predisposed the English for changes far more sweeping than
Henry envisioned. During the course of
the 16th century, there grew among the Anglicans a militant minority who sought
to "purify" the new religion by forbidding statues, icons, vestments
and any other external trappings associated with the Catholic Church. These Anglicans, who were fanatically
anti-Catholic, eventually became known as Puritans and would play a major role
in persecuting Irish Catholics and thereby stimulating Irish emigration to
Europe.
In
1536, Henry VIII convened a Parliament in Dublin to help him reach his goal of
being recognized as the head of Church and State in Ireland as well as
England. At the time, Thomas Fitzgerald,
Earl of Kildare, was leading a rebellion against England, which has come to be
known as the Geraldine Revolt. This
Revolt not only brought into question England's hold on Ireland, but it also
strengthened anti-English sentiment among the Irish nobility. Henry wanted to be sure that this Parliament
would readily grant him official recognition as head of Church and State. So he was very selective about who was
invited to attend. Irish nobles whose
loyalty was in doubt were excluded, as were the clerical and monastic
representatives who normally attended whenever a Dublin Parliament was
convened. As Henry planned, the 1536
Parliament readily recognized him as the head of the new Church he had
formed. The Parliament went on to
declare that the Catholic religion was null and void, "corrupt for
ever". After this action of the
Parliament, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, a man named St. Leger whom Henry had
appointed to govern Ireland, demanded that all Irish lords immediately
acknowledge Henry as being both head of Church and State. The "saint" in St. Leger was a
family name and not a religious title.
His demand extended to the Irish lords who were entitled to attend the
Dublin Parliament and who had been excluded by Henry as well as to all the
Irish lords who were in attendance at the Parliament. Any lord refusing to meet the demand would be
accused of treason, and his title and his land would be taken from him. He even risked execution.
By
the mid-16th century, the agents and allies of the English crown were
vigorously enforcing the laws that the English government had enacted against
the Catholic religion in Ireland. When
the Anglicans began to destroy holy relics and shrines throughout Ireland, in
isolated hamlets as well as cities, and assault and sometimes murder priests
for saying Mass, the Catholics of Ireland began to resist. The laws passed to make the Anglican Church
the only authorized religion stemming from Henry VIII's 1536 Parliament and the
ensuing violence against Catholics were the beginning of the centuries of continual
religious strife that plagued Ireland.
At this time, the laws and persecution prompted a new wave of Irish
emigrants to set out for European countries where they could practise their
Catholic religion openly and escape the heightening of English oppression in
their homeland.
IRISH RELIGIOUS
REFUGEES
The
first in this new wave of Irish émigrés were members of the Catholic
clergy. They left Ireland for the
Catholic countries of Europe where they could continue to pursue their
religious vocation openly. They went
mostly to Spain, France and Italy.
Monarchs and nobles in these countries readily granted them permission
to settle in their lands to preach, conduct religious ceremonies and engage in
other spiritual work. Some of the clergy
went to Rome seeking spiritual support and financial aid to try to preserve
Catholicism in Ireland. Since the Popes
and Catholic hierarchy were mounting a "counter-reformation" to try
to regain the pre-eminence and the influence the Catholic Church had lost in
the Protestant Reformation, the Popes welcomed the spiritual fervour and the
plans of the Irish clergy. The Popes
elevated many of the Irish priests to the rank of bishop and funded their
return to Ireland so that they could clandestinely help to keep the Catholic
religion alive. While the Popes saw the
Irish as valuable agents for their counter-reformation and for saving
Catholicism in Ireland, at the same time they saw the Irish as too
unsophisticated to be given positions in the politically and diplomatically
complex world of the European societies or in the Papal curia overseeing the
activities of the counter-reformation.
A
second group of religious immigrants from Ireland were the young men who wanted
to study for the priesthood. With the
closing of most of the monasteries and the schools associated with them by the
Protestants of England, the opportunity to study Catholic theology and ritual
in Ireland abruptly became limited. Many
Irish students flocked to the seminaries attached to the universities in
Madrid, Paris and Rome. When the number
of Irish seminarians at a particular university grew large enough, they
established their own colleges at the university which became known as
"Irish Colleges" and could be found in more than two dozen major
European cities. Some of the graduates
returned to Ireland to perform Catholic mass and administer the sacraments in
secret, but most of them remained in continental Europe shaping the direction
of the Catholic counter-reformation at local levels.
Once
they arrived in the Catholic lands of Europe, the Irish émigrés enjoyed a
relatively high status as religious refugees.
By fleeing Ireland rather than submitting to English Protestant
overlords, they had demonstrated their devotion to the Catholic faith. This higher social standing was granted even
to those émigrés who left Ireland to find fortune or adventure and who did not
consider themselves religious refugees.
The willingness of Catholic Europeans to accept the Irish into their
society because of common religion enabled the émigrés to quickly move into
positions of power in government, education and the military.
A
new missionary ethic began to grow among the émigré Irish priests, monks and
seminarians, increasing their desire to influence the religious ideas of
European society. They started to view
themselves as the spearhead of a drive to eradicate Protestantism not only in
Ireland but in all corners of the world.
Many joined the newly-formed Catholic order of the Society of Jesus,
popularly called the Jesuits. At the
Council of Trent in 1551, Pope Julius III encouraged the expansion of the
Jesuit order and gave it the task of stemming the tide of Protestantism through
logical argument and, if necessary, political intrigue. The Jesuits saw themselves as soldiers
willing to die for their cause and would often preach in Protestant lands
despite the risk of imprisonment or execution.
The Irish Jesuits often perceived themselves as heroic yet practical
spiritual warriors in the tradition of the medieval Celtic monks.
The
same missionary zeal also affected the Irish clergy who remained in continental
Europe as parish priests. They were a
constant grassroots force resisting the spread of Protestant doctrine. Yet very few of them advanced to the position
of bishop or cardinal.
As
religious oppression continued in Ireland during the 17th and 18th centuries,
it tyrannized not only the clergy, but all Catholics. The rebellion of the Confederation of
Kilkenny in the 1640's and the Williamite War in the 1690's are instances of
the various conflicts, ranging from sporadic spontaneous rebellions to
full-scale wars, arising from religious differences in Ireland in the centuries
after the 1536 Dublin Parliament. The
laws passed by subsequent Parliaments were the most onerous and unjust that
Ireland had seen. For example, a series
of laws made ownership of land at first difficult for Catholics and later
outlawed land ownership completely.
Following the clergy and nuns who were the first group to be affected by
the anti-Catholic laws were Irish merchants, scholars and farmers seeking
opportunities denied to them in Ireland.
The laws had the effect not only of preventing the practice of
Catholicism in general, but also of interfering with and often preventing
Catholics from pursuing many enterprises, interests and trades in Irish
society.
Another
sizeable group of Irish émigrés during these centuries was Irish soldiers. After the inevitable failure of the recurring
rebellions and wars of this period when faced with superior English forces,
many of the defeated Irish soldiers would flee to different countries of Europe
rather than accept English rule. In some
cases, such as the Irish defenders of Limerick during the Williamite War, large
numbers of Irish soldiers who had surrendered were given the choice of exile or
an oath of allegiance to the English crown.
Most of the soldiers, sometimes en masse in their entire surviving
military unit, chose exile. In most
cases, the soldiers went to a European country such as France or Spain which
was a traditional enemy of England; or they made their way to such a country
from a Protestant nation in Europe to which they had been exiled by
England. The exiled Irish soldiers would
then join the army of the enemy of England to continue their resistance against
the oppressive English rule of Ireland from foreign soil.
By
the 17th and 18th centuries, the majority of Irish émigrés were no longer
members of the Catholic clergy or religious orders of monks or nuns. The émigrés belonged to various fields common
to European society in the early modern era.
They left Ireland not only because they could not freely pursue these
activities due to oppressive English rule, but also because they could not
freely practise their Catholic faith, which they regarded as an integral part
of their Irish culture. Irish resistance
to English rule arose from social, cultural, and religious grievances which
were intermixed and could not easily be separated from one another. Although these later émigrés became involved
in areas that were different from those of the medieval monks desiring to be
White Martyrs, and different from the priests, monks and nuns fleeing English
oppression in the 1600's, they nonetheless left Ireland partly for religious
reasons. This religious motive which was
a factor of varying proportions for all Irish émigrés well into the modern age
- whether monks or merchants or soldiers or scholars - in a way bound the
émigrés over several centuries to one another.
It was the religious factor which more than any other determined which
countries in Europe the large majority would go to; the relationships they
would make with monarchs, nobles and others in these countries; and the ties
they would keep among themselves.
IRISH STEREOTYPES
The increased commercial, diplomatic and educational
opportunities of the Renaissance led to an increase in travel to foreign
countries. In many cases, learned
travellers to foreign countries would publish books about their experiences and
observations for their countrymen after their returns to their homelands. These books often revealed more about the
biases of the authors than the countries they had visited. Even such a learned individual as Erasmus of
the Netherlands was not free from this penchant. After his travels to different European
countries, he wrote that Germans were crude, French were violent and Italians
were vain and devious. These travel
books of the Renaissance led to unflattering stereotypes of different
nationalities.
The
stereotype which clung to the Irish was that they were devoutly religious, but
unsophisticated. They were often
regarded as simplistic and somewhat superstitious in their understanding of the
doctrines and beliefs of Catholicism.
Because the Irish came from an agricultural society, the populations of
Madrid, Paris and other Renaissance cities which were becoming increasingly
complex did not feel that the Irish had the sense of refinement regarding
religion - or other aspects of culture - as they had. This view of the Irish was especially strong
in Rome. But this somewhat denigrating
opinion of the Irish did not prevent them from becoming influential, and often
leaders, in politics, military affairs, commerce, education and other fields.
By
the time of the Renaissance, when the ethnic and national stereotypes were
forming, Irish émigrés were familiar figures to most Europeans from the
folklore which had grown up around the monks of the Middle
Ages. This folklore tended to counter
the denigrating stereotype of the Irish.
In the folk literature of many parts of western and central
CHAPTER
6
Irish
Influence in Spain
"The
Irish established in these dominions shall keep and maintain the privileges
which they have, by which they are made equal to native Spaniards; and that the
formalities of the oath, to which all other nations have been forced to submit,
shall not be exacted from the Irish, seeing that by the mere fact of their
settling in Spain the Irish are accounted Spaniards and enjoy the same
rights."
- Resolution adopted by the Spanish
Council of State on February 3rd, 1792 at
the request of Eduardo Murphy, Enrique Dowell and Juan Walsh to reaffirm the
rights granted to the Irish by King Philip III in 1608.
SPANISH CONNECTION
WITH IRELAND
King
Philip's generous grant of full Spanish citizenship to Irish émigrés stemmed
from the close ties that had developed between Spain and Ireland during the
16th century. The Spanish regarded the
Irish as fellow Catholics who were persecuted by Protestant England for the
sake of their religion. After the
1560's, as Spain found itself pitted against England for control of commerce in
both Europe and the New World, the Spanish kings regarded the rebellious Irish
as potential military allies.
The
Spanish also felt an historical affinity towards the Irish based on ancient and
medieval Celtic influences in their land.
In antiquity, the Celts had ruled Spain from the Pyrenees to
Gibraltar. Local legends had also
enshrined the deeds of the Irish medieval monks who had come to Spain to teach
and found monasteries as they had in the other lands of Europe. From the perspective of the early modern
Spanish, the colony of British Celts that had struggled fiercely against the
Moorish invasions of their
The
Spanish affinity towards the Irish continued to grow during the Renaissance
era. In 1588 when the Spanish Armada was
buffeted by fierce gales after its defeat by the English navy, many ships ran
aground on the rocky shores of Ireland.
A large number of the soldiers and sailors surviving the shipwrecks were
massacred by English soldiers on the beaches as they swam ashore. But some managed to escape, hiding among the
Irish clans that held no love for Queen Elizabeth and her often brutal deputies
and generals. When they returned to
Spain, the surviving sailors widely praised the chieftains Brian O'Rourke and
Maglana MacClancey who had given them refuge despite the risk of English
reprisals. As a result, bonds between
Spanish and Irish were further strengthened.
During
the frequent rebellions of the Irish against the English overlords of the 16th
century, the King of Spain, Philip II, sent shipments of arms to Hugh O'Neill,
the Earl of Tyrone, when he led an uprising which became known as the Nine
Years War. Many of the Irish chieftains
even considered asking Philip to be King of Ireland. In 1601, Philip III, who inherited the
Spanish throne in 1598, agreed to send an invasion force to aid O'Neill's
rebellion. When Spanish troops landed at
the southern Irish port of Kinsale, O'Neill marched his army south to join up
with his new Spanish allies. But the two
forces were prevented from joining by the English General, Lord Mountjoy, who
defeated both the Irish and the Spanish armies in separate battles.
Spanish
military assistance to the Irish gradually ended as Spain's wealth and
political prominence began to erode during the 17th century. But the conviction that Spain was a land
friendly to Irish interests was firmly implanted in the minds of many Irish men
and women. So when Irish men and women
left Ireland in the 16th and 17th centuries, the Iberian Peninsula seemed like
a logical destination, a haven where they would be welcomed.
THOMAS WHITE AND THE IRISH COLLEGE AT
SALAMANCA
One
of the first Irish émigrés to settle in Spain during the 16th century was a
young Tipperary-born man named Thomas White.
He would make an enduring contribution not only to the Spanish
educational system, but also to universities in many parts of Europe. He went to Spain to study for the Catholic
priesthood, a called that was becoming extremely difficult to pursue in his
homeland. The English Anglicans were
closing more and more of the Catholic seminaries throughout Ireland. This land of Spain, where one of the titles
for the King was "His Most Catholic Majesty", seemed like the best
alternative for becoming a priest.
As
a lad, Thomas heard the legend of how the first Celtic inhabitants of Ireland
had come from Spain many centuries before the birth of Christ. According to this legend, the Celts, led by a
chieftain named Mil, sailed northwards across the Bay of Biscay to escape a
famine. During their voyage, they were
guided by the visions of a dying Druid who spoke of the rich and bountiful
island named Innisfail, which was Ireland.
But when the Celts finally made landfall, they were met by the people
known as the Tuatha de Danaan who already claimed Innisfail for their own. With chants of magic and blades of sharp
steel, Mil and his people dispossessed the Tuatha de Danaan, who retreated
forever to the Otherworld. When Thomas
White was a child in Tipperary, any mystical land beyond the sea was referred
to as "Spain" in Irish legends and folklore.
Thomas
White arrived in the Spanish port city of Bilbao, a northern city on the Bay of
Biscay from where his legendary forebears may have set sail. From there he travelled inland tot he city of
Salamanca, to a well-known university which had attracted a number of Irish
seminarians. White enrolled in the
course of studies for becoming a Catholic priest. As with the other Irish seminarians, White
was in a situation which made his training for the priesthood even more
difficult than it was ordinarily. The
complex issues in his philosophy and theology courses were taught and debated
in Spanish, giving White and his fellow Irish seminarians an academic
disadvantage when compared to Spanish seminarians. In addition to this language problem, White,
like most of the other Irish students, could barely afford lodging and
food. At the time, there was monetary
inflation and a rising standard of living in Spain created by riches from the
New World passing into the country, as well as the traditionally high standard
of living in the prosperous university town of Salamanca. The Irish students found it difficult to meet
the basic necessities of life with funds available to them from Ireland - with
its much different economic situation.
With the little money he received from relatives in Ireland, White could
afford only crude lodgings and simple meals; and he was never sure that he
would be able to afford even these throughout the course of studies.
When
the difficulties of student life seemed overwhelming, Thomas White sought the
companionship and sometimes the solace of his countrymen who were also studying
for the priesthood in Spain. After
Protestant oppression had swept across Ireland during the 16th century, so many
young Irish men wanted to study at Spanish seminaries they often had to wait
several months for admission. The
administrators of the Spanish universities welcomed them, viewing them as soldiers
in the Catholic counter-reformation movement trying to combat the spread of
Protestant doctrines.
This
Spanish concept of the clergy as spiritual warriors had strong cultural echoes
for many of the Irish seminary students, including Thomas White. Like the medieval monks of Ireland, the
modern Irish seminary students believed that they were engaged in a struggle
for the salvation of their souls. But
the spiritual enemies of their era were different. The foe was no longer solely the needs and
desires of their own bodies. Now the
enemy was also Protestantism, a religion which varied from land to land, was
inimical to Catholicism and was often backed by military and political force. The Irish seminarians of 16th-century Spain
saw themselves as the vanguard of a spiritual army that would one day reclaim
not only Ireland, but all the Protestant parts of Europe for the Catholic
faith.
When
he finished his studies, Thomas White entered the Society of Jesus along with
many of his classmates. The order was
relatively new, but had already gained a reputation for influencing areas as
diverse as local education and international politics. The Society was structured as if it were a
military unity, with a chain of command reporting ultimately to the Father General. All Jesuits thought of themselves as soldiers
willing to die for the Catholic faith.
The
Jesuit order sent many of its Irish priests educated in Spain back to Ireland
to secretly preach and perform Catholic ritual.
In 1592, Thomas White suggested that the Society keep him in Spain and
assign him to an educational project which would benefit the Jesuits and Irish
Catholics. He wanted to start a college
exclusively for Irish students attending the University of Salamanca. Such a college was not a new idea. An Irish College had been established in 1590
at the University at Alcalá de Henares by a Portuguese noble whose mother was a
MacDonnell from County Antrim. But this
Irish College at Salamanca would be larger than its sister college and under
the direct control of the Jesuit order.
Although
the Father General gave his approval to Thomas White's plan, the Jesuits
provided no resources for the college.
To fund his project, Thomas White turned to Irish merchants and other
Irish émigrés who had settled in the commercial ports of Bayona and Bilbao
along the Bay of Biscay. He received a
grant of 200 reales from these merchants, a very modest sum to pay for the
buildings and teachers necessary to operate a college. Eventually, this indefatigable Irish priest
went to the royal palace of Escorial, near Madrid, and convinced King Philip II
to endow the College as well as to give modest stipends to the students. Because the University of Salamanca waived
tuition for the Irish by granting them pauper status, these stipends were
enough to pay the living expenses of the students. As a result, many individuals of Irish
heritage who might not otherwise have been able to afford it received an
education. After several decades, the
Irish College admitted Spanish students into its programme.
In
the Irish College at Salamanca, classed were held in the Irish, Spanish and
Latin languages. The course work was
quite eclectic by contemporary standards, educating students in Catholic
theology, science, literature, and history.
This not only reflected the Irish educational tradition which maintained
that all knowledge enhanced human spirituality, but also reflected the Jesuit
belief that Catholic orthodoxy could best be achieved by carefully examining
events and ideas that seemed to contradict the faith and refuting them with
clear logic based on extensive learning.
When
the classes at the Irish College at Salamanca were opened to Spanish students,
the school attracted Spaniards interested in the Irish and their methods of
education. Eventually, the College grew
so crowded that enrolment was limited only to candidates for the
priesthood. From the example of the
Irish College at Salamanca, the idea of Irish Colleges supported by both the
state and the Irish community became extremely popular. Other Irish Colleges on the Salamanca model
were founded in Santiago in 1605, Seville in 1612, Madrid in 1619, and Valencia
in 1672. The success of the Irish
College at Salamanca also influenced Irish émigrés in other nations to establish
their own versions of an Irish College modelled on the one begun by Thomas
White. These Irish-inspired centres of
learning provided an education for numbers of Spaniards and other Europeans.
By
the mid-17th century, the Irish Colleges in Spain were controlled by the
Jesuits. With a considerable proportion of graduates of each class joining the
Society of Jesus, the Colleges were like recruiting grounds. They kept the Society's ranks filled with
well-educated and highly-motivated young men, many of whom were Irish. As these Jesuits were sent to other European
lands, they modelled the schools they established, whether to educated young
children or university students, on the Irish Colleges of Spain. These schools and universities emphasized the
study of Catholic theology, Greek, Latin and ancient history.
The
Irish Colleges of Spain were not only the model for the administration and
curriculum in many schools and universities established in several European
countries, but they were also the model for the schools and universities of the
educational systems established in the Spanish colonies of South and Central
America. The Jesuits sent to these
colonies believed that such schools and universities were essential for
converting the native inhabitants to Catholicism, as well as keeping the
Spanish colonists faithful to the religion in the New World. By the 18th century, most of the political,
religious, and intellectual leaders born in South and Central America had been
educated in these institutions established by the Jesuits.
Some
of the schools and universities founded by the Jesuits in the 17th century are
still operating. The University of
Würzburg in Germany and the University of Córdoba in Argentina are among them. These institutions and many others which have
not survived can be traced back to the Irish College established by Thomas
White at Salamanca. In Europe, these
schools and universities were a part of the Catholic counter-reformation. In the Spanish colonies of Central and South
America, such schools and colleges played a central role in making Catholicism
the prevailing religion. Thomas White's
enterprise in establishing the Irish College at Salamanca hearkens back to the
similar efforts of the medieval Irish monks.
The College affirmed the importance education continued to have in Irish
culture, and also displayed the Irish desire to make education available to
others. Over the centuries of Irish
emigration, founding schools, sharing knowledge, and teaching skills were
important elements in the influence of the Irish in Europe.
THE IRISH REGIMENTS
IN THE SPANISH ARMY
An institution like the Irish Colleges which attracted
generations of Irish émigrés influenced the development of Spanish society for
centuries. Other such institutions were
the Irish Regiments in the Spanish army which fought in battles across Europe
and the New World.
These
Irish Regiments in the Spanish army sprang from the policy of the English Lord
Mountjoy who was attempting to forestall trouble in Ireland during the 1580's
by recruiting many young Irish swordsmen to fight in the armies of England's
Protestant allies in Europe. He believed
if these potential rebels were fighting wars in Sweden, Denmark and the
Netherlands, they could not rebel in Ireland.
One of the military units formed by this stratagem was called the
Leicester Regiment under the command of a trustworthy Protestant, Sir William
Stanley.
The
Leicester Regiment was assigned to the English forces in the Netherlands to
bolster its strength in a war against Spain, whose forces occupied Flanders and
claimed sovereignty over all of the Low Countries. The Irish troops fought in many engagements,
but eventually they wearied of spilling their blood for a Protestant cause
while their Catholic families and friends in their homeland were suffering
religious persecution. The officers of
the Regiment often debated theological issues with Colonel Stanley. In 1587, Stanley was convinced by their logic
and became a Catholic. The Regiment then
defected to the Spanish army in Flanders, surrendering the key city of Deventer
to demonstrate their sincerity. The unit
was immediately integrated into the Spanish forces.
During
the Irish rebellion against England at the close of the 16th century that
became known as The Nine Years War, the leader of the rebels, Hugh O'Neill, the
Early of Tyrone, asked Spain to lend him the services of the Leicester
Regiment. While the Spanish king agreed,
Archduke Albert, who commanded the Spanish forces in Flanders, had come to rely
on the Irish soldiers in his army. So
when he received O'Neill's request, forwarded to him from Madrid, he ignored
it. Shortly afterwards, the Regiment took
heavy casualties while guarding the withdrawal of Albert's army at an engagement
in 1600 known as the Battle of the Dunes.
The severity of their losses rendered the Regiment unfit for duty for
more than a year while the Irish soldiers rebuilt the strength of their unit in
the Netherlands by recruiting among the civilian Irish émigrés in Spain. By the time the Regiment recovered, the Nine
Years War in Ireland had ended.
When
many Irish soldiers arrived in Spain seeking political asylum after the
surrender of O'Neill and the end of his rebellion, they were sent to the
Leicester Regiment in the Netherlands which was enlarged and renamed in
1605. It became known ass the First
Regiment of Tyrone and King Philip III placed it under the command of Henry
O'Neill, a younger son of the O'Neill.
When Henry died, his half-brother, John, was placed in command. For the next hundred years, the regiment
would have a direct descendant of Hugh O'Neill as its colonel. Because so many Irishmen trained and
experienced in warfare had come to Spain, the regiments of O'Donnell, Owen Roe
O'Neill, and Preston were formed, all named for their colonels as was the
custom of the times.
The
numbers of Irish serving in the Spanish army were again inadvertently bolstered
by the English in 1609. In that year, a
convoy of transport ships laded with 6000 Irish fighting men who had been
recruited by Lord Mountjoy was bound for the ports of Denmark and Sweden. But a storm forced the ships to find shelter
in a Dutch harbour. Hugh O'Neill's
nephew, Oghy O'Hanlon, seized the opportunity to lead a thousand men who had
grown disgruntled with their lot over the sides of their ships. They swam for shore, and eventually most of
them made their way into the First Regiment of Tyrone stationed in Flanders.
During
the 17th century, the First Regiment of Tyrone fought on many European
battlefields. During the Thirty Years
War, it was stationed in the Low Countries and fought at Amiens and Dourlen and
in the siege of Louvain. Its valour
became legendary, a model for other Spanish regiments to follow. Over two hundred officers and men were made
Knights of Santiago by the Spanish monarchs in recognition of their
exploits. Many of the commanding
officers of the regiment were also admitted into the Orders of Alcántra and
Culatrava, an honour which was usually reserved only for the highest of the
Spanish nobility.
As
the 17th century came to a close, Spain no longer needed a large army because
it had lost most of its possessions in Italy and Flanders to France and the
Netherlands. The grandeur and power
Spain had enjoyed which had been largely supported by the riches from Spanish
colonies in the Americas waned as imports from these colonies decreased,
forcing Spain to reduce the size of its army.
The First Regiment of Tyrone was disbanded in the 1680's. But the Spanish military leaders did not want
to reduce the number of Irish soldiers since they were among the most highly
trained and effective troops in the Spanish army. So what the military planners did was
incorporate the Irish soldiers into other Spanish units.
All-Irish
units were reintroduced into the Spanish military in 1703 when France lent the
cavalry regiments of Daniel O'Mahoney - famous for his defence of Cremona in
1701 - and Henry Crofton to Spain to bolster Spanish forces during the War of
Spanish Succession. In 1709, Spain
formed the Ultonia, Hibernia, Limerick, Waterford and Irelanda Regiments made
up of infantry. In 1733, the Waterford
Regiment was incorporated into the Irlanda Regiment; and in 1735, the Limerick
Regiment was transferred to the army of the King of Naples. Throughout the 18th century, the officers
from these Irish Regiments distinguished themselves in battle, were frequently
promoted to general and were placed in command of Spanish troops, thereby exerting
a widespread influence on the Spanish army.
The
Irish soldiers in the armies of Spain felt an intense loyalty towards one
another and to their units. The officers
were usually Irish clan leaders who pledged their allegiance to the king of
Spain. But many of the foot soldiers
found the idea of a national monarch too remote from their day-to-day
lives. Their loyalties lay with the
regiment, with their comrades who shared their food and the dangers of
combat. In essence, they transferred
their clan allegiance to the military unit.
It no longer mattered if the men they trusted with guarding the flank
were members of the same clan. It was
enough that they were Irish. This
bonding based on common culture made the Irish Regiments extraordinarily
effective fighting units. In accordance
with the Spanish military practice of the time, individual Irish Regiments
operated during wartime as quasi-independent units that were assigned
objectives that could be achieved without support from other units. Only when the Regiments were deployed as part
of a larger force were they under the direct command of a Spanish general. Otherwise, a Regiment's officers were free to
make decisions about when and where to engage the enemy. Hence, Irish Regiments were often free to
harry or attack enemy forces with the ambush-and-manoeuvre tactics Irish
warriors had developed in Ireland against the Anglo-Normans.
When
cannons and hand-held firearms began to be used in warfare during the late 16th
century, the value of the tactic of ambush-and-manoeuvre in many circumstances
was reconfirmed for the Irish. Despite
the devastating impact of cannon and firearms on a stationary body of troops,
European armies continued to engage in battles where large bodies of troops
would face each other in open fields.
The opposing forces would take up fixed positions against each other and
fire volley after volley into each other's stationary ranks of troops. Often, after many such volleys, the two sides
would engage in deadly hand-to-hand combat with bayonets, pikes and
sabres. Such a rigid style of warfare
resulting in high, unnecessary casualties had no romantic or heroic allure and
made no sense to the Irish. When they
could, the Irish avoided pitched battles against large enemy formations in
favour of attacking enemy forces when they were most vulnerable, such as when
they were marching in a column or setting up camp.
Through
the example of the Irish Regiments, ambush-and-manoeuvre became a tactic of the
entire Spanish army. It was particularly
effective during the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century when Spanish
soldiers were faced with superior French forces invading their country. During this time, the Spanish soldiers became
known as "guerrillas", Spanish for "small wars". This tactic has since become a standard part
of military operations for all the armies of the world.
For
the soldiers of the Irish Regiments in the 17th and 18th centuries, life was
hard. Although the Regiments were
headquartered in Spain, they were usually on operations in Flanders and Italy,
and some contingents were even dispatched to Cuba and Mexico. Inefficient supply systems often deprived
them of food and clothing. Pay was
meagre and frequently behind schedule.
Yet despite the hardships, the Irish seemed to thrive on Spanish army
life. Wives accompanied their soldier
husbands as camp followers. The children
of such couples grew to adulthood familiar with the tattoo of drums and the
call of bugles. Although all written
orders were issued in Spanish, the soldiers and their families continued to
speak Irish among themselves. The Irish
Regiments became outposts of Irish culture in Spain and its dominions in both
Europe and the New World. For the
soldiers and their families, the Regiments slowed the process of assimilation
into Spanish culture and enabled them to provide an ongoing Irish influence on
the Spanish military.
Besides
their victories in battle and the tactic of ambush-and-manoeuvre they
contributed to Spanish military operations, the Irish Regiments also made an
important contribution in the field of medical treatment in the Spanish
military. This contribution of the Irish
émigrés was similar to the role of the medieval Irish monks who attended to the
illnesses and the battlefield wounds of the soldiers of the feudal lords and
kings. As in feudal times, in the 16th
and 17th century Spanish military, more soldiers died from disease and infected
wounds than from direct combat with an enemy.
Thus, the knowledgeable and skilled Irish regimental physicians were
prized by the Spanish military. The
physicians combined ancient Celtic herbal remedies with the surgical techniques
and medicines being developed as a part of the increased interest in science at
the time. With their knowledge and
ingenuity, the Irish physicians were often able to cure illnesses and treat
wounds that other physicians were helpless against. John Nynan was the first of the First
Regiment of Tyrone's doctors in the early 17th century. He had been Red Hugh O'Donnell's personal
physician and became a military doctor after Red Hugh's death. Nynan was succeeded as Regimental Physician
by Owen O'Shiel, who eventually became chief of the medical faculty at the
Spanish Royal Military Hospital at Mechlinburg.
Both men emphasized the need for an effective system of military
hospitals to care for sick and wounded soldiers.
The
story of Lucy Fitzgerald, the wife of a captain of the Ultonia Regiment, shows
a different aspect of the commitment of the Irish to the care of soldiers
wounded in battle and illustrates the role women could take on among the
Irish. In 1808, the Regiment was
stationed in the northern Spanish city of Gerona to keep Napoleon's army from
occupying it. The city had strategic
importance because it was at the Spanish end of a pass through the Pyrenees. After the Spanish army had been defeated by
the French and Napoleon had crowned his brother Joseph King of Spain, the
Regiment remained in Gerona although they were no longer opposing the French.
The
defeated Spanish army reluctantly pledged its loyalty to King Joseph. But the officers and men rankled under the
leadership of the foreign King. The
large majority of the population also continued to resent the French occupation
of their country and the coronation of a Frenchman as their monarch.
In
May of 1808, the people of Madrid rose up against the French. Other cities soon joined the rebellion. The first regular Spanish army unit to
declare its support for the rebellion was the Ultonia Regiment, under the
command of Antonio O'Kelly. Because they
could not leave the strategically-important mountain pass in the hands of the
Spanish, the French military leaders sent an army of six thousand men to
capture the city from the Regiment. When
the French attacked, murderous fire from the fortified walls of Gerona forced
them to withdraw. After this defeat, the
French commander sent an army of thirty-three thousand French veterans complete
with artillery and siege guns. This force
surrounded the city, attempting to starve the garrison into submission. But within the walls of Gerona, the heavily
outnumbered Ultonia Regiment husbanded their supplies and would not surrender.
To
bolster the combat strength of the soldiers manning the defences, Lucy
Fitzgerald organized the wives, mothers and daughters of the Ultonian soldiers
into the Company of Santa Bárbara. Their
mission was to support the soldiers by tending the wounded and passing the
ammunition. Some of the women also took
the place of soldiers on the ramparts who had been
struck by an enemy musket ball or grapeshot.
Forming
the Company of Santa Bárbara and encouraging other Irishwomen to join it was an
audacious step for Lucy Fitzgerald. She
had been raised in the strict patriarchal culture of Spain which allowed women
few choices in behaviour, education or career.
Women were under the "protection" of a man, either
their father, husband or occasionally a grown son. Only in the strict regimen of Catholic
religious orders could a woman find an alternative way of life, but still the
nuns remained under the "protection" of a bishop who could forbid any
activity which displeased him.
As
a member of an Irish émigré family, Lucy Fitzgerald had greater opportunity to
take on roles not generally accepted for women in Spanish society. While Irish women were not as unfettered in
their actions as their Celtic ancestors, they were active in affairs beyond the
home and family. They expected access to
education and the right to offer any skills they developed to the community. So when Lucy Fitzgerald married a captain of
the Ultonian Regiment, she did not hesitate to participate as much as possible
in the non-military aspects of regimental life.
Since the Ultonian soldiers remained largely Irish in their customs and
beliefs, they welcomed Lucy's active involvement in the defence of Gerona.
On
August 10th, 1809, the French wearied of the protracted siege and began an
all-out assault. First they barraged a
small outpost, called Fort Montjuich, beyond the town walls. In a short time, the fort was devastated, and
every defender lay dead or wounded.
Rather than abandon the defenders of Montjuich, Lucy Fitzgerald led her
company of women volunteers through a rain of bombs and musket shot to the fort
to evacuate the injured. Despite
withering enemy fire, they carried the blood-soaked survivors back to the
relative safety of the town. Inspired by
her courage, the defenders of Gerona successfully resisted the French
assault. The Regiment continued to hold
the town for another five months until relieved by Spanish forces in December
of 1809. Afterwards, the Company of
Santa Bárbara became a model for other regiments of the Spanish army to form
their own auxiliary nursing and convalescent organizations staffed principally
by women.
It
was unlikely that Lucy Fitzgerald's bold break from a traditional role for a
woman would have been permitted in a fully-Spanish regiment. But because Irish heritage included active
female intervention in the affairs that Spain considered the exclusive domain
of men, the Ultonian Regiment encouraged and applauded her. The fact that the Company of Santa Bárbara
became a permanent part of military life indicated the level of esteem that the
other soldiers of Spain felt towards their Irish comrades.
For
many Irish émigrés, service in the Irish Regiments was often a stepping-stone
to higher rank in the military. An
Irish-born soldier who became commander-in-chief of the Spanish army in the
late 18th century was from the Ultonia Regiment. Alejandro O'Reilly was born in
During
the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, all of the Spanish people knew that
their Irish countrymen would be at the forefront of the fighting whenever war
broke out. It was not only the
battlefield valour of the Irish that contributed to Spanish victory and
history. The Regiments also produced
innovators such as Alejandro O'Reilly who influenced training and tactics
throughout the Spanish army, and Lucy Fitzgerald who improved the way that
wounded Spanish soldiers received medical treatment. The loyalty, courage and dedication of the
Irish émigrés made their Regiments a respected institution in Spanish society.
THE SPANISH
ADMIRALTY
Although
they lived on an island, the Irish, as the Celts before them, were not drawn to
the sea. Unlike the Vikings, the
English, the Portuguese and other island and coastal peoples, the Irish did not
develop superior seafaring skills or build ships for trade, exploration or
colonization. According to their
legends, St. Brendan had set sail in the frail Irish boat made of hide and skin
called a coracle and discovered a mystical land to the west. Since this mythic exploit in the 6th century,
the people of Ireland confined themselves to coastal fishing and did not sail
large vessels to Europe for commerce or into the Atlantic for exploration. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the English
established the shipbuilding industry in Belfast, but these shipyards were far
smaller than the yards in Rotterdam or Portsmouth. Yet despite their lack of a seagoing
heritage, many of the Irish émigrés entered the Spanish navy.
The
Irish émigrés were attracted to the Spanish navy because of the high social
standing accorded to naval officers. In
the 16th and 17th centuries naval officers were highly regarded because it was
mainly the navy that protected Spain's rich, far-flung empire. Spain's large navy had a complex
mission. Ships had to patrol the
Atlantic, protecting convoys of galleons laden with the treasures and products
of the New World. At the same time,
ships had to guard the Spanish and South American shoreline from privateers and
pirates who would raid coastal settlements.
In times of war against naval powers like England, France and the
Netherlands, the navy had to blockade enemy ports and engage enemy squadrons to
deny them the use of the seas. To
support its large navy, Spain needed many officers and sailors to crew the
ships.
Because
the Irish émigrés were well-educated and many of them came from families that
the Spanish recognized as noble, they were ideal candidates for naval
officers. All naval officers required
enough education to grasp spherical trigonometry and astronomy in order to
navigate vessels on the high seas. Once
naval officers advanced to the rank of captain and commanded a ship, they often
operated independently with little communication with the Spanish Admiralty. Ship captains on an independent mission were
at liberty to interpret and change their orders in accordance with the varying
circumstances they encountered on distant seas.
This self-reliance required of ship captains appealed to the vision of
the lone Celtic warrior challenging his enemy in battle that was inherent in
Irish heritage. The Spanish naval
service provided one of the few opportunities in the contemporary world for an
individual to exercise independent judgement in warfare.
Tómas
Geraldino Fitzgerald was one notable Spanish naval officer with an Irish
heritage. He was descended from the clan
that initiated the rebellion known as the Geraldine Wars against Henry VIII in
the 16th century. When Cromwell came to
Ireland in 1642 to purge the island of Catholics once and for all, Fitzgeralds
were among the leaders of the defence of the city of Drogheda when it came
under siege by Cromwell's army. After
the city finally fell and the English forces slaughtered all the Irish
defenders who had not fled into the countryside, the Fitzgeralds managed to
escape by hiding in the countryside. A
short time later, some of the clan fled to safety in Spain. A hundred years later, Tómas Geraldino
Fitzgerald was born to successors of the Fitzgerald family in Spain.
Tómas
joined the Spanish navy as a midshipman in the mid-18th century. By 1782, he had risen to the rank of captain
and had led several expeditions to the Caribbean to keep the waters off Spanish
colonies free from English privateers.
Although England was not at war with Spain, the two nations were vying
for supremacy in the New World and control of its wealth. English kings had granted authority to
privately owned warships to plunder Spanish ships in the Caribbean because
England believed that if Spain were unable to protect the trade with its
colonies, they would rebel against Spain and thus become markets for English
goods. Tómas thwarted the activities of
the privateers by keeping his ships at sea for long periods of time. During voyages back and forth across the
Atlantic and across the oceans of the globe to discover unknown lands, ships
had to frequently make landfall to replenish their supply of fresh water. But Tómas increased the length of time his
ships could stay on patrol searching for English privateers by devising a
filtering for sea water so that it would become fresh water. By the 1790's, Tómas's desalinization method
was adopted for the entire Spanish fleet.
Ten
years after serving in the Caribbean, Tómas again faced English ships, this
time warships. Spain had been part of
the First Coalition formed by England, Austria, Prussia and Holland to wage war
against the recently-established Republic of France. In 1795, Spain not only left the Coalition,
but made a military alliance with Republican France. Angered by this apparent betrayal, the
English government declared war on Spain.
Two years later in this war, attempting to drive off English ships blockading the
During
the Napoleonic Wars a few years later, another captain of Irish ancestry in the
Spanish navy clashed with British men o'war.
At the Battle of Trafalgar fought off the coast of Spain, Rear Admiral
MacDonald led a squadron against the English fleet commanded by Lord
Nelson. He had started his career of
service to the monarchs of Spain as a lieutenant in the army. Then MacDonald requested a transfer to the
navy, and fought in naval engagements from Africa to the West Indies. For a time, he was detached from the Spanish
Navy to counsel the Swedish King on tactics and strategy in Sweden's war
against Russia. In 1814, MacDonald was
promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Spanish Fleet.
One
Irish family in particular stands out for its career in the Spanish navy. This family was the O'Doghertys. Although the family did not arrive in Spain
until the late 18th century - quite a bit later than most other Irish émigrés -
the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century presented members of the O'Dogherty
family with an opportunity to display daring and intelligence in a time of
crisis for Spain.
The
story of the O'Doghertys' decision to emigrate to
After
Cahir's death, his brother Seán became Lord of Inish Eoghain and continued
fighting the English. But Seán received
no support from the other Irish clans, and his forces were soon defeated by the
English. Poulet seized the ó Dochartaigh
lands and Seán fled to Brífne in central
Ireland where he lived in secret to preserve his own life. Seán and his descendants became farmers,
eking out a meagre living on land owned by an English lord near Clankee in
County Cavan. By the mid-18th century,
they were impoverished and bitter, the days of their former family prominence
only a memory.
In
the 1760's, a descendant of Seán's named Henry O'Dogherty emigrated
to
When
the Napoleonic Wars broke out, both Clinton and Henry were dispatched to the
Caribbean with the navy. A short time
later, Seán achieved widespread fame for repelling a French invasion force
attempting to land in the Atlantic port of Vigo near the Portuguese
border. Spain had ended its alliance
with France, and Napoleon sent his troops to invade Spain rather than risk
having a potentially hostile nation on the southern border of France. At Vigo, Seán O'Dogherty had only two small
gunboats to engage a much larger French force.
He ordered his sailors to remove the cannon from the gunboats and place
them in a castle overlooking the harbour approaches. From this fortified position, Seán was able
to damage the French ships enough to force them to withdraw. O'Dogherty's victory became a part of Spanish
naval tradition. The exploits of Seán
O'Dogherty at Vigo were told and retold to each new generation of Spanish
midshipmen, giving them an example of the courage and intelligence that Spain
expected of its naval officers.
Many
of the descendants of Seán O'Dogherty followed in their famous ancestor's
footsteps by entering the Spanish navy.
As was common in naval families, O'Dogherty's daughters and granddaughters
married naval officers. One of his
descendants was Pascual O'Dogherty, a 20th-century admiral who was an
internationally known authority on naval architecture.
Those
émigrés who had been nobles in Ireland saw the naval service as a way to obtain
the prestige and position they had lost with the English occupation of their
land. Besides, naval service uniquely
offered the Irish an opportunity for adventure which appealed to their ancient
Celtic traits. Even though a life at sea
was unfamiliar to them, with their ability to adapt to new situations and their
desire to play a productive role in their new countries, many émigrés readily,
and eagerly, joined the Spanish navy - where many of them served with
distinction and a few became legendary.
MERCHANT
ADVENTURERS
During
the 15th century, a large number of merchant families in the Irish port cities
of Galway, Cork and Waterford had become wealthy by trading with European
countries. They mostly shipped Irish butter
and beef to the continent on English merchant vessels, which then returned to
Ireland with casks of wine.
During
the reigns of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth, the Lord Deputies in
charge of Ireland placed many restrictions on Irish merchants. Merchants who did not convert to the new
Anglican religion found themselves harassed by customs agents, and sometimes
they had their premises sacked by soldiers.
As O'Neill's rebellion spread across Ireland in the late 16th century,
Irish merchants were heavily taxed by the English to pay for the defence of
Irish cities against a rebel army that many of them sympathized with. In addition, the continual strife between the
warring sides and the scorched-earth policy of the English army frequently cut
the merchants off from their interior markets for their imported goods and also
from the domestic goods they exported.
Seeing their revenues plummet with little likelihood of recovery, many
Irish merchants moved their headquarters to European port cities such as Cadiz
and Bilbao in Spain with which they had been trading for many years while
continuing to operate in Ireland as best they could.
The
majority of merchants in Ireland and Spain were small businessmen, usually
employing only family members. With their
base of operations shifted to Spain and business prospects in Ireland
uncertain, they changed their business activity to importing goods and
materials from the New World and the Far East and distributing these goods to
other European countries. In the ports
of Cadiz, Bilbao and Barcelona, the Irish merchants imported coffee, cocoa, rum
and other products and made arrangements to send them to other European
countries. To ensure that their affairs
abroad would be handled effectively and reliably, the Irish merchants often
sent their sons or nephews to cities in Europe, the New World, and the Far East
to be their agents. In many parts of
Europe, though, the Irish merchants did not need to dispatch an agent to handle
their affairs because they could call on members of their clans who had
emigrated to do this. This was often the
case in France and Austria and even in faraway Russia. Having clan members they could rely on in foreign
countries usually gave the Irish an advantage over their business rivals.
After
the Flight of the Earls in 1607, members of the clan O'Sullivan, MacCarthy and
O'Driscol settled in the cities of Santender and Bilbao on the shores of the
Bay of Biscay. Within a few generations,
they became very prosperous merchants who traded with all parts of Europe. But not all of the Irish merchants remained
in the north of Spain. Some, like Pedro
Alonzo O'Crowley, settled in the southern port city of Cadiz. He devoted his time not only to his business
interests, but also to writing and historical research. The king acknowledged his scholarship by
ennobling O'Crowley, granting him the right to call himself hidalgo, the
equivalent of an Irish baron. After his
death, O'Crowley left behind documents identifying him as a member of clan
O'Sullivan who had changed his name to escape English reprisals for his part in
O'Neill's rebellion.
One
of the most noted and successful Irish émigrés who went into business in Spain
was not originally a merchant, but an émigré soldier who had served in the French
forces sent to Spain in support of its new King, Philip V, in the War of
Spanish Succession in the early 1700's.
General Terry, one of the Wild Geese arriving in France in 1693, played
a major role in the growth of the export of sherry from Spain to all parts of
Europe; and he was also responsible for the famed Lippezaner horses of
Austria. But Terry's path to becoming a
prominent émigré businessman was roundabout.
After
arriving in France in 1693, like most of the other Wild Geese, Terry joined the
French army, where he rose to the rank of general. He left the military when Philip V of Spain
renounced his claim to the French throne, thus ending the crises to the
European balance of power from the possibility that Philip could wear the crown
of both Spain and France. Philip V, who
had been named heir to the Spanish throne by his uncle, King Carlos II of
Spain, was also in line to be King of France as a grandson of Louis XIV. Shortly before the death of Carlos and his
will appointing Philip as his successor was known, France, England, Austria and
the Netherlands made an agreement to partition the Spanish territories in
Europe after the death of Carlos II - who was childless. The agreement came apart from Louis XIV of
France learned that his grandson, Philip, was to be King of Spain, and France
might control all the Spanish territories in Europe as well as Spain
itself. Alarmed by Louis XIV's reneging
of the agreement and the possibility of an increase in French power and
territorial possessions which would upset the balance of power, England,
Austria and the Netherlands went to war against France and Spain - hoping to
replace Philip V with the Archduke Charles of Austria. The Archduke felt that he had the stronger
claim to the Spanish throne because he and Carlos II belonged to the royal
family of the Hapsburgs: and thus, with him as the Spanish King, the Hapsburg
lineage as rulers of Spain would continue.
Philip
V rewarded Terry for his service to Spain with a tract of land. Terry was given an estate with vineyards near
the southern city of Jerez, in the region of Andalusia. The area surrounding the city was famous for
its sweet wine which was known as sherry from the garbled attempts of
foreigners to pronounce Jerez. Terry
decided to stay in Spain to oversee his estate.
When he went to take over his estate, Terry found that the harvest of
grapes produced by the tenant farmers on their plots of land varied
widely. Some plots were adequately
fertilized and produced satisfactory harvests; while with others the soil was
so depleted that they yielded hardly anything.
Having no farming background, Terry went to other Irish émigrés who were
farmers for advice on agricultural techniques which would improve the harvests
of his estate. After following their
advice to organize his vineyards into a single agricultural unit with uniform
methods of cultivation and fertilization taught to him by the farmers, Terry's
estate began to yield consistently good harvests. In fact, his estate became widely known for
the abundance of its harvests, and Terry's neighbouring landowners soon began
following the Irish farming methods he had implemented.
It
was about this time in the early 1700's that sherry became a
"fortified" wine by adding brandy to it to give it a higher alcohol
content. No record exists which credits
General Terry with this innovation, but what is known is that he began to
produce fortified sherry around this time.
He quickly established trade connections with other Irish merchants
throughout Europe for the export of the fortified sherry wine from his
vineyards. Sherry already had a large
market in England. Folklore in Jerez
claimed that the English had acquired a taste for the wine from supplies of it
on captured Spanish galleons. With the
addition of brandy to it, this soon became popular in many other countries as
well. General Terry led the way in
stimulating not only greater production, but also greater exports, laying the
foundation for Andalusia to become the most important viable wine-growing area
of Spain. Terry's descendants continued
in the wine business and today Fernando Terry heads the Terry Corporation, the
second largest exporter of Spanish sherry.
Besides
wine production, General Terry became involved in raising horses after visiting
the Cartusian Monastery near his estate.
He discovered that the monks had bred an unusual herd of horses which
were born black and gradually turned white as they grew older. When they were fully mature, they achieved
the uncommonly tall height of eighteen hands, or 72 inches at the
shoulder. In southern Spain, the horses
were called Cartusian after the monastery.
General
Terry brought several of the horses back to his Andalusian estate and began his
own breeding programme. Eventually,
Philip V saw one of the magnificent horses owned by General Terry and suggested
that Terry present several of them to the Archduke Charles of Austria. Philip hoped that a gift of the horses would
help to soothe any resentments harboured by Charles in the wake of the War of
Spanish Succession. Not wishing to
offend the king who had given him so much, General Terry sent several horses to
Vienna. Archduke Charles immediately
established the Spanish Riding School and called the horses the
Lippezaners. During the course of the
next few centuries, they became famous throughout the world for their precision
movements in formation.
The
Irish merchants were particularly beneficial to Spain considering the decline
in the Spanish economy during the 17th and 18th centuries. Not only did they noticeably add to Spain's
commercial activity in general and stimulate particular areas of its economy,
but there were times when the émigrés exclusively could maintain economic
activity which was barred to native Spaniards.
When because of war or changed political or military alliances Spain was
unable to trade with a particular country or its colonies, the Irish émigré
merchants were often able to use their international clan connections to get
around trade bans against Spain, and thereby continue to maintain some level of
trade with these countries. Thus, the
Irish merchants in Spain brought some stability to economic activity and
relations in a time when international commerce was tentative and unpredictable.
THE PRESIDENT OF
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
Although
there were many Irish émigrés and their descendants who influenced commerce,
medicine, education and military affairs in Spain, none was more important to
Spanish society than Leopold O'Donnell.
In the mid-19th century, he became the head of the Spanish
government. As President of the Council
of Ministers, he played a critical role in the reform movement which led to the
development of a constitutional monarchy in Spain.
Leopold
was a direct descendant of Red Hugh O'Donnell, the clan chieftain who had
fought alongside O'Neill in the 16th-century Irish rebellion known as the Nine
Years War. After English soldiers
defeated the rebels, Red Hugh fled to Spain, where he and his sons entered the
Spanish army, thus beginning the O'Donnell tradition to pursue military
careers. Leopold's grandfather, José,
had commanded the Ultonia Regiment and risen to the rank of general; his
father, Carlos, was a general in command of Spanish artillery; and his two
uncles were infantry generals. Leopold
began his military service in 1819, at the age of ten, as a cadet in the
Ultonia Regiment.
Leopold
O'Donnell began demonstrating his extraordinary leadership capabilities in 1833
during a war to determine who should wear the crown of Spain. In that year, King Ferdinand VII died after
rescinding a law which prevented a woman from ruling Spain. This enabled his infant daughter, Isabella,
to succeed him. Ferdinand's brother,
Carlos, who would have become king under the old law, marshalled an army to
contest the right of the new queen to rule.
Far more was at stake than the succession to the crown. Isabella and her mother, the Queen Regent María
Christina, believed that the common people of
Initially,
Carlos pinned his hopes of becoming King on two generals of Irish descent, José
O'Donnell, Leopold's grandfather, and Pedro Sarsfield y Waters. Because of his military exploits in the 1808
uprising against the French occupation and subsequent leadership of Spanish
troops in North Africa, O'Donnell had great prestige in the Spanish
military. His support would ensure that
most of the Spanish army units would side with Carlos. Sarsfield commanded the Army of Observation
which had been stationed to guard the Portuguese border since the close of the
Napoleonic Wars, despite the fact that Portugal no longer posed any military
threat to Spain. At the time, this Army
was the finest fighting force in the Spanish army. Carlos assumed that both generals would
support him because they frequently counselled the government against
implementing democratic reforms too rapidly.
In addition, he believed that no self-respecting Spanish general would
accept the leadership of a woman.
To
the surprise of Carlos, General O'Donnell and General Sarsfield committed their
forces to the infant Queen Isabella and her mother, the Queen Regent María
Christina. They felt that the radically
conservative programmes advocated by Carlos, which
included re-establishing the Inquisition, would add more fuel to the anarchist
movement which was growing stronger in
At
the outbreak of the Carlist War in 1833, Leopold, the grandson of General José
O'Donnell, was a newly commissioned young officer. In skirmishes and battles against the
Carlists in northern Spain, he served with such distinction that he rapidly
rose in rank. As a colonel in 1838, he
was placed in charge of the defence of San Sebastián, a major port city on the
Bay of Biscay. After repelling an
assault on the city by a superior Carlist force, he earned promotion to the
rank of general. The war concluded a
year later when General Espartero, the commander-in-chief of Isabella's forces,
agreed with the Queen's approval to recognize the noble titles granted by
Carlos to the officers who sided with him.
This induced substantial numbers of his officers to defect to Isabella's
side, taking their troops with them.
Abandoned by much of his forces, Carlos left Spain.
Much
to the dismay of Leopold O'Donnell and many other Spaniards, General Espartero
took control of the government and began to behave like a military
dictator. In 1840, the young Queen
Isabella and her mother fled to France to escape being made prisoners in the
royal palace by Espartero. Leopold
O'Donnell helped to arrange for their escape and accompanied them to
France. Three years later, liberal
supporters of the Queen overthrew Espartero and drove him into exile. O'Donnell returned to Spain with Isabella and
resumed his interrupted army career. As
a reward for his faithful service to her, Isabella appointed him
Governor-General of Cuba.
Soon
after his return to Spain, Isabella established a legislative assembly called
the Cortes composed of a Senate and a General Assembly. Some of the senators were appointed by the
crown and some were appointed by towns, universities and the Church; while
members of the General Assembly were elected by the people. The General Assembly appointed Ministers,
usually the leaders of the political party which had gained a majority, who
formed a Council to run the government.
The Council then elected one of its Ministers as its President. This President was the head of state. The role of the monarch in this governmental
scheme was limited to granting noble titles, appointing Senators, and calling
new elections. All other governmental
activities were left to the Cortes and the Council of Ministers.
In
1847, when Leopold O'Donnell's tour of duty in Cuba ended, he returned to
Spain. In recognition of his able
administration of the colony, Isabella made him the Count of Lucerna and
appointed him Senator. In order to
devote his full attention to his new duties as Senator, O'Donnell turned down
another military command. When he began
attending the Cortes, however, he quickly discovered that many Senators and
members of the Assembly were corrupt and indifferent to the social and economic
problems of Spain, using their position primarily to increase their
wealth. O'Donnell advocated the gradual
introduction of democratic reforms, fearing that continued governmental
corruption would serve only to alienate conservatives while encouraging
radicals.
At
the time, the Count of San Luís was the President of the Council of Ministers,
and as such was head of the government.
He passed laws and regulations requiring that the Cortes in Madrid make
virtually all decisions formerly made locally by mayors, provincial councils
and provincial governors. This was an
attempt to shift meaningful political power away from the merchants and
landowners who elected local officials to the Ministers and other politicians
in Madrid. With the Ministers appointed
by the Cortes in control of even the lowest level of government, all tax revenues
and administrative requests from private citizens - which were often
accompanied by bribes - would pass through the hands of the Ministers and their
agents. Although San Luís claimed to be
a liberal, many Spaniards believed his policies were as oppressive as the
policies of Isabella's father, the absolute monarch Ferdinand VII, or the
dictator Espartero. Opposition to the
government from trade unions, merchants, and farmers grew intense, and many
people refused to follow the decisions made by the government in Madrid. The ability of San Luís and the Council of
Ministers to rule Spain was further undermined by the anarchist movement which
was gaining many followers among the factory workers in Cataluña, the most
industrialized province of Spain. Incidents
of bombings, assassinations and strikes increased, and because the government
in Madrid did not have the cooperation of local officials, it could not
suppress the anarchists.
By
1854, civil war again threatened to erupt in Spain when anti-government rioting
broke out in Madrid. Large crowds of
anarchists carrying muskets, swords and pitchforks converged on the building
where the Cortes was housed. Because
many army officers did not support the corrupt government, no order was issued
to suppress the rioting. Although
Leopold O'Donnell was also strongly opposed to the policies of the government,
he feared that the rioting might encourage conservatives to seize power, depose
Isabella from the throne, and restore an absolute monarchy. So he made his way through the rioting mob to
the camp of a regiment stationed on the outskirts of Madrid and returned with
the regiment to the streets of the city, where the soldiers restored order.
The
rioting forced San Luís and the other ministers to resign, leading Isabella to
call for new elections for the General Assembly of the Cortes. When Isabella asked O'Donnell to become a
Minister in an interim government until the elections could be held, he readily
agreed. He resigned as Senator and
became the Minister of War. While
serving in the interim government, he founded and organized the Liberal Union
Party. Because of his prestige as the
hero of San Sebastián, his role in suppressing the rioting in Madrid, and his
reputation for honesty and commitment to the Queen, the Liberal Union Party
attracted many followers. When the
elections were held in 1856, the Party won a majority of the seats in the
General Assembly, and most of the Ministers appointed by the General Assembly
were Liberal Unionists. The Ministers
then elected O'Donnell as the President of the Council of Ministers.
As
head of the new government, O'Donnell convinced both liberals and conservatives
to adopt a compromise plan that restored local control to government in cities
and provinces, but left the Cortes in overall supervision of their
activities. Because the Carlist wars and
the corruption which followed had left Spain impoverished, O'Donnell invited
foreign capitalists to invest in Spanish industry by having the government give
them land on which they could build factories.
Under his direction, the government also gave land to railroads to
stimulate the growth of the Spanish rail system.
By
the time O'Donnell retired in 1865, most of the Spanish people no longer
doubted that a constitutional monarchy with an elected assembly was the best
means to effectively govern Spain. The
reforms and policies that he established helped steer Spain not only through a
governmental crisis, but also helped to lay the foundation for the future
economic development of the country. A
year after he left office, he died at his estate in Biatriz. The Spanish government brought his body back
to Madrid, buried him by the church known as Las Salesas on the Plaza de Santa
Bárbara, and erected a statue of him to commemorate his contributions to
Spanish society.
The
career of Leopold O'Donnell was an example of the strong influence that the
Irish émigrés and their descendants had on the development of Spanish
culture. Because of the contributions of
many generations of Irish émigrés to education, commerce and the military, the
Spanish people did not hesitate to entrust their government to a descendant of
Irish émigrés. Once in office, he
demonstrated the adaptability, loyalty and talent for compromise characteristic
of the Irish émigrés in Europe.
CHAPTER
7
In
the Service of France
War-battered
dogs are we,
Fighters
in every clime;
Fillers
of trenches and graves,
Mockers
bemocked by time;
War
dogs, hungry and grey,
Gnawing a naked bone.
Fighters
in every clime,
Every cause but our own.
- Emily
Lawless, With the Wild Geese
THE FLIGHT OF THE
WILD GEESE
On
a cool day in the December of 1691, an Irish Colonel named Patrick Sarsfield
arrived in France at the head of twelve thousand veteran Irish soldiers fully
armed with their muskets and sabres. But
this was no army of invasion bent on conquest.
Instead, it was a migration of Irish to continental Europe on an
unprecedented scale. As the soldiers
disembarked from the French ships that had transported them from Ireland,
Sarsfield ordered his officers to muster them to demonstrate that even on
foreign soil they remained a disciplined fighting force.
By
the mid-18th century, these soldiers led into exile by Colonel Patrick
Sarsfield plus thousands of others who left Ireland to join them in France in
the following decades were known in Ireland and throughout Europe as the
"Wild Geese". The first
recorded description of them by this name is in an early 18th-century poem by
Sean ó Cuinnegáin. With this image, ó
Cuinnegáin evoked the romantic notion that like the migrating geese, the
soldiers would one day return to their homeland after a flight to a distant
foreign place. There is another,
comparatively prosaic, origin for their name which is offered by some Irish
historians. This explanation for the
term refers to the way the many individuals desiring to join the exiled Irish
soldiers in France circumvented Irish laws preventing emigration. Because many of the émigrés going to Europe
were joining the armies of England's enemies in order to fight against English
oppression in Ireland in this indirect way, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland made
it illegal for men with military experience to leave Ireland. To get around the law, Irish fighting men
desiring to join the armies of England's enemies hid in the cargo holds of
French merchant ships bound for French and other European ports. On their manifests, the ships' captains would
record these hidden Irishmen as "wild geese". The ruse worked because the French routinely
imported large numbers of such birds from Ireland as delicacies for the
nobility. The French captains and crews
were readily willing to play their part in the scheme since it helped to supply
capable and enthusiastic fighting men for their armies in their perennial
contest with England for supremacy in Europe.
Whatever its origins, the name "Wild Geese"
came to be applied to the defeated Irish troops led by Sarsfield who went into
exile on that cool December day in 1691 and the many Irishmen who left
Patrick
Sarsfield and the Wild Geese found themselves in exile not because they
rebelled against the kings of England like so many of their forebears. Ironically, the reason they came to France
was became they supported James II, the Catholic King of England who had been
deposed in 1688 by the Protestant, William of Orange. William was supported by the Protestant
majority in England who were opposed to the pro-Catholic policies of James
II. To escape capture by William, James
II fled to Paris and was welcomed by the king of France, Louis XIV.
Because
William of Orange was the leader of a coalition of nations known as The League
of Augsburg allied in a war against France, Louis feared that England would
also declare war on France. To keep the
English armies away from European soil, Louis devised a clever strategy. He persuaded James to go to Ireland with a
small French army as a first step to regaining his lost throne by force of
arms. If enough Irish soldiers serving in
the English army joined James and he was successful, Louis would have England
as an ally. But even if James was
unsuccessful, he would weaken English forces in battle so they could not attack
France.
In
March of 1689, James landed at the Irish port of Kinsale with a few French
regiments behind him. Irish Catholics -
civilians as well as entire regiments of Irish soldiers in the English army -
flocked to his banner, swelling the size of his force. The joint Irish-French army marched north
towards Dublin, clashing with an English army near the Boyne River. King William's valour during the battle
inspired his troops, and the English swept the Irish-French army from the
field.
During
the battle when William's victory appeared certain, James panicked and fled to
Dublin and eventually to France. Despite
James' cowardice, Patrick Sarsfield organized an orderly retreat from the
Boyne. He led the remnants of the Irish
and French forces towards the walled city of Limerick on the western
coast. During the long march, the
rearguard was led by Michael Hogan, who had become known as The Galloping Hogan
for his extraordinary feats of horsemanship.
Using the traditional Irish tactics of ambush and manoeuvre, he harassed
the pursuing columns of English soldiers.
His skirmishers became known as Rapparees, taking their name from the
half-pike called a rappaire that they favoured in combat.
The
retreating Irish and French army eventually reached Limerick. The English army following closely behind
laid siege to the city. The siege
dragged on for several months with neither side achieving a breakthrough. To end the stalemate, William offered terms
to the Irish guaranteeing freedom of religion and property ownership for
Catholics. But William also required
that all the Irish soldiers who served in the army of James II choose between
pledging their loyalty to William or going into
perpetual exile. After consulting with
his men, Patrick Sarsfield accepted the terms of peace which became known as
the Treaty of Limerick.
In
accordance with the terms of the treaty, the Irish Catholic regiments which had
been in the English army prior to enlisting in the cause of James II were
forced to choose between exile in France or serving England. On the day the treaty went into effect, the
royal banners of France and England were placed in a field outside
Limerick. The Irish Foot Guards were the
first to march out of the city, and without hesitation they marched to the
standard of France. They knew this meant
permanent banishment from their homeland, yet they could not submit to William
and the ascendancy of the Protestant religion he represented. By the end of the day, twelve thousand
soldiers had decided to accept exile in France rather than serve England.
A
few days after the signing of the Treaty of Limerick, a French fleet which had
not heard about the Treaty sailed up the Shannon laden with troops and supplies
to reinforce the defenders of Limerick.
Sarsfield honoured the agreement and did not resume the struggle. He forbade the French to land. Instead, he used their ships to transport
some of his regiments to Europe. The
Irish soldiers who did not sail with these French ships marched to Cork where
they embarked for France a few weeks later.
Scarcely a man of them ever set foot in Ireland again. After the army of Ireland had disbanded,
after its best swordsmen were exiled to foreign lands, the English Parliament
repudiated the Treaty of Limerick, leaving the oppression of Catholics in
place. Had
THE IRISH BRIGADE
Patrick
Sarsfield had been in France before.
Twenty years before his arrival with the Wild Geese in 1691, he had
received his initial military training as an officer in the French army's
Dillon Regiment, made up entirely of Irish soldiers. After a large number of Irish soldiers fled
to France in 1645 following defeat by Oliver Cromwell's Puritan army, the
Regiment had been formed under the command of Edmond Robert Du Wall, whose
brother Michael had been appointed general of the "entire foreign
army" serving in France during the Thirty Years War. This unit became known as the Dillon Regiment
in 1653 when it was commanded by Viscount Dillon, and it kept that name for the
next century and a half. By the time
that Patrick Sarsfield and the Wild Geese arrived in France, the soldiers of
Ireland already had a reputation for exceptional courage among the French army.
The
Dillon Regiment was not the only exclusively Irish unit in the French army in
1691. A year before, in order to repay
Louis XIV for the loan of French troops to invade Ireland, James II had sent
the Irish Regiments of Viscount Mountcashel and Lord Clare to France after they
defected to James' army in Ireland.
Immediately, the regiments of Clare and Mountcashel joined with the
Dillon Regiment to become a separate unit of the French army called the Irish
Brigade. To Brigade was sent to Savoy to
fight against the League of Augsburg.
When
they arrived in France, the Wild Geese were incorporated into the Irish
Brigade, which added new regiments. This
was a measure which satisfied the different, but interrelated, interests of
various groups of individuals. The
Brigade gained the military skills and experience of the thousands of Irish
soldiers, which made it an even more formidable fighting unit. Patrick Sarsfield was given the rank of
brigadier general by the French and placed in command of the considerably
enlarged Brigade. The Brigade pledged
their loyalty to James II and his heirs with the hope that the Stuart family
would one day regain the throne of England and end the English oppression of
Ireland. They also gave their allegiance
to King Louis XIV of France, who they saw as an ally in their struggle against
England and champion of the Catholic faith.
Besides
the military and political motives for incorporating the Wild Geese into the
Irish Brigade, there were also considerations regarding the exiled Irish
soldiers as individuals. The Wild Geese
had been unexpectedly sent from Ireland.
Joining this band of fellow Irish soldiers on French soil gave them a
way to erase the pangs and regret of their sudden, Draconian exile from their
homeland. Since France was an enemy of
England, joining the Brigade also allowed them to express their undiminished
opposition to England and its harsh exploitative policies in Ireland. This gave them the prospect of once again
meeting English forces on the field of battle to exact revenge for the
continuing injustices to their countrymen and women. Like the Irish émigré soldiers before them,
the Wild Geese looked upon their regiments of the Irish Brigade as their new
clan and their officers as their new clan leaders. With the loyalty of the members of the Irish
Brigade to one another and their fighting spirit kept burning by the hope of
battle against the English, the Brigade became a modern-day example of the
mythic fianna, the Celtic oath-bound warrior band.
Until
the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, almost all of the soldiers who came to France in
1691 remained on active duty in the military.
Nominally, the Brigade was in the service of James II, but it fought
against the enemies of Louis XIV, whether English or Dutch or German. In 1697, England and France signed the Treaty
of Ryswick, which contained the provision that James no longer maintain his own
private army. Under the terms of this
Treaty, the Irish Brigade should have been disbanded. Louis XIV, however, was reluctant to part
with the services of such dependable fighting men. He ordered the Brigade transferred into the
French army, but reduced its size in order to comply with another provision of
the Treaty, requiring a reduction in the size of France's standing army. Despite their wish to continue in the service
of France, many of the émigrés of the Irish Brigade were discharged. Some entered civilian life. But many others considered themselves
professional soldiers and spread out across
After
the Treaty of Ryswick, the Irish Brigade consisted of the three original regiments,
which became fully integrated into the French army. The integration was in keeping with the role
of the Brigade for both the Irish and French.
For the Irish, the existence of the Brigade demonstrated to the English
kings and their ministers that many Irish would not passively accept laws
designed to destroy their culture. For
the French, the Brigade was a highly effective military unit that could be
entrusted with crucial battle missions.
Its officers were properly pedigreed Irish nobles who could keep the
occasionally rowdy troops in line. So
the Irish Brigade became an institution in 18th-century France, fighting in
over eighty-seven engagements. It was
largely due to the success of the Irish Brigade that the French army was open
to creating independent émigré units that would ultimately lead to the
formation of the Foreign Legion in the 19th century.
In
1702, the Irish Brigade earned the respect of the entire French army during the
Battle of Cremona in Italy during the War of Spanish Succession. After the French had occupied the city,
Prince Eugène of Savoy launched a surprise night attack to retake it. In the dark and confusion, the French troops
were unable to muster an effective defence.
Eugène's troops poured into the city after capturing the gates of St.
Margaret and All Saints. Before
daybreak, most of Cremona was in Eugène's hands. His soldiers had even captured the French
commander, Marshall de Villeroy. But
then the Austrians came upon the soldiers of the Irish Brigade near the Po
Gate.
Awakened
by the clamour of shot and rattling sabres, Major Dan O'Mahoney roused his men
from their sleep. Clutching their
pistols and their swords, they rushed into the battle wearing only their
nightshirts. O'Mahoney's men formed an
unmovable barrier by the Po gate that became a rallying point for the
French. Although the Austrians made
repeated assaults on the position, they were repelled. To Prince Eugène, it seemed as if the
half-naked Irishmen shouting and waving sabres were not made of the same blood
and bone as other French soldiers. When
enough French and Irish soldiers had gathered at O'Mahoney's rallying point, he
counterattacked, recapturing a battery of 24 guns. By dawn, he swept the Austrians from Cremona.
Two
centuries after the battle, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a fanciful poem about
the engagement which ended with Marshall de Villeroy asking Major Dan O'Mahoney
how the Irish heroes should be rewarded.
"Why
then," says Dan O'Mahoney, "one favour we entreat.
We
were called a little early and our toilet's not complete.
We've
no quarrel with the shirt,
But
the breeches wouldn't hurt,
For
the evening air is chilly in Cremona."
In reality, Major O'Mahoney was rewarded
not only by permission to don his trousers.
He brought the news of the victory to Louis XIV at the palace of
Versailles, insuring that he would receive royal recognition for his part in
the battle.
Most
of the Irish soldiers serving in the Brigade had left their wives and lovers in
Ireland. Only several hundred women
accompanied the Wild Geese in 1691, and very few Irish wives later joined their
husbands. So eventually many of the
Irish soldiers married French women, creating a considerable number of
Irish-French families whose descendants would be very active in all areas of
French society. Yet the process of full
assimilation into French culture was slow for the members of the Irish Brigade
during the 18th century. They continued to
speak the Irish tongue and live by Irish ways within the Brigade, and only the
officers interacted with French society outside of it. Any of their French-born wives who joined
them as camp followers were expected to live like Irish women and follow the
customs and traditions of their husbands.
This
cultural separation from the mainstream French army enabled the Irish Brigade
to largely avoid the decline in efficiency that plagued the military after
Louis XV became king in 1715. For the
first half of the 18th century, France had the largest army in Europe, but its
troops were poorly trained and had too many officers who owed their rank to
patronage rather than personal skill. In
contrast, the Irish controlled their officers' promotions below the rank of
general and insisted that all soldiers receive adequate training in military
skills. Emphasis on efficient training
and organization enabled the Irish Brigade to win many battles.
In
1701, France abrogated the Treaty of Ryswick which limited the size of its
army. The Irish Brigade grew from its original
three regiments which were named Mountcashel, Clare and Dillon to six regiments
of infantry named Clare, Roth, Dillon, Lally, Berwick, Bulkleys
after their commanders; and one regiment of cavalry named Fitzjames. Their numbers were augmented not only by the
sons of Irish émigrés born on French soil, but also by fresh recruits who kept
coming from Ireland to escape oppression.
The Brigade dispatched official recruiters to Clare and Galway and Cork
to secretly spread the message of a life of dignity and adventure under the
French flag. Occasionally, retired
officers from the Brigade would return to Ireland to operate clandestine
schools which taught military skills to young men to prepare them for service
in the French officer corps. These
recruiters and clandestine military educators faced death by hanging if they
were discovered by the English overlords.
There are no official figures or reliable documentation on how many
Irishmen served in the Brigade during the 18th century. Estimates based on the number of troops
exiled from Ireland in 1691, subsequent émigrés leaving Ireland on their own or
enlisted by the recruiters, and male children of these groups joining the
Brigade range from 100,000 to 500,000.
The
Battle of Fontenoy in 1744 was the only major engagement where all of the Irish
Regiments fought together on the same field.
The French used all of their Irish troops because they knew that an
unusually large British force was opposing them. For the Irish, the battle was a chance to
fight the historic foe and avenge the long-standing wrongs.
On
the field of battle, the French were badly outnumbered. They had the Irish Brigade in reserve under
the command of Viscount Clare to counterattack if the French lines broke under
an English assault. At midday, the
Coldstream Guards advanced from the English side, firing their muskets with
devastating accuracy. They soon
penetrated the centre of the French position to dominate the field. But then came the
order for the Irish Brigade to attack. With
cold visions of vengeance for the broken Treaty of Limerick, they fixed their
bayonets and charged, shouting "Remember Limerick and the treachery of the
English!" A short while later,
Irish steel and courage turned the tide of battle. The shattered remnants of the Coldstream
Guards staggered back towards the English lines.
Henry
Skrine, the leading English authority on Fontenoy, gave a clear picture of the
Irish Brigade's boldness with the comment: "Among French infantry
regiments those of the Irish Brigade stood first. Their desperate valour was a factor of great
importance in our disaster." When
the English king, George II, heard the news of his army's defeat because of the
Irish, he muttered in despair, "Accursed by the laws which deprive me of such
subjects."
In
her poem about Fontenoy, Emily Lawless followed the Clare Regiment during the
battle and captured the vision of vengeance which inspired such reckless
courage from all of the soldiers of the Irish Brigade.
"In
this hollow, star-pricked darkness, as in the sun's hot glare,
In
sun-tide, in star-tide, we starve for Clare!
Hark, yonder through the darkness
on distant rat-tat-tat
The
old foe stirs out there, God bless his soul for that!
The
old foe musters strongly, he's coming on at last,
And
Clare's Brigade may claim its own wherever blows fall fast.
Send
us, ye western breezes, our full, our rightful share,
For
Faith and Fame and Honour, and the ruined hearths of Clare!
If any regiment of the Irish Brigade
deserved special recognition for their efforts, it was the Lally Regiment. It led the counterattack under the command of
Colonel Thomas Arthur Lally, the French-born son of an Irish officer named
Gerard O'Mullally, who shortened his name to Lally after arriving in France
with the Wild Geese. After the battle,
Colonel Lally was presented to Louis XV, who immediately made him a brigadier
general.
By
the second half of the 18th century, the Irish Brigade was considered one of
the best fighting units of the French army; and its officers were considered
among the best as well. During the Seven
Years War, this reputation for superiority led to an unfortunate end for
General Lally. In 1756, because of his
well-known hatred for the English, General Lally was chosen over other
politically-connected senior officers to lead a French military expedition to
India to challenge England's attempt to control the subcontinent. When he arrived in India, in the French
colonial city of Pondicherry, Lally soon came into conflict with the corrupt
civil administration and even some military officers who were enriching
themselves by pilfering military supplies.
After many travails in trying to fulfil his
mission in
When
Lally first arrived in Pondicherry, the corrupt administrators and officers
offered him a part in their scheme.
Lally angrily refused to join their criminal enterprise, and he told the
administrators and officers that he was going to bring charges against them
after he completed his mission. Lally
was determined to try to fulfil his mission even though the corrupt officials,
with the complicity of Paris bureaucrats, had stolen much of the supplies for
the expedition. Besides weakening the
expedition in this way, the officials refused to help Lally obtain maps of the
area where he would be leading his troops or local native workers to help
transport the expedition's military equipment and remaining supplies.
Although
his expedition was severely weakened, Lally nonetheless set off on a
two-hundred mile march along the humid east coast of India to the
English-controlled city of Madras, a major trading centre. Lally's force included his Regiment from the
Irish Brigade as well as other regiments of the French army. By the time Lally's troops arrived at Madras,
the English had enough warning to make defensive preparations. Although critically short of gunpowder and
food, Lally laid siege to the city. But
with the arrival of an English relief force, the French withdrew. After a number of battles and skirmishes with
the English in which he was hampered by lack of supplies, Lally retreated to
Pondicherry, which was then besieged by the pursuing English troops. Before long, Lally was forced to surrender to
the English.
Lally's
surrender at Pondicherry ended the French attempt to check English ambitions in
India. The expedition led by Lally was a
complete failure, and Lally was targeted for blame. When he returned to France, Lally was accused
of conspiring with the English, despite his long record of outstanding service
to France. In a hastily arranged trial,
Lally was found guilty of treason and executed soon after. Lally had become a scapegoat for the corrupt
French officials in India and Paris who had seriously undermined his mission by
stealing his supplies and refusing to help him.
The
officials' corruption guaranteeing that Lally's expedition would fail and their
role in the false charges brought against Lally would have gone undiscovered
except for the determined efforts of Lally's son and his friend, the
philosopher and historian, François de Voltaire. They caused a scandal by exposing the full
extent of the corruption and incompetence which had set into the French
army. When King Louis XV learned of the
false charges brought by corrupt officials which led
to Lally's execution, he exclaimed, "They have assassinated
him!" He ordered a full
investigation the corruption and incompetence that he believed not only
crippled Lally's expedition to India, but also was a major factor in France's
defeat in the Seven Years War resulting in the loss of European and colonial
territory.
The
organization, training and military skills of the Irish Brigade were the model
for the reforms demanded by King Louis XV when the decay of the French army
became evident. During the next three
decades, many Irish officers were promoted to general and assigned to other
French units to supervise their reorganization.
Their influence spread through the entire army, shaping the ideas about
tactics and training methods followed by future French military leaders such as
the Marquis de Lafayette and Napoleon Bonaparte.
After
the Republican revolutionaries who stormed the Bastille in 1789 gained full
control of the French government, an extremist wing of the movement instituted
the Reign of Terror. Virtually everyone
who had served the deposed King Louis XVI in any capacity was marked for
execution on the guillotine. Yet despite
the loyalty of most of the Irish Brigade to the monarchy, they suffered
remarkably little during the Reign of Terror.
In fact, the revolutionaries made special efforts to spare members of
the Brigade - as exemplified by an episode involving Father Donovan, the
Brigade chaplain, shows. Father Donovan
was imprisoned in the Bastille because he continued to offer spiritual counsel
to any aristocrats seeking him out even though aristocrats were being hunted
down and executed by the Republican extremists.
Father Donovan was placed in a large cell containing many prisoners,
including seven other members of the Irish Brigade.
As
Father Donovan and the other prisoners were awaiting their fate, the Committee
for Public Safety governing France after the revolutionaries deposed the
monarchy issued an order that the lives of any native Irish imprisoned with
other monarchists were to be spared in recognition of the Irish Brigade's
contributions to French society. To
ensure that only Irish prisoners would go free, the jailers read the
Committee's order in the Celtic-Irish language - which naturally came out very
garbled. Nonetheless, Father Donovan,
along with the seven other Irish prisoners, were able to figure out what the
guards were saying, and thus stepped forward to be freed.
Although
the Committee gave no reasons for its decision to spare any Irish men or women,
it was probably motivated by international political considerations. In 1792, France was at war with England,
Spain, Austria and Prussia which had formed an alliance which became known as
the First Coalition to restore the monarchy to France. The new regime of France was encouraging
republicans in Ireland who were themselves considering a revolution against the
English overlords. The wholesale
slaughter of Irish émigrés in France would undermine republican support for
France's Revolution in Ireland and thereby benefit England.
Immediately
after the Revolution, the soldiers of the Irish Brigade faced a conflict
between their loyalty to King Louis XVI, who had been their benefactor, and the
Republican ideals of equality and democracy.
Because most members of the Irish Brigade believed that their pledge to
the King was inviolable, they sided with the monarchist forces still fighting
the Republicans from the eastern provinces of France and the German
states. These monarchist forces were too
small to mount a major offensive against Republican France and were further
hampered by a lack of funding. In 1792,
the monarchist forces were disbanded, including the Irish Brigade, which by
then had shrunk to the Regiments of Dillon, Berwick and Walsh. The final break-up of the Brigade came at a
formal ceremony conducted by the Count de Provence, who became King Louis XVIII
after the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1816. He presented a banner to the three remaining
regiments bearing an Irish Harp and the legend, "Semper et Unique Fidelis
- 1692-1792."
A
few of the veterans of the Brigade who had been promoted to general prior to
the Revolution sided with the Republicans.
Because of the oppression visited on Ireland by the English aristocrats,
they strongly sympathized with the plight of the peasantry and the bourgeoisie
in France. When the extremely radical
Committee for Public Safety collapsed in 1794 and was replaced by a five member
Directory in 1795, many Irish generals found themselves in positions of great
influence under the new government. Their
sudden rise was due not only to their own talents, but to the shortage of
experienced officers in France in the wake of executions and emigration during
the Reign of Terror.
The
most popular and influential of the Irish generals serving in the army of the
Republic was Charles Kilmaine. He had
come to France in 1765 as a student, but saw that he had greater opportunity
for adventure as a soldier than as a scholar.
After training as a junior officer in the Irish Brigade, he was part of
General Rochambeau's invasion of Georgia and unsuccessful siege of Savannah to
support George Washington during the American War of Independence. During France's military campaigns in
northern Italy, he achieved the rank of general. Because the continued survival of the
newly-formed French Republic depended on the success of its soldiers in
thwarting the nations who sought to restore the Bourbon monarchy, experienced
generals like Kilmaine were extremely influential among the members of the
Directory. His principal rival in
determining the shape that the military strategy of France should take was
Napoleon Bonaparte, a young general who had achieved great fame for leading a
successful campaign against the Austrians in northern Italy. Both Kilmaine and Bonaparte advocated taking
the offensive in the war against England which had begun in 1792. However, they differed as to which kind of
offensive campaign would be most effective.
Kilmaine favoured striking directly against England with a cross-channel
invasion. As an alternative to this, he
called for an invasion of Ireland which would stimulate an Irish rebellion
against England. Bonaparte, on the other
hand, believed that the best way to force England to sue for peace would be to
attack its overseas empire.
Because
both Kilmaine's and Bonaparte's strategies corresponded to the standard
military doctrine for French forces established with the reorganization of the
army in 1763 emphasizing aggressive operations, the Directory was disposed to
approve of offensive strategies. The
Directory opted for Kilmaine's strategy of invading England - and it ordered
the formation of the armée d'Angleterre to accomplish this. Bonaparte was given command of the armée,
with Kilmaine appointed as his assistant.
Although Kilmaine's strategy was the one chosen by the Directory and an
army was being prepared to execute it, Kilmaine, with the support of other
Irish generals, pressed for swifter action against England. One of the Irish generals who supported
Kilmaine was Henri Clarke; Clarke virtually ran the Ministry of War, although
his official title was Chief of the Topography and Geography department.
The
continued appeals from their highly-regarded Irish generals persuaded the
Directory to send a fifteen-thousand man contingent of the armée
d'Angleterre to Ireland in 1796 under the command of General Hoche. But foul weather prevented a landing, and the
soldiers returned to France. Bonaparte
seized the opportunity presented by this failure to convince the Directory that
the armée d'Angleterre should invade Egypt. The Directory agreed and sent a large portion
of the troops to Egypt with Bonaparte, where they met with disaster in a battle
against British forces. Kilmaine took
command of the portion of the armée d'Angleterre remaining in France,
and in 1798 the Directory allowed Kilmaine to make a second attempt at an Irish
invasion. A small unit under General
Humbert did land in Ireland, but the main force under the Irish émigré General
Hardy was intercepted by British ships in Lough Swilly and captured.
Although the Irish generals were often not successful in the field
of battle during the period of the Directory, their constant seizure of the
initiative kept
The
contribution of the Irish Brigade to French society was not limited to its
example and success in military affairs.
During the 18th century, the Brigade was like a beacon which attracted
Ireland's most talented people. Denied
educational, economic or professional opportunities in their own land by
oppressive English rule, many Irish saw the Brigade as offering the chance to
pursue their desires in these areas. The
Brigade was always looking for new Irish recruits to maintain its strength when
its ranks were reduced from retirements, battle casualties and
resignations. After joining the Brigade
for a brief tour of service, many Irish émigrés left for civilian life, where
they became bankers, doctors, scholars, and merchants throughout France. In this way, they and their descendants had
an influence on all areas of French society through the generations.
Because
of the Irish Brigade, Irish émigrés had a greater influence on French society
than any other in Europe. This influence
was broad and steady - and continues in myriad ways down to today.
SMUGGLERS AND
ADMIRALS
During
the 18th century, many Irish émigrés in France were attracted to seafaring as
an opportunity to gain great wealth.
Some of these Irish mariners operated merchant ships, carrying goods
between France and its colonies. Trade
with other European nations and their colonies, however, was often prohibited
by restrictive trade laws and taxes imposed by those nations. To trade with these closed markets, Irish
merchants in France often became smugglers who used fast sloops to outrun
foreign naval vessels and land their cargoes in secluded coves. Other Irish émigrés joined the French navy,
which was considered the finest in the world for much of the 18th century.
One
Irish smuggler in France who stands out is Anthony Walsh. Although he was born in Nantes in the early
18th century, he was very familiar with the rocky coastline of western Ireland
from sailing on his father's sloop during smuggling runs when he was a boy. From these trips, young Anthony Walsh learned
the business from the bottom up. On
their voyages to Ireland, the Walsh family usually carried wine, molasses and
rum. Sometimes they also carried a
priest trained in France who was returning to Ireland to preach to Catholics in
secret. On the return voyage, they
carried Irish wool and butter to France.
With cunning and skilled seamanship, they would avoid British naval
vessels patrolling the coastline; and they often dropped anchor in secluded
coves in western Ireland.
Smugglers
like the Walshes had become an important aspect of French commercial activity
because English Navigation Acts prohibited trade in certain goods in order to
protect products from English colonies and manufacturers in England. For instance, the Acts prohibited the import
of French molasses and rum into any English territory to eliminate foreign
competition for the molasses and rum from English plantations in the colony of
Jamaica. To protect the supply of wool
for the textile manufacturers in England, the Acts prohibited the export of
wool from Ireland. Because of the
smuggling enterprises of Walsh and other Irish émigrés, the French were able to
buy and sell goods in Irish and English markets that were legally closed to
them by the Navigation Acts. Because of
the important benefits of smuggling for their economy, the French regarded
smuggling as practically an ordinary import-export business.
After
Anthony Walsh inherited the family business, he expanded it by adding more
French products to export. One new
product he began smuggling to Ireland was wines from vineyards owned by other
Irish émigrés. Among these were La Hourange from the
In
the 1730's, Walsh decided to take his business to a new level by joining the
ranks of the French privateers; who by royal approval were permitted to capture
merchant vessels of the enemies of France.
After being granted permission by King Louis XV, Walsh sent relatives of
his to the town of St. Malo on the Normandy coast to build a brig swift enough
to stay out of range of the cannons of an English warship, yet strong enough to
carry the arms and crew to capture a merchant vessel. When this ship he named Duteillay was
completed, Walsh sailed the waters around both England and Ireland preying on
English merchant ships.
For
France of the 18th century, privateers were a valuable political and commercial
asset. Because the English navy was so
large and powerful, the smaller French navy had difficulty protecting its ports
and coastline. To augment the French
navy, enterprising privateers like Anthony Walsh intercepted English merchant
ships for plunder and deprived England of the goods on board. In addition, privateers provided a means for
taking direct action against the expanding English empire encroaching on French
colonies in Canada and India. Many of the
generals, diplomats and councillors to the king felt that diplomatic
manoeuvring alone would not halt English expansion and recommended
confrontation both on land and on the sea.
During times of peace, privateers could continue to challenge England with
minimal political repercussions.
The
successful activity of the Irish émigrés in both smuggling and legitimate
shipping to the French colonies encouraged other French merchants and
adventurers to enter the trade. This
reduced France's dependence on Dutch and British merchant ships that carried
most French exports. During the Seven
Years War from 1756 to 1763, the growing fleet of Irish merchant vessels proved
vital to the economic survival of France.
With the defeat of both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean squadrons of
the French fleet by the English navy, Britain had achieved overwhelming command
of the seas. After these disasters, with
France no longer able to protect its merchant vessels and its major ports
blockaded by English warships, overseas trade fell precipitously to about
one-sixth of its pre-war level. Also,
the French colonies were cut off from financial and military aid. During this bleak time for France, only the
privateers with their small, swift ships could successfully run the English
blockades. The merchant fleets built by
the Irish émigrés like the Walshes and the MacCarthys were instrumental in
preventing the complete collapse of trade and communication with France's
overseas empire. During the Seven Years
War, many Irish merchants became very wealthy by supplying the sugar and spices
that became scarce in France. The
fortunes they made enabled them to enter other fields of business. The Routledges of Dunkirk were one such
merchant family. They used their wealth
acquired by providing scarce goods to France during wartime to establish a
banking house in the 1760's which financed many French manufacturing
ventures. In so doing, the Routledge
bank played a part in laying the foundations for the Industrial Revolution in
France.
The
most influential of the firms engaged in both banking and shipping was Waters
& Sons. It had been operating in
Paris since the late 1600's. During the
reign of Louis XIV from 1643 to 1715, costly wars against the League of
Augsburg, the War of Spanish Succession and lavish architectural projects like
the Palace of Versailles kept the royal coffers low. The Waters family agreed to finance the King
so he could support his armies and continue his extravagant ways. But they discovered that a monarch can easily
repudiate a debt shortly after Louis XV became king in 1715, and the firm
entered bankruptcy. Waters & Sons was not able to recoup from this until they resumed their
very profitable smuggling ventures during the Seven Years War.
Although
the Irish émigré shipping firms prospered in 18th-century France, most of the
reign of Louis XV - from his accession to the throne in 1715 to the conclusion
of the Seven Years War in 1763 - was a period of general decline in the French
navy. Because service as a naval officer
was prestigious, it attracted aristocrats even though they had scant enthusiasm
for a life at sea and no interest at all in the day-to-day tasks of a ship's
captain. In addition, there were an insufficient
number of ships to patrol French coastal waters while simultaneously protecting
France's overseas empire. French naval
vessels were frequently defeated when they faced the better-trained and
aggressively-led crews of British men o'war.
The
relatively few Irish émigrés who became naval officers demanded a higher degree
of capability from their crews than was common in the French navy at this
time. Like their counterparts in the
Irish Brigade, they stressed training and aggressive tactics. During the War of Austrian Succession, Jean-Baptiste
Macnemara achieved one of the few French naval victories of the conflict. He had been born in Ireland as John MacNemara
and was one of the few children to accompany the Wild Geese to France in 1691. In 1704, he entered the navy as a midshipman,
and rose through the ranks. In 1745,
commanding the ship Invincible, he attacked four English warships,
putting them all to flight. For this and
his other exploits, he became known as one of the best tacticians in the French
navy.
In
1763, when the French army came under scrutiny in the corruption scandal after
the execution of Lally, the navy was also called to task for its poor showing
during the past two decades. The number
of ships was increased and the aggressive tactics used by Jean-Baptiste Macnemara
were widely studied by midshipmen and officers in an effort to improve their
performance in battle. Although the
reforms were not sufficient to allow the French to wrest control of the seas
away from the English, better training increased the effectiveness of the
fleet. This was demonstrated during
naval engagements in support of the American War for Independence when French
ships were frequently able to defeat English men o'war. In the waters off North America,
Jean-Baptiste's nephew Claude matched his uncle's famous exploit by capturing
four British privateers and a 28-gun frigate while in command of a ship of the
line named Frippone.
The
influence of Irish émigrés and their descendants on the French navy continued
into the 19th and 20th centuries. During
the Napoleonic Wars, Armand de MacKau (McCoy) gained fame for his daring
exploits at sea as much as for his fiery affair with Napoleon's sister,
Elisa. After the Bourbon Restoration of
the monarchy in 1816, he achieved the rank of full Admiral, one of only
thirteen French naval officers ever to do so.
Later, he became the Minister of Marine and began to guide the French
navy through its difficult transition from sail to steam, which required not
only new ship designs, but also a complete change in battle tactics. In World War I, Commandant O'Byrne conducted
a daring submarine raid on the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Pula on the
Adriatic coast of Croatia. Because the
Austro-Hungarians feared losing more ships to submarines, they increased their
anti-submarine defences and kept their vessels in port for the remainder of the
war.
As
with Spain, the maritime activities of numbers of Irish émigrés and their
descendants in France benefited their adopted land in diverse ways, from naval
prowess to commercial growth. With their
practical abilities, openness to new knowledge and search for adventure and
heroic activities, they readily took to seafaring once they realized that it
offered a place for them in their adopted country.
IRISH SCHOLARS
The
Penal Laws enacted by England during the early 18th century deprived the Irish
of a right to Catholic education by making the operation of an Irish school or
university a crime. But no act of a
distant and remote Parliament in London could undo Irish desire for
learning. Many young men and women of
The
large majority of Irish going to Europe to receive an education in the early
1700's attended the Irish Colleges which were associated with major
universities in Paris, Nantes, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rouen and other cities
throughout France. The largest of these
Colleges was in Paris, attached to the University of Paris. The first Irish students to study in Paris
were six seminarians attending the Collège de Montaigu. They arrived in 1578, sponsored by John Lee,
a prosperous merchant of Waterford. By
1605, there were enough Irish students attending different Colleges at the
University of Paris for them to petition the University for an Irish College to
be attached to the University's Collège des Lombards. The petition was refused. Despite this, Irish students came to Paris in
increasing numbers in the early 1600's.
It
wasn't until after the Irish students gained widespread attention for their
position in the Jansenist controversy causing strife within the Catholic Church
that they were finally permitted to form an Irish College in Paris. In an incident which became known as l'Affaire
des Hibernois, twenty-seven Irish students signed a declaration denouncing
Jansenism, a position taken by the Dutch theologian Cornelius Jansen that the
Catholic Church had strayed from St. Augustine's doctrines of the 5th century
which had always been claimed to be the foundations of the Church. In the days when the Catholic Church was
still trying to stop the spread of Protestantism, Jansenism was seen as a
serious threat by the Church hierarchy, including the Pope, and by the secular
rulers, such as Louis XIV in France, who were Catholic and wanted their
societies to remain Catholic. By the 1600's,
the Catholic Church no longer emphasized Augustine's doctrine that divine
intervention in the form of grace was essential for a person to achieve
salvation. Another fault of the Catholic
Church according to Jansen was its neglect of Augustine's idea of
predestination, which the Church viewed as resembling the tenet of
predestination which was the foundation of the Protestant sect of Calvinism.
The
twenty-seven students signing the declaration were quickly joined by many other
Irish students in denouncing Jansenism.
This prompted students and faculty at many other universities in France
to take positions in support of or in opposition to Jansenism. To try to abate the tension between the two
sides of the religious conflict, the Academic Council of the University of
Paris accused the Irish students of sophomoric insolence for passing judgement
on complex and subtle theological matters that even theologians and bishops
continued to have differences on. The
Academic Council told the students they would be expelled unless they recanted
their denunciation of Jansenism.
The
students refused to recant. In a measure
to avoid expulsion, they appealed the decision of the Academic Council to the
Paris City Council. By this time, the
Jansenist controversy had spread beyond the universities to the population and
secular authorities, including the King and his ministers. So the City Council was familiar with the
controversy and had an interest in it.
The City Council issued an order that no action was to be taken against
the students. Since the Academic Council
could not expel them, it did take the action of appointing four doctors of
theology to watch the obstinate Irish students for deviations from Church
doctrine in their statements and writings by which the Council might bring
charges against them.
The
Jansenist controversy continued to grow, causing disturbance and concern in the
Church and in many cities and regions of France. In 1653, Pope Innocent X tried to put an end
to the controversy by issuing a Papal Bull titled Cum Occasione denouncing
Jansenism. With this Bull written by the
Pope, the Catholic Church officially took the position the Irish students had
taken in 1643. The controversy had
become heated, however, with each side becoming so intransigent that it did not
die down for another century.
In
recognition of the Irish students' opposition to the challenge of Jansenism,
King Louis XIV granted a new petition to form an Irish College in 1677. In a royal edict, the King granted the
students the right "to live in full possession of the Collège des Lombards
and to enjoy all the privileges, rights and exemptions which colleges founded
in favour of the native French enjoy".
The Collège des Lombards had gotten its name from the region in Italy
which sent priests to study at the College when it was established in
1330. Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier
were students there in the 16th century.
During the 17th century, Irish seminarians made up a large majority of
its students. The Collège des Lombards
became known as the Irish College in 1685, a few years after Louis XIV had
granted the College to the Irish students.
A decade later, in reaction to the increasingly oppressive policies of
the English in Ireland, the Irish College changed its rules to admit lay
students. Recent Acts of the English
Parliament prohibited Irish Catholics from establishing universities, and they
were denied admission to Protestant universities.
This
change in the student body led to a change in the Colleges' curriculum. Secular subjects were added. In a short time, law and medicine replaced
theology and other religious studies as the primary fields of study. In broadening its curriculum, the Irish
College soon attracted students from throughout France and other parts of
Europe, as well as Ireland. By 1730, the
Irish College of Paris was a truly democratic and basically secular
institution. It drew Irish émigrés with
diverse backgrounds from all parts of Europe to pursue studies in many fields. Irish students attended the College in such
numbers that an unknown French satirist was moved to remark, "with hungry
looks and minds on whimsies nursed, gaunt troops of Irish through the door
burst". Perhaps he had in mind the
off-duty members of the Irish Brigade who attended classes at the College to learn
more about the sciences and the humanities.
The varied student body prompted the College to coin the slogan
"the laymen will fight, the ecclesiastics will pray" to support their
efforts to raise funds for the school from the French people.
During
the 18th century, the Irish College in Paris and the others founded in Nantes,
Toulouse, Bordeaux and Rouen became important centres of Irish society in
France. They were places where émigrés
could visit a community where the Irish tongue was spoken and many of the
customs of their homeland were maintained.
In addition, some of the scholars teaching at the Irish Colleges wrote
books to help Irish émigrés acquire knowledge about their heritage. While teaching at the Irish College in Paris
in 1728, Hugh MacCurtin wrote a widely-used Irish grammar book titled The
Elements of the Irish Language. The
Irish College also sponsored the printing of the first English-Irish
Dictionary in 1732. Thirty-five
years later the volume was revised and renamed the Irish-English Dictionary. In 1743, a retired chaplain from the Irish
Brigade named Abbè MacGeoghegan write a three-volume History of Ireland
while residing at the College.
The
Irish Colleges in Paris and other French cities took the lead in education that
reflected the ideas, perspectives and inquisitiveness of the
Enlightenment. The traditional openness
of the Irish to different ideas and their investigation of these ideas by
inquiry and debate had an affinity with the rationalism and the critical spirit
which marked the Enlightenment. The new
scientific studies, political and social philosophies, and the emergence of
fields such as economics complemented the interest in medicine, the practical
tendency, the conception of community and other
long-standing aspects of Irish culture.
The movement of the Enlightenment also appealed to the Irish sense of
the inter-connection of intellectual concepts and practical skills.
Besides
the general rule of the Irish Colleges in presenting ideas and subjects of the
Enlightenment, there were a number of Irish individuals who are recognized as
leading figures of the movement for the originality of their work. Among them was Richard Cantillon. For his essay On the Nature of General
Commerce published posthumously in 1755, Cantillon was given the title
Father of Political Economy. A banker in
Paris, Cantillon and his business partners had each made a fortune by
speculating in the shares of the Mississippi Company which had been organized
under the direction of John Law to exploit the resources in French territory
along the Mississippi River. In exchange
for an exclusive right to these resources from the French government, the
Mississippi Company agreed to issue shares in the Company as payment of government
debts to bankers and other creditors of the government. This so severely depleted the finances of the
Company that it went bankrupt - but not before Cantillon and the other
principal shareholders had sold their shares at a large profit. Although this venture profited Cantillon, he
saw how the monopolistic policies of mercantilism followed by most European
nations of the time caused the collapse of the Mississippi Company. He came to believe that prohibitive tariffs,
control of exports, and other means of governmental oversight and control of a
nation's economy hampered commerce and the efficient development of colonial
resources. In his essay, Cantillon
outlined an economic system in which the state did not interfere with natural
economic forces. Influenced by
Cantillon's essay, French economic policy-makers gradually eliminated tariffs
and other trade restrictions to bring about economic activity resembling the
free-market system of today.
In
the field of medicine, Gerald Fitzgerald's study and treatment of uterine
ailments met with indifference from his fellow physicians. In the late 18th century, medical problems
relating to women in particular were considered best left to midwives by all
physicians. Fitzgerald, however,
believed that ailments particular to women should not be excluded from the new
methods of diagnosis and treatment devised in the 18th century. Despite the indifference of his colleagues,
Fitzgerald persisted with his study and treatment of uterine ailments. He was a graduate of both the Irish College
where he studied liberal arts, and the medical school of the University of
Montpelier. Eventually, however, his
treatments for women were adopted, and Fitzgerald was joined in his study of
women's medical problems.
Education
for women was another aspect of the Enlightenment in which Irish émigrés were
in the forefront. Accustomed as they
were to the general equality between the sexes, Irish émigré women felt they
should have the opportunity to get an education even though women in France
could not attend universities. This
proscription included the Irish colleges as well. Women could be educated by private tutors,
and at some rare schools operated by nuns, such as the Poor Clare school in
The
Irish educational institutions in France benefited both the Irish émigrés and
French society. Because education in the
sciences, theology, medicine and philosophy was denied the Irish in their
homeland during the 18th century, the Irish Colleges in France became primary
centres for Irish educational achievement.
The education they provided enabled the Irish to contribute to the Enlightenment
in the fields of engineering, medicine and political science. The Irish Colleges also allowed an Irish
university faculty to remain in existence during a time of severe oppression in
Ireland. Many of these faculty members
returned to Ireland after the Penal Laws prohibiting Irish education were
relaxed in the 1790's to found schools such as St. Patrick's College at
Maynooth in 1796. The Irish Colleges in
France continued the Irish tradition of education during a time when Catholic
education was prohibited in Ireland and benefited French society by providing
educational opportunities to émigrés who became French soldiers, diplomats and
merchants.
PRESIDENT OF THE
THIRD REPUBLIC
Of
all the Irish émigrés and their descendants, none had more impact on the
history of France than Marshall Marie-Edmé-Patrice de MacMahon. In 1878, he became the first President of the
Third Republic of France. He came from
an Irish-French family that could trace its ancestry back to Mahan, the older
brother of Brian Boru and founder of the clan.
His grandfather came to France in the 1740's to study medicine at the
Irish College in Paris and the medical school at Rheims, where he became a
protégé of Jean-Baptiste de Morey, a counsellor of the King. After de Morey's death in 1748, he married de
Morey's widow and changed his name to honour his benefactor, becoming
Jean-Baptiste de MacMahon. His son
Maurice, Marshall MacMahon's father, was made a Count by Louis XVIII after the
Bourbon restoration in 1816 for his loyalty to the monarchy.
Patrick
MacMahon, as the Marshall preferred to be called, served in the armies of Louis
Napoleon, President of the Second French Republic who dissolved the Republic in
1851 by proclaiming himself Emperor. A
few years later, MacMahon distinguished himself in the Crimean War, and
eventually he rose to the rank of Marshall.
At
the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, MacMahon was placed in command
of an army corps stationed in the city of Sedan. He was given orders from Louis Napoleon to
hold Sedan against advancing Prussian forces.
In ordinary circumstances, the commander of an army corps would have
free rein to devise his own strategy to accomplish the assigned objective. But Louis Napoleon, who had by then
proclaimed himself Emperor, was in Sedan to lead his army - and he fancied
himself a masterful tactician, the equal of his renowned uncle, Napoleon
Bonaparte. Louis Napoleon ordered
MacMahon's corps to stand fast around the city, fighting a defensive battle
against the advancing Prussian forces.
Despite these orders, MacMahon did not contemplate a static defence of
the city. When he saw his subordinates
ordering their troops to dig trenches, he shouted, "What, entrenching! But I do not intend to shut myself up. I mean to manoeuvre."
For
MacMahon, manoeuvre and ambush were not only a part of his heritage as a member
of an Irish émigré military family, but it was also doctrine taught at the
French military academy at St. Cyr. But
before MacMahon could convince Louis Napoleon to change his orders and allow
his troops to take the offensive and engage the advancing enemy at its weakest
point, the Prussians struck. From three
sides, they bombarded his position using an advanced type of rifled
artillery. In one of the first salvos,
MacMahon was severely wounded and turned his command over to his subordinate,
General Ducrot. After a valiant defence
and frightful carnage, Sedan fell to the Prussians. When the Emperor Louis Napoleon was captured
by the Prussians, a revolution broke out in Paris deposing him - and the French
government collapsed.
Patrick
MacMahon recovered from his wounds, and the people of France regarded him as
one of the few heroes of the disastrous war.
When an Assembly was elected to write a new constitution for France, its
representatives asked him to be President of a provisional government. MacMahon accepted the position despite the
enormous difficulties he would face as President during this period of
political instability. The vast majority
of people, including MacMahon himself, wanted a restoration of the Bourbon
monarchy. But a few years before, a
violent minority had rioted in the streets of Paris, calling for the formation
of a new Republic. Although the Parisian
rioters had been put down by the military, extremist republicans continued to
threaten violent insurrection if the monarchy was restored. MacMahon could maintain internal order in
France only by balancing the competing monarchist and republican forces. He offered compromise to delay militant
activists on both sides while the constitutional delegates bickered and
feuded. After the Assembly finally came
to an agreement in 1875, the Third Republic of France was born.
The
new government had two bodies, a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate; Deputies
were elected by the people, while Senators were appointed by provincial
officials. Both the Chamber of Deputies
and the Senate would then elect a President for a seven-year term. The President would appoint a Premier,
subject to final approval by only the Chamber of Deputies. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate
overwhelmingly voted for MacMahon for President. This system satisfied the republicans while
the monarchists felt that a President with wide powers was very close to the
concept of a king, and if France should agree to restore the Bourbon monarchy,
MacMahon would not hesitate to step aside.
MacMahon's Irish heritage was certainly a key factor in his open support
for a Bourbon restoration. Since
arriving in France more than a century and a half before, the Irish had often
behaved as if they were in fosterage to the kings of France. MacMahon himself bore the title Duc de
Magenta which had been granted for his battlefield exploits, although it had
little meaning in the new Republic.
The
first general elections under the new Constitution were held early in
1876. The new members elected to the
Chamber of Deputies were strongly republican in their political beliefs. When MacMahon nominated Premiers who were
conservative monarchists, the new Chamber of Deputies refused to accept them,
as was their right under the new constitution.
They also objected to the expansive powers granted to the President
under the terms of the Constitution, which included the right to dissolve the
Chamber of Deputies and call for a new election. They feared that MacMahon could easily use
his authority as President and his prestige as a battlefield hero to muster
enough military support to crown a king with or without their approval. In 1879, the Chamber of Deputies demanded
that MacMahon dismiss a number of monarchist officials he had appointed to
government posts. Rather than risk the
political battle that would further polarize the republican and monarchist
factions if he refused to comply with the Chamber's demand, MacMahon resigned
in disgust. It was a crushing blow to
monarchist aspirations. The Chamber of
Deputies and the Senate never again elected a strong President who would
exercise the full authority granted to the office under the Constitution.
Although
MacMahon's Presidency was turbulent, his prestige and influence provided a
degree of stability during the critical first years of the Third Republic. The members of the Chamber of Deputies
focused on their dispute with MacMahon rather than on their differences with
each other. Once he left office and the
position of President became almost completely ceremonial, the Deputies began
four decades of bickering which led to crisis after crisis for the French
government. Nevertheless, they remained
committed to the form of democracy embodied in the constitution that Patrick
MacMahon helped to implement when he was President of the Third Republic.
At
the time of his resignation in 1879, Patrick MacMahon was seventy-one years
old. He retired to his family chateau at
Sully, a 12th-century castle in the Saône Valley which had been enlarged into a
country manor. After his death in 1893,
the French people honoured him by naming a major boulevard in Paris after him,
the Rue de MacMahon. The Third Republic
of France that it helped guide through its turbulent birth lasted until 1940
when it collapsed after the Nazi invasion of France.
From
the time Columbanus founded his monastery in the 6th century until MacMahon
served as President of the
CHAPTER
8
The
Irish in Portugal
"Let
us all gather here and fight in the service of God and to defend our lands, for
it is right that we should have a good understanding and that we should help
one another for that purpose."
-
Red Hugh O'Donnell, address urging
the Irish residing in Portugal to prepare for an invasion of Ireland,
1605.
IRISH MERCHANTS OF
LISBON
The
expanding business opportunities arising from the extensive Portuguese
explorations during the close of the Middle Ages drew
Irish merchants to
The
blossoming relationship between the Irish and the Portuguese at the beginning
of the early modern period was not an extension of a medieval tradition, as it
was in Spain or France. Prior to 1143,
when Portugal gained its independence from the Kingdom of Castile, it was
considered a province of Spain by everyone in Europe, including the Irish. During the Middle Ages when wandering Irish
monks came to Spain, few of them actually lived in the territory that would
eventually become Portugal. In the
1400's, Irish merchants became interested in Portugal as the Portuguese built a
large fleet of ships for exploration and trade under the leadership of Prince
Henry, called "the Navigator" for his keen interest in maritime
affairs. In Galway, Cork and Waterford,
the sight of Portuguese ships was common.
Irish merchants purchased the Madeira wine and blocks of cork that the
Portuguese crews offloaded onto the quays.
Then the Irish paid the ship's captain for the transport of their own
butter, wool and beef to the vessel's next port of call.
As
Portugal discovered new lands and established colonies around the world, Lisbon
grew into a bustling commercial port. It
attracted a polyglot assortment of adventurers and merchants from all over
Europe. A record exists from 1462 granting
permission to reside in Lisbon to Richard May, Geoffrey Galway, and the
brothers John and Dominic Lynch, all born in Ireland. They were merchants acting as agents for
Irish importers, most likely in the wine trade.
Some of the Irish in Lisbon also entered royal service because they had
impressed the Portuguese rulers with their learning. In the 1450's, Prince Henry sent a captured
African lion to Galway as a gift for an unnamed Irish retainer who had left the
Prince's service and returned to his homeland.
By
the middle of the 16th century, there was a thriving Irish community in
Lisbon. Because all of the goods from
the vast Portuguese Empire had to first pass through Lisbon on their way to
other European ports, Irish merchants could eliminate the need for a Portuguese
broker by establishing permanent offices in the city. Usually they sent their younger sons to
Portugal to act as agents for the family import-export business. These Irish agents bought spices from Asia,
teak wood from the Amazon Basin and other exotic goods, and arranged for their
shipment not only to Ireland, but also to other European ports for distribution
throughout the Continent. Lisbon also
provided commercial opportunities for Irish émigrés who had only limited
capital. A relatively small investment
in a Portuguese overseas voyage could reap an enormous profit if the ship
successfully returned laden with goods from the Far East or the Americas.
The
Irish merchants residing in Portugal became increasingly important to the
country's economy after the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. Since the Irish remained Catholic, they were
acceptable in Portuguese society. But
because the Irish were technically English subjects, they could trade more
easily with the Protestant nations of Europe.
This was crucial for Portugal's economic relationship with England and
the Netherlands. As England prospered,
its demand for Madeira wine, spices from the Orient and other items from
Portuguese colonies increased sharply.
The Dutch cities of Antwerp and Bruges were also vital to Portuguese
commerce because they provided access to the markets of central Europe for
imports from the Portuguese colonies.
During times of war with Portugal, the English and Dutch ports were
closed to Portuguese ships. Even during
times of peace, religious and economic rivalries could prevent Portuguese
merchants from selling their goods in important northern European markets. But as "Englishmen", the Irish of
Lisbon were readily granted permission to dock and offload their cargoes in the
ports of England and other Protestant nations.
Like
their counterparts in Spain, France, and the other countries of Europe, the
Irish merchants living in Portugal were never isolated from the people and
culture around them. They intermarried
with the Portuguese, weaving an intricate pattern of family relationships. One series of marriages linked Christopher
Columbus with Patrick Sarsfield, the leader of the Wild Geese. Columbus married a Portuguese woman when he
lived in Lisbon to try to interest King Joao II of Portugal in his project for
sailing the Atlantic. When he moved on
to the court of Aragon in pursuit of his dream, he left his children behind. His descendant Catalina Colón, as the surname
Columbus was spelled in Portuguese, married James Fitzjames Stuart in the early
1700's, the illegitimate son of Patrick Sarsfield's widow, Lady Honoré
Sarsfield.
The
Irish merchants in Lisbon also took part in the Great Armada launched by Spain
in 1588 to invade England. Eight years
before, the death of King Sebastao without an heir left Philip II of Spain with
a claim to the Portuguese throne since he was Sebastao's cousin. He quickly annexed Portugal, making it a part
of the Spanish Empire. The change of
monarchs and political structure had little impact on the business affairs of
the Irish merchants living in Portugal.
When the call went out for pilots and interpreters to sail with the
Armada, many Irish merchants volunteered.
Spanish records listed the master gunner John Lynch, the mariners
William Brown and Cahill MacConnor among the Irish who sailed on the flagship
of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the commander of the expedition. As seamen and merchants, the émigrés were
familiar with both English and Irish waters.
Although their native tongue was Irish, many were fluent in the English
language, which would be useful for the planned Spanish invasion of
England. With the addition of the services
of the Irish émigrés in Lisbon, Philip II felt that his preparations to invade
England were complete. Few of the
émigrés could have guessed that the mighty Spanish fleet would be turned back
by the English navy. Ironically, a few
of the Irish volunteers found themselves shipwrecked in Ireland when a storm
drove some of the ships of the Armada onto the rocks of the Irish coastline.
At
the time of the Flight of the Irish Earls in 1605, Portugal's fortunes were
waning. The land was a province of
Spain, distinguishable from other Spanish provinces only by the dialect spoken
by its inhabitants. Many of the other
nations of Europe had established colonies around the world, depriving Portugal
of its virtual monopoly over the exotic spices and goods from its Asian and
South American colonies. Yet Lisbon
remained an important Atlantic port for distribution of goods from Portugal's
Asian and American colonies.
Despite
the ability of the Irish to freely move between both the Protestant and
Catholic marketplaces of Europe, they were not numerous enough to stem
Portugal's gradual economic decline in the 17th century. The Irish merchants of Lisbon did, however,
help to keep alive a Portuguese tradition of international commerce which
proved essential to the economy of the tiny nation when it regained its
independence in 1640.
THE IRISH DIPLOMAT
In
1640, a group of Portuguese nobles stages a coup d'etat in Lisbon and arrested
the Spanish governor. They then declared
Portugal to be once again an independent nation and invited the Duke of
Bragança to reign as King Joao IV. Spain
did not immediately challenge the revolution.
At the time, the province of Cataluña was also in rebellion, and Spain
did not have the military forces to fight two wars on its home territory. So by default, Portugal achieved its
independence.
The
task facing King Joao IV was formidable.
After sixty years of Spanish rule, Portugal no longer had an army, a
navy or even an efficient method of collecting taxes. At any moment, Spain might resolve its
dispute with Cataluña and march its army towards Portugal. To be prepared for this possibility, the new
king made each region responsible for raising a military force and collecting
revenues for the central government in Lisbon.
Concerned that the forces he was raising might not be equipped or
trained in time to challenge any Spanish invasion, in 1648 King Joao sent an
Irish priest, Father Daniel O'Daly, O.P., on a secret mission to Ireland to try
to recruit Irish soldiers with experience in fighting the English to form the
nucleus of the Portuguese army.
Daniel
O'Daly was a well-known Irish émigré figure in Lisbon, where he was known by
his Portuguese name of Frei Domingo de Rosario.
He was an active member of the Dominican order of monks who founded the
monastery of Corpo Santo as well as an Irish College in Lisbon. O'Daly also became the confessor of Joao's
wife, Queen Luisa. In those days,
confessors were more than spiritual advisors.
In the royal palace of Lisbon, O'Daly often discussed matters of state
with Luisa. So when the King decided to
recruit Irish soldiers for the Portuguese Army, Father O'Daly naturally came to
mind.
Daniel
of O'Daly arrived in Ireland at a time when Oliver Cromwell's war against Irish
Catholics was devastating the country.
Famine and pestilence followed in the wake of crop burnings and
livestock slaughtering by Cromwell's armies.
The defeated Irish soldiers hiding in the countryside were eager to join
the service of England's enemies abroad.
Even so, O'Daly did not attract a large number of Irish with his
recruitment drive. The pay scale that he
could offer was far lower than the wages for service in the armies of France or
Spain. When Portugal regained its
independence, there was no royal treasury and King Joao depended on a tax on
imports and exports for most of the funds necessary to rule the nation. Revenues from the import-export trade tried
up because Spanish markets were closed to Portugal; and because the Netherlands
was at war with Spain and continued to regard Portugal as a Spanish
province. Portuguese merchants were
forbidden from trading in Bruges or Antwerp.
So O'Daly could entice the Irish soldiers only with the promise of glory
and the hope of eventual financial rewards.
When the small number of Irish recruits he attracted arrived in
Portugal, they were scattered throughout the army as junior officers and drill
sergeants. O'Daly did manage to convince
the experienced field commander Murrough O'Brien, Lord
Inchquin, to accept a general's commission in Joao's army. But when he arrived in Portugal, O'Brien
quickly grew dismayed by the state of the army and returned to Ireland.
King
Joao IV considered O'Daly's mission a success even though he did not persuade
many Irishmen to join the Portuguese army.
The small number of Irish soldiers who did join the Portuguese army were given the task of training the inexperienced Portuguese
troops in the tactics and strategy the Irish had developed in their conflicts
against the English. The Irish military
trainers taught the Portuguese the flanking manoeuvres they used against enemy
formations so the Irish could bring their superior swordsmanship into
play. This tactic had helped the Irish
overcome the English advantage in having artillery batteries and the most
advanced muskets. The Irish also
stressed the use of cavalry to break up enemy formations or to reinforce weak
positions. This instruction and drill by
the Irish was appropriate for Joao's incipient Portuguese army because, like
the Irish fighting the English, the Portuguese did not have the funds to be
able to purchase the latest artillery, muskets and other military
equipment. By following the tactics and
strategy taught to them by their Irish trainers recruited by O'Daly, the
Portuguese army would be able to be an effective fighting force on the battlefields
of 17th-century Europe. Under the Irish
instruction, the Portuguese army was turned into a fighting force that would
deter Spain from believing that it could easily reclaim Portugal - which was
King Joao's primary aim for O'Daly's mission.
A
few years after O'Daly's return to Lisbon, Joao IV entrusted him with another
diplomatic mission of great importance to the survival of Portugal. O'Daly was sent to France and the Netherlands
to try to obtain international recognition for the independent status of
Portugal and, if possible, establish military alliances. Because France and the Netherlands were at
war with Spain and regarded Portugal as a province of Spain, Portuguese ships
were denied access to French and Dutch ports.
Once Portugal achieved international recognition, Joao IV could then
make treaties which would allow the goods from Portuguese colonies to be
delivered in markets closed to Spain.
At
the time of O'Daly's mission to France and the Netherlands, only England
accepted Portugal as a sovereign nation because of a treaty signed in 1642 by
Charles I in one of his last acts in office.
The treaty was ratified by the new English government after Charles I
was deposed by Cromwell. England hoped
to benefit from an alliance with Portugal by using Lisbon as a naval base. With England recovering from many years of
civil strife, however, Joao IV could expect little military assistance if
Portugal was attacked by Spain in an effort to win back its wayward province.
In
1656, O'Daly went to Paris for talks about forming an alliance against Spain
with the Prime Minister of France, Cardinal Mazarin. O'Daly strongly urged Mazarin to take the
lead in forming a league among Portugal, France and the Netherlands against
Spain. O'Daly proposed that this league
would include Portugal as a full ally of France and the Netherlands, but would
not require that Portugal declare war on Spain unless attacked. Such a league would not only gain recognition
for Portugal from two major European powers, but would also allow Portugal to
trade with France and the Netherlands as well as provide military assistance if
attacked by Spain. Although
O'Daly
travelled on to Rome, to the court of Pope Alexander VII. There he obtained official papal recognition
for the independent state of Portugal.
In staunchly Catholic Portugal, the approval of the Pope was necessary
to defuse a growing conflict between the civil government and the Portuguese
Inquisition. Before his death, Joao IV
attempted to reduce the severity of the methods used by the Inquisition, which
retaliated by questioning his authority to rule. Papal recognition would restore some of the
support that the Portuguese government had lost because of the frequent
challenges of the Inquisition. In order
to gain the Pope's recognition, however, O'Daly had to assure the Pope that the
new Queen Luisa had no intention of continuing Joao IV's policies of
interfering with Church matters in Portugal.
A
few months later, in 1657, Spain sent its army across the Portuguese border to
reclaim what it still regarded as a rebellious province and captured the city
of Olivença. The invasion caused a
crisis in the high command of the Portuguese Army, and for a time it appeared
as if Spanish soldiers would soon be marching through Lisbon. But France, England and the Netherlands were
also at war with Spain in a dispute over economic and territorial interests in
the Caribbean. The threat to Spain's
holdings in Flanders and the West Indies, and the possibility of invasion along
its northern border with France limited the number of Spanish troops available
to fight on the Portuguese front.
During
the first two decades of Portuguese independence, Daniel O'Daly's Irish
heritage opened diplomatic doors that might have been closed to someone of Portuguese
birth. The Irish émigrés in Europe,
particularly in France and the Papal States of Italy, had a reputation for
honouring their word. Many of O'Daly's
fellow émigrés were in positions of power in the French government and were
certain to have smoothed his negotiation with Mazarin. The international relationships that O'Daly
forged for Portugal were critical for the nation's commercial and political
survival. For these accomplishments,
Daniel O'Daly entered Portuguese history as a key figure in maintaining the
independence of his adopted land.
THE GALLOPING HOGAN
In
the early 18th century, the Irish émigré Michael Hogan played a key role in a
crucial moment of Portuguese history.
Leading a brigade of Portuguese cavalry, Hogan drove a Spanish invasion
force from Portuguese territory. In
accomplishing this, Hogan employed tactics that he had used successfully
against the English in Ireland. In
Ireland, Hogan's extraordinary skill as a horseman had earned him the name the
"Galloping Hogan". His skill
and leadership were especially evident after the Irish defeat in the Battle of
the Boyne in 1690. Hogan led the
rearguard protecting the retreat of the defeated Irish to Limerick, keeping the
retreat from becoming a rout. During the
subsequent siege of Limerick by the English army led by King William, Hogan led
a daring midnight raid on the English artillery train approaching the
city. While the artillerymen were
bivouacked for the night, Hogan attacked the English camp, captured or drove
off the English soldiers, and blew up the cannon. This prevented the English from using their
artillery to destroy the walls of Limerick.
Eventually, however, the Irish were forced to surrender. Hogan was a member of the body of Irish
troops who chose exile rather than take an oath of loyalty to King William and
became known as the Wild Geese. In 1691,
Hogan went to France where he became an officer in the Irish Brigade and was
promoted to general after distinguishing himself in several battles in
Flanders.
Hogan's
duel with a fellow officer of the Brigade in 1705 was the incident which led to
his going to Portugal. Although Louis
XIV had issued an edict in 1679 prohibiting duelling, the nobility flaunted the
law and continued to duel whenever they believed their honour was
compromised. Because duelling was such a
common practice in French society and involved many prominent nobles, despite
his ban, Louis XIV frequently granted pardons or reduced the punishments of
surviving duellists. In the military,
there were additional regulations against duelling to prevent soldiers of lower
rank from challenging their superiors, thereby undermining military
discipline. Hogan's opponent in the duel
was Captain James Conway, whom Hogan later discovered was his cousin. When they faced each other with pistols,
Hogan mortally wounded Conway, causing a scandal in the Irish Brigade. In 1706, a court-martial tried Hogan and
demanded his resignation from the army, but ordered no additional
punishment. Since Hogan's duel had also
violated the King's edict against duelling, he faced civil charges as
well. But Louis XIV decided to grant
Hogan a pardon because of his exemplary service in the Irish Brigade while in
Flanders. His career as an officer in
the French army was at an end, however.
Louis XIV suggested to Hogan that his military skills and leadership
could be put to good use in Portugal, and gave Hogan a letter of recommendation
to King Joao V.
Following
the King's suggestion, Hogan went to Lisbon in 1708 to present himself to King
Joao V. Recognizing Hogan's value to his
own inexperienced army, the King immediately gave him a commission as Brigadier
General in the Portuguese army. As a
sign that he now considered Portugal his home, Hogan changed his name to André
Miguel Hogan.
Hogan
arrived in Portugal during the War of Spanish Succession. In this conflict, an alliance of England, the
Netherlands and Austria was trying to preserve the European balance of power by
preventing the new Spanish King, Philip V, from also becoming the King of
France. Although
Hogan's
first assignment as Brigadier General was the command of a cavalry brigade
stationed along the border with Spain in central Portugal. Although it was not until the war was almost
over that Hogan's brigade came into combat, it was not idle in its defensive
position. For more than three years,
Hogan had been teaching his cavalry troop the hit-and-run tactics he had used
so effectively against the English in Ireland.
Hogan especially emphasized the night manoeuvring and attack the English
found difficult to defend against. Such
night-time tactics for a fairly large force were based on stealth and silence
and on the ability of the force to stay together in the darkness. Such tactics were rare in the warfare of the
early 1800's. This training proved its
worth in the closing stage of the War of Spanish Succession when Spain made a
bold, forceful attempt to seize a portion of Portuguese territory in order to
strengthen its position in the peace negotiations which had opened in Utrecht
in Belgium.
The
Marquis de Bey of Spain led the attack on Portugal. During this invasion, his savagery towards
both soldiers and civilians earned him the title "The Scourge of
Portugal". The sole barrier between
the Marquis and Lisbon and the court of King Joao V was the fortified town of
Campo Maior garrisoned by a small infantry unit under the command of the Count
de Riberia. As the Spanish approached,
de Riberia sent a courier to Hogan at the headquarters of the Portuguese
cavalry requesting reinforcements.
Although dusk was gathering when the news arrived, Brigadier General
Michael Hogan mustered a force of 500 men and led the mounted troop through the
darkness in a ride reminiscent of his raid on King William's artillery train
during the siege of Limerick. Hogan's
men reinforced the garrison at Campo Maior at dawn; and although badly
outnumbered, Hogan's troops and de Riberia's garrison repulsed the Spanish
assault.
Not
only as a dramatic military feat, but also as a model of advanced tactics,
Hogan's night-time manoeuvre and role in the defeat of the Spanish invasion
force became a part of military history.
Hogan's feat became so noteworthy that the historian John O'Callaghan
was prompted to include it in his The History of the Irish Brigade in the
Service of France, not only because of Hogan's one-time service in the
Brigade, but also as an example of the fighting spirit and innovative tactics
typical of the Brigade.
The
last affair of arms in this war between
"By
help of a prodigious fire from the cannons and small arms, observes my English
narrative of the Compleat History of Europe for 1712, with respect to
the enemy, they made a descent into a part of the ditch that was dry and gave 3
assaults with a great deal of fury; but they were as bravely repulsed by the
Portuguese under Major General Hogan, and forced to retire after an obstinate
fight that lasted 2 hours, though the breach was very practicable, and so wide
that 30 men might stand abreast in it.
Their disorder was so great that they left most of their arms and 6
ladders behind. This action cost them
700 men killed and wounded, whereas the Portuguese loss did not amount to above
100 killed and 87 wounded, and such was their ardour that they pursued the
enemy into their very trenches without any manner of order (notwithstanding the
endeavours of Major General Hogan to put a stop to them), which might have
proved very fatal to them, if the enemy had courage to improve the opportunity."
The
next day, the Spanish lifted the siege and moved back into Spanish territory,
ending the threat to Portugal. A short
time later, the delegates to the peace conference in Utrecht signed a treaty
and the War of Spanish Succession ended with Portuguese territory intact. King Joao recognized Portugal's debt to
Michael Hogan by promoting him to Major General and awarding him a villa and an
annual stipend. Hogan continued to serve
in the army of Joao V, teaching other officers horsemanship and cavalry
tactics. He married a woman related to
the royal family of Bragança and was a frequent visitor to the King's court in
Lisbon.
Michael
Hogan's night ride to Campo Maior became legendary in the Portuguese
cavalry. From the success of this
action, other army officers came to view cavalry as a highly mobile strike
force that could quickly be sent to the point of greatest threat. As obvious as relying on the mobility of
cavalry may seem today, it required Hogan's extraordinary achievement to make
the tactic a part of Portuguese military operations.
IRISH CONFLICT WITH
THE PORTUGUESE INQUISITION
In both Portugal and Spain, the Irish rarely became
targets of the Inquisition. Nearly all
of them were devout Catholics. In
addition, since they were considered refugees from Protestant persecution, they
were given a higher status by the clergy than individuals who had not suffered
for the sake of their Catholic beliefs.
But as the 18th century unfolded, a series of events occurred that
placed the Hogan family in direct conflict with the Portuguese Inquisition.
On
the basis of his important role in the War of Spanish Succession, Michael Hogan
came to have considerable influence on the political affairs of Portugal as
well as its military affairs. His brother, John, and a relative, Jacob (probably a cousin), also
rose to the rank of general. Like
Michael Hogan, they married women with ties to the royal family of
Bragança. Portuguese historical records
encapsulating the patrimony and achievements of the Hogans also hint at the
reason the Hogan family came into such a serious confrontation with the
Portuguese Inquisition.
An entry from a document in the Portuguese National Archives in
Torre do Tombo concerning Dennis Hogan, the son of Michael Hogan, reads:
Dennis (or Dionysius) Hogan, 30 years old,
Irish, native of Vilanova county of Tipperary, lieutenant of cavalry in the
Alcantara regiment, resident of Janelas Verdes {Green Windows}, parish of
Santos. This Dennis Hogan came to
Portugal in 1724 and was appointed cavalry lieutenant on November 5, 1734, in
recognition of services rendered to our country during nine years, by his uncle
John Hogan; ... Dennis Hogan became a Mason in 1737.
The
incidental notation that Dennis Hogan became a Mason discloses the cause of the
Hogan family's troubles with the Inquisition.
The Masonic brotherhood was a particular target of the Portuguese
Inquisition during the 1730's. The
secret society embraced atheism and republicanism, concepts that the Catholic
Church believed undermined its authority.
The Masonic Order began during medieval times as a guild of builders who
recognized no religion and paid homage to no king. Despite their controversial nature, because
of their unique architectural skills, the Masons were welcomed by the nobles in
the major cities of Europe to build cathedrals and universities. The society flourished and used its wealth to
influence kings and nobles by making secret loans to finance military
campaigns. The growing political power
of the Masonic Order attracted ambitious men who had little to do with
construction, but hoped to benefit from the powerful, yet clandestine
brotherhood. By the 18th century, its
members were known as Freemasons and the order was growing rapidly. It was becoming popular particularly among
the aristocracy and political leaders of Catholic nations who resented the
interferences of the Church in civil affairs.
In a time when oaths were taken very seriously, the vow to secrecy taken
by each Freemason was intended to prevent infiltration of the organization by
agents of the Catholic curia.
Recognizing the Freemasons as a dangerous movement, Pope Innocent VIII
strongly condemned them in the 1720's.
Dennis
Hogan was attracted to the Freemasons because of their desire to limit the
power of the Catholic Church in Portugal.
For centuries, the Catholic clergy maintained a political grip on
Portugal by using the Inquisition to accuse even the highest-born nobles of
heresy whenever they attempted to interfere with Church laws or property. Like many other Irish in Portugal, Dennis
considered this Catholic religious oppression little different from the
Protestant religious oppression in Ireland.
The
Holy Inquisition was a Church institution created by Pope Gregory IX in 1231 to
discover and punish heresy throughout Europe.
A special branch of the Holy Inquisition was created in Spain and
Portugal by papal decree at the close of the 15th century. The Catholic hierarchy of the Iberian
Peninsula believed that the large numbers of Moslem Moors and Jews residing in
their land increased the possibility that Christians would hear and respond to
heretical teachings. Rooting out and
eliminating the Jewish and Moslem religions required sterner measures than were
usually employed by the Holy Inquisition in other parts of Europe. This was the origin of the infamous Spanish
Inquisition, which was intended to ensure conformity with Catholicism. It terrorized not only the Moors and Jews,
but also many Christians of Spain and Portugal until the 19th century.
Dennis
Hogan knew that the methods used by the Inquisition were as terroristic and
brutal in Portugal as they were in Spain.
Regardless of social rank, a man or woman could be arrested by the
Inquisition on the faintest suspicion of heresy and subjected to torture if
they did not immediately confess. If the
prisoner confessed, his or her life might be spared, providing it was a first
offence. If prisoners failed to confess
to heresy, or if it was a second conviction, they were turned over to the civil
authorities for execution because the Catholic Church prohibited the clergy
from carrying out a death sentence. To
demonstrate their support of Catholic doctrine, government officials organized
public burnings of heretics, which the Portuguese termed the auto da fé,
the act of faith. Sometimes the men and
women sentenced to death were kept in prison until the authorities had enough
condemned people to stage a mass execution.
These public spectacles were meant to warn others of the consequences of
deviating from Catholic doctrine.
Afterwards, all of the property of the executed heretic was confiscated
by the Church, thus creating a financial incentive for the Inquisition.
Along
with many other educated Portuguese, Dennis Hogan believed that the activities
of the Portuguese Inquisition unreasonably harmed innocent people and severely
hampered the economic development of the nation. Foreign merchants from Protestant lands
hesitated to invest in Portugal for fear that their agents would be arrested
and their goods confiscated. Special
permission was required from the Inquisition for a Protestant foreigner to live
in Lisbon, but they were not immune from arrest if they spoke an ill-considered
word that conflicted with Catholic teachings.
Any native Portuguese who amassed wealth automatically came under the
scrutiny of the Inquisitors. A single ancestor who was Moslem or Jewish, no matter how remote,
could bring the charge that a person was a "lapsed Christian" who
secretly practised another religion. The
activity of the Inquisition in northern Portugal, where Dennis Hogan lived, was
especially virulent in the 1730's. So
many people were arrested that whole towns were deserted and prosperous
businesses were ruined by neglect and mismanagement following confiscations.
Although
Dennis Hogan opposed the Inquisition, he did not take the dangerous step of
taking the Freemason's oath until after the great auto da fé in Lisbon
in 1737. At this spectacle, twelve people
were burned at the stake and thousands of others stripped of their property and
condemned to lesser punishments. All of
the accused were from the
Before
long, Dennis Hogan was named a Freemason to the Inquisition. He may have been named by one of the many
informers the Inquisition had throughout Portugal; or by someone in the hands
of the Inquisition hoping for mercy by giving the Inquisition the names of
other heretics. Hogan was arrested on
the ecclesiastical charge of heresy and the civil charge of treason. At the same time, the Inquisition arrested
seven other Irish military officers for the same crimes. To save himself from torture, Dennis
immediately confessed and gave lengthy depositions in which he claimed
ignorance that the Pope in Rome had outlawed Freemasonry.
During
the time of Dennis' imprisonment, his father, Michael, worked tirelessly to
obtain his release. Michael knew he was
placing himself in jeopardy since any persons who tried to help those accused
by the Inquisition were themselves automatically suspect. But Major General Michael Hogan was well into
his sixties and had never before succumbed to his personal fears. When his political connections at the royal
court proved powerless to intervene, he tracked down the Scotsman named Gordon
who had recruited Dennis and the other Irish officers for the Freemasons. Gordon gave him a signed statement showing
that Dennis agreed to an addendum to the Mason's oath that guaranteed his
loyalty to the King of Portugal and to the Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps this document conveyed the
truth. Perhaps it was a crafty invention
by a frantic father. Whatever Dennis
actually swore to was never known since Michael arranged for Gordon to flee
from Portugal to prevent any further testimony.
Yet this statement combined with the prestige of the three Hogan
generals and the royal house of Bragança secured the release of Dennis Hogan. The young Lieutenant returned to military
service with no apparent prejudice to his career. He eventually advanced to the rank of Major
General by the time he retired.
The
brief misadventure of Dennis strengthened the Hogan family's resolve to support
any movement to loosen the grip of the Inquisition over the Portuguese
people. This resolve was rooted in their
oath as military officers to defend the monarchy and the nation against
internal enemies as well as foreign ones.
By the 1740's, the Hogans, along with many other leaders of Portuguese
society, viewed the Inquisition as a threat to Portugal. The Inquisition not only undermined their
authority, it also threatened them personally with arrest, imprisonment and
confiscation of their property. The
Hogan generals became part of a secret group of government ministers and
military officers who met to plan the best way to limit the power of the
Inquisition. A prominent member of the
group was Sebastian Cavalho e Mello, the Marquis de Pombal, who was related to
Dennis Hogan by marriage. Although this
group failed to agree on any specific plan, the members agreed to support one
another if any opportunity arose to challenge the authority of the Inquisition.
It
was several years before circumstances presented themselves so that the group was
in a position to take effective action towards their aim of curtailing the
Inquisition's power. During the 1740's,
the Marquis de Pombal
was
The
Marquis de Pombal continued to issue decrees to end the power of the
Inquisition in Portugal. But the
Inquisition was so entrenched in Portuguese society that in many areas local
civil authorities continued to approve executions of heretics for another ten
years. It was not until 1771 that the
government was able to permanently outlaw the public burning of religious
dissenters. Dennis Hogan played an
important part in curtailing the power of the Inquisition. His encouragement of the Marquis de Pombal
and his open support of the Marquis at the critical hour in 1751 helped
Portugal shed the yoke of religious oppression.
In
other European countries, Irish émigrés influenced societies in specific areas
such as education, military affairs, or agriculture. But in Portugal, the Irish had a direct and
identifiable involvement in shaping events that affected all parts of
Portuguese society. Daniel O'Daly
secured international economic and political ties for Portugal in a time when
its survival as an independent nation was in doubt. The markets he opened and the alliances he
established benefited all of the people of Portugal, from the peasant ploughing
a field to the dragoon patrolling the border.
Michael Hogan helped preserve Portuguese independence. Dennis Hogan helped to alter the course of Portuguese
society by curbing the abuses of the Inquisition, an institution which hampered
the economic and intellectual development of the nation and unjustly killed
thousands of Portuguese citizens. The
Irish in Portugal were able to play such a prominent role in the development of
Portuguese society because the nation was small, allowing their actions to have
an immediate, widespread effect.
CHAPTER
9
Irish
Resistance to Assimilation in Europe
We hold the Ireland in the heart
More
than the land our eyes have seen,
And
love the goal for which we start,
More
than the tale of what has been
- AE (George Russell)
HOPE OF RETURN AND
ÉMIGRÉ AMBIVALENCE
Although
their Celtic heritage gave the Irish a penchant for migration, when they began to
emigrate from Ireland in considerable numbers in the 1500's to escape English
oppression, they emigrated with the hope that they might one day return to
Ireland. The monks of the late Middle Ages had been inspired to leave
By
the 1100's, Celtic society had been long established in Ireland, and it had
prospered removed from the imperialism of Rome, barbarian invasion and other
historical currents flowing across continental Europe. Not only was there no place left to emigrate
to once Celts reached Ireland, but the fertility and small population of the
island allowed Celtic culture to flourish.
With Celtic culture finding space to grow distant from any threats to it
and the Celtic people of Ireland becoming more attached to it with each
generation, the migrating penchant of the Irish abated. For the Irish, Celtic culture and the land of
Ireland became intertwined in a way that was new in Celtic culture. Thus when the English came in force to
conquer Ireland in 1169, rather than emigrate, the Irish responded
militarily. For three centuries
afterwards, the Celtic Irish and the English struggled for political and
cultural supremacy over Ireland. Only in
the 1500's when England fully subjugated the Celtic Irish did migration of the
Irish resume. Many of these later
émigrés were among the Irish who resisted English domination; and when the
Irish were defeated in battle, they were among the first to emigrate. Many of them left relatives and other family
members behind. Rather than submit to
defeat and compromise their Irish culture under English oppression, the later
Irish emigrated - but it was under the duress of oppression.
This
phase of emigration did not arise solely from the migratory tradition of the
Celts or from a practical motive such as avoiding a threat by establishing
Celtic culture elsewhere - for there was nowhere to emigrate to where Celtic
culture could be re-established. Ireland
was the only place the Irish felt they could enjoy their culture as they had
been accustomed to it. This later
emigration prompted by English oppression was regarded as a way to preserve
Irish culture so that it could be re-established in Ireland when English
domination was overthrown. The yearning
for an Ireland free of English domination tempered by the émigrés'
understanding of their position in the countries they went to. As long as they held the hope that they or
their descendants would return to Ireland in the near future, they did not
become reconciled to becoming entirely integrated into their new countries.
This
hope was not unfounded. It was based not
only on the intentions of the members of each generation of émigrés, but on
changing historical conditions in Ireland.
Ever since England had instituted its rule over Ireland, there had been
recurring rebellions and other types of subversion. In the 14th century, the Irish had rallied
behind Edward the Bruce's attempt to drive out the English and create an
independent Irish kingdom. The near
success of the 16th-century Irish rebellions which became known as the
Geraldine Wars and the Nine Years War and the 17th-century rebellion of the
Confederation of Kilkenny encouraged the émigrés to believe that someday a
rebellion might be successful.
The
hope of returning to an Ireland free of English oppression was also bolstered
by historical events in England and Europe.
After Charles I was deposed and beheaded by Oliver Cromwell in 1648, his
sons, Charles and James, lived in exile in France. They promised to change English policies
oppressing Irish Catholics in return for the support of Irish émigrés in the
efforts of the royal brothers to regain the English throne for Charles. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660,
he ended some of the oppressive Irish policies established by his
predecessors. When he died in 1685,
James II accelerated the process of restoring Irish-Catholic civil
liberties. For a brief time, it seemed to many émigrés that the hope of returning to an
Besides
these historical events, there were some individual émigrés who kept the hope
of return alive and sought support for an Irish rebellion from various European
monarchs. Such individuals were
especially active during the Reformation when England redoubled its oppression
of the Irish. In the 1570's, James
Fitzmaurice petitioned France, Spain and Pope Gregory XIII for funs to raise an
army to invade Ireland. By 1578, Pope
Gregory granted the petition and helped Fitzmaurice raise an army of 6,000
Italian mercenaries and bandits.
Fitzmaurice dispatched 2,000 soldiers under the command of Thomas Stukeley
to Lisbon to set up a staging point for the invasion of Ireland. But as soon as Stukeley's contingent arrived
in Lisbon, King Sebastao of Portugal impressed it into the Portuguese army and
sent them on a disastrous invasion of Morocco.
The preparations to invade Ireland collapsed shortly afterwards when
Pope Gregory withdrew his financial support.
In 1601, Red Hugh O'Donnell, one of the rebel leaders of the Nine Years
War, went to Spain after the English defeated Spanish forces that had invaded Ireland
at Kinsale. His mission - which was
common knowledge among the Irish émigrés - was to urge Philip III of Spain to
mount another invasion of Ireland. In
1605, Hugh O'Neill, the rebel leader of the Irish during the Nine Years War,
came to Europe seeking aid from the King of France and the Pope to establish an
invasion force. In 1618, another rebel
leader of the Nine Years War named Donal O'Sullivan Baere was planning to
return to Ireland from Spain with a small contingent of Irish émigré soldiers who
would act as the nucleus for an Irish uprising.
But before he could carry out his plan, he was assassinated in Madrid by
John Bathe, an agent of the English government.
As late as the 1790's, Irish émigré generals in the French army -
including Generals Charles Kilmaine and Henri Clarke - advocated an invasion of
Ireland in support of an Irish republican rebellion. If successful, such an invasion would serve
both French and Irish interests by freeing Ireland from English rule. A small force under General Humbert landed in
County Mayo in 1798, but was quickly defeated by English troops.
After
this failure of the French invasion of Ireland, the hope of return rapidly
faded among the Irish émigrés in Europe.
After having been sustained for two centuries and with many attempts to
fulfil it having been dashed again and again, the hope of return inevitably
waned. Not only the
disappointment of each generation of émigrés, but also changing historical
considerations in
The
shift of Irish emigration from Europe to America and Australia in the late
1700's was another reason for the waning of the hope of return - although there
was a brief resurgence of it in the United States after the Civil War. The much greater distance from Ireland made
the hope seem impracticable. Because of
this shift in the pattern of emigration, the number of émigrés going to Europe
dropped off considerably and no longer helped keep the hope alive.
By
the beginning of the 19th century, the European émigrés' hope of a victorious
return to Ireland had passed away. For
over two centuries it had been sustained because it appealed to the Irish image
of the heroic. But with their penchant
for migration, capacity for adaptation and practical viewpoint, the Irish
eventually abandoned their dreams of returning to free Ireland from English
rule.
Although
the Irish maintained the hope of returning to Ireland in the near future during
the 17th and 18th centuries, they were nevertheless able to have an influence
on their new lands because of their concept of shape-shifting. Shape-shifting was not only a spiritual
experience that was a part of Celtic religion or characteristic of Celtic
mythological figures, but was a principle which was a part of the psyche of
every Irish person. It was this concept
of shape-shifting which allowed them to adapt so readily to new situations and
to become involved effectively in new circumstances while not becoming firmly
rooted in them. Because of the hope of
returning to Ireland held by the émigrés, their understanding of their position
in their new societies was ambivalent.
But because of the concept of shape-shifting which was a part of their
culture, the Irish were suited to acting effectively in new circumstances.
THE IRISH IDEA OF
COMMUNITY
Their ambivalent standing allowed the émigrés to
maintain their Irish identity. This
identity was important to them. Many of
the émigrés had resisted the English invasion and rule; and a prime reason many
of them left Ireland was so their Irish identity would not be threatened or
subverted by English oppression. But
although the Irish had a strong attachment to freedom, this identity was not
based on a sense of individuality. The
basis of this identity was the community an individual belonged to, i.e., his
or her clan. The Irish emigrated in such
numbers not from a desire to maintain their "individuality", but
because the community to which they were attached was being ruined by English
government and English oppression of Irish traditions such as Catholicism, clan
ownership of land and the Celtic system of farming. There was no guarantee, of course, that
émigrés could retain their traditional communities by going to Europe. But no matter what their future held, they
would at least not be accepting English dominance or serving English
masters. With the hope of returning to
Ireland one day, emigration seemed the way to try to preserve this community.
With
their strong sense of community based on the clan, the Irish had little sense
of identity or of the purpose of action except in relation to the community
they belonged to. Although Irish émigrés
went to Europe in large numbers, their numbers were not so large that they
established ghettos where they could survive largely indifferent to the
surrounding culture. Besides, a good
proportion of émigrés scattered to the countryside where they could continue
the farming or crafts they had been engaged in in Ireland. Moreover, it was simply not in the Irish
nature to deliberately separate themselves from the larger communities which
they entered by emigration.
It
was not only because of the vestiges of Celtic culture in Europe that the
émigrés were able to have such an influence, but also because they were
accustomed to acting in the context of the extensive community of the
clan. Leaving Ireland partly to preserve
this concept of community that was suffering under English rule, once in Europe
the Irish recreated this sense of community as best they could. The best and readiest way they could recreate
it was by giving their loyalty to the monarchs of the countries they went
to. The monarchy was seen as a
substitute for the clan an émigré left behind, and the monarch was like the
clan chief. By loyally serving a
monarch, the Irish émigrés' actions were meaningful to them.
Besides
the clan tradition accounting for the way the Irish established themselves in
their new countries, there was also the tradition of Irish émigrés becoming
involved in European societies in helpful, constructive ways. This tradition started with Columbanus and
his band, the first monks who came to Europe towards the close of the Dark
Ages. The monks had taught local
populations agricultural practices, animal husbandry, metalworking, and other
skills which had improved their lives tangibly and immediately. Although the emigration of monks dropped off
dramatically when Viking raids increased in northern Europe, the works of the
monks and their place in local culture, and in some cases individual monks,
became a part of the folklore of an area.
Moreover, although fewer Irish monks journeyed to
Familiarity
with the Irish continued also by their involvement in the religious
controversies of the early Middle Ages. Celtic Christianity vied with Roman
Christianity to determine the nature of Christianity in Europe. Roman Christianity had advantages and
resources which left little doubt that it would win out over Celtic
Christianity; among these were a historical affiliation with Europe from its
association with the Roman Empire and its assertion that its ecclesiastic
authority was derived directly from the apostle Peter. Nonetheless, Celtic Christianity did offer
doctrines and practices which appealed to the Europeans, and some of these were
adopted by Roman Christianity. Until the
time of the Carolingian Renaissance, the Irish monks were continually involved
in the councils and convocations debating Christian doctrine. A few individuals from Ireland became leading
figures in this ferment in which the fundamentals of Christian doctrine were
decided. John Eriugena was widely regarded
by scholars as one of the major theologians of the Middle Ages. Many of the Irish followed the teachings of
Pelagius, although these teachings were considered heretical by the Roman
Christians. Thus, even though there were
no longer large numbers of Irish monks coming to Europe in the late Middle
Ages, the involvement of Irish monks in central doctrinal issues of the
Catholic Church - the dominant cultural force at the close of the Middle Ages -
helped to keep the Irish prominent in Europe.
The
long benign and beneficial presence of monks from Ireland largely erased any
reluctance populations of Catholic European countries might have had to the
Irish being a part of their societies.
Although during the Renaissance there were much larger numbers of Irish
émigrés, there were never so many that they threatened the position of other
groups or political factions. There were
not that many Irish in any one field, such as the military or education, that they could dominate it; and the ideas and
activities of Irish émigrés who became leaders in certain fields were supported
by the country's monarch or were plainly advantageous to the society. During most of the centuries that the Irish
were emigrating to
CHAPTER
10
Italy
and the Papal States
People
so beset with saints, yet all but vile and vain:
Wild
Irish are as civil as the Russies in their kind:
-
George Turberville, 1568
THE IRISH AND
ITALIAN CIVILITY
In
most cases, the Irish were accepted into the countries they emigrated to not
only because of their allegiance and competence, but because of their Catholic
religion which they shared with the large proportion of the population of these
countries. An exception to this was
Italy, however.
While
the differences between the two early versions of Christianity were the
general, deeper reason for the very limited effect the Irish émigrés had on
Italian society, there were also a number of specific historical and cultural
reasons for this. The principal
historical reason for this limited impression was that
Besides
the political fragmentation of the Italian peninsula and the Italian political
practices of the time, the notion of "civility" in Italian culture
was another reason Irish émigrés did not play a substantive or noteworthy part
in Italian society and history. The
Italians regarded themselves as the most civilized people of Europe. This perspective transcended the differences
and contests among the diverse kingdoms and city-states. As the city of Rome had been the centre of
Roman civilization, which had dominated Europe, it was now regarded as the
centre of Western civilization. Because
of their ancient connection to Rome, the city-states and kingdoms of Italy
shared directly in this civilization.
With Italian culture as the standard of civility, the farther away a
country was from Italy, the less civilized it was. Since Ireland was distant from Italy, on the
rim of Europe, the Irish were among the least civilized people of Europe. The Italians viewed the Irish as half
barbarous.
The
Italians saw the Irish primarily as rustics from a basically agricultural
society. This view towards the Irish was
shared by the Popes and the Catholic Church hierarchy, although they did
recognize the value of the strength of the faith and the industry of the Irish
Catholic clergy in combating Protestantism.
But the Irish did not meet the Italian standard of civility because they
came from a society whose cities would not compare with those in Italy for
size, architecture or wealth. Compared
with Florence, Milan and other leading Italian cities, the Irish cities were
little more than large towns. Besides,
the Irish seemed quarrelsome rather than refined or courtly. That the Irish had never been able to govern
themselves with a monarchy was evidence of their inherent refractoriness which
kept them from becoming civilized.
Italian
scholars, writers and artists were leaders in the changes in Western society
during the Renaissance. Many of them
were sought out by monarchs and wealthy persons of other countries to engage in
work under their patronage. Because of
this self-awareness and recognition that their culture gave birth to the
individuals and achievements representing the best of European culture, the
Italians had no desire to change their society or political system. This led to a parochial outlook which left
the many Italian states reluctant to adapt to the historical developments that
were occurring throughout the rest of Europe - and which inevitably came to
affect Italy. Unable or unwilling to
adapt to the historical developments, the Italian states tried to defend
themselves against change. When faced
with the imperialism of other European powers that was a vein of their
nationalism and the large, well-organized armies making use of the latest
technological developments, Italian states would have to seek alliances with
major European powers in order to prevent their conquest by different European
powers. While such an alliance would
save an Italian state from conquest by one imperialistic European power, it
would usually result in the virtual submission of the state to the European
power it had allied itself with. Thus,
in the two hundred years after the Renaissance, Genoa and Turin were controlled
by France; Venice and Milan were controlled by Austria; and Naples and Sicily
were controlled by Spain. Rome and the
Papal States associated with it remained autonomous because no Catholic country
of the time dared to attack or occupy the seat and symbol of Catholicism. It wasn't until King Victor Emmanuel I of the
Italian city-state of Savoy, with the support of Giuseppe Garibaldi, led an
Italian nationalist movement in 1859 that the patchwork of kingdoms and city-states
of the Italian peninsula was swept away and in 1870, the peninsular became
united into a modern nation.
As
they had in other countries of western Europe, Irish
émigrés could have helped lead
THE IRISH AND THE
POPES
Nowhere
was the patronizing attitude of the Italians towards the Irish more conspicuous
than in Rome. The first of the Irish
émigrés to arrive in the city were Catholic clergy in the late 16th
century. Like the Irish religious
refugees arriving in France and Spain, they were searching for a place of
refuge from Protestant persecution in their homeland. As educated Catholic clergy, they expected to
find employment in the service of the Vatican.
The
Popes received the Irish émigré clergy and praised their devotion to the
Catholic faith. But the Popes suggested
that the Irish priests return to their homeland in secret to help keep the
Catholic religion alive. Many of the
Irish were promoted to bishops and sent back to Ireland. The few who stayed in Rome were given only
minor tasks to perform for the Vatican curia.
They also discovered how difficult it was to live in Rome without the
patronage of the Italian bishops and cardinals who controlled all aspects of
life in the theocracy of the Papal States.
Their attempts to establish an Irish College met with procrastination. It was not until 1625, after fifty years of
petitioning the
The
Popes and high-ranking clergy of the time were all Italian, and they held the
view prevailing in their society that the Irish did not meet the Italian
standard of civility. But this was not
the only reason the Popes and high-ranking clergy were cautious in their
relationship with the Irish clergy.
Apart from this stereotype, the Popes and clergy believed that there was
a considerable political risk in giving unqualified support to the Irish in
their religious and political conflict with England. For living in Rome at the close of the 16th
century was an influential group of English Catholic aristocrats who hoped to
someday re-establish the Catholic faith in England with the help of the Holy
See. Because the Popes believed that
England was a more politically influential nation than Ireland, they were more
concerned with re-establishing Catholicism in England than preserving the
religion in Ireland. If the Popes openly
supported the Irish, the English émigrés could see this as aiding and abetting
political rebels. So in dealing with
Irish émigrés the Popes often chose the middle ground of neither fully
supporting nor completely rejecting the Irish émigrés.
The
Italian notion of civility also coloured the view of the Italian hierarchy
towards Irish Catholic theology and religious practices. Not only were the Irish from a wild and
barbarous land scarcely able to grasp the principles of civilization, but also
they had flirted for centuries with religious deviance, and could not be
trusted to have purged pagan beliefs from their version of Catholicism. The Irish continued to venerate many
individuals they regarded as saints who had not passed the official process of
Catholic canonization. Unusual practices
that remained in Irish Catholic ritual seemed suspiciously pagan to the Italian
clergy. Particularly suspect were
outdoor services conducted near wells and small ponds with people walking in
circles around the water as they prayed.
In theological discussions, the Irish point of view persistently echoed
Pelagianism, the heresy that an individual could find redemption without divine
intervention in the form of grace.
Although the Italian Popes never openly stated an official Church policy
towards the Irish clergy, they kept close watch over Irish activities in Rome.
During
the decade of the 1660's, the reservations of the Catholic hierarchy towards
the Irish intensified when a movement among both native and émigré Irish denied
that the Popes should exercise power over worldly affairs. This movement began with Charles II of
England, the Stuart King who had recently been restored to the English throne
after the English Civil War and the rule of Oliver Cromwell. Unlike earlier English monarchs, Charles II
was not hostile towards the Catholics under his rule, including those in
Ireland. However, Charles was aware that
the Puritans and Anglicans who made up a significant proportion of his subjects
and were influential in England believed that the rebellions frequently
springing up in Ireland were encouraged, and perhaps even instigated, by the
Pope. In order to counter this belief,
and bring greater harmony to his realm, Charles II requested that the Irish
Franciscan Friar named Peter Walsh draw up a document stating that the Pope had
no authority to interfere with the English civil government in Ireland. The King picked Walsh to write such a
document because Walsh was an outspoken loyalist who had written many letters
to prominent Irish Catholics urging them to also openly pledge their loyalty to
Charles. Walsh was well-known among
Irish Catholics for exposing an attempt by Bishop Edmund O'Reilly to betray
Irish soldiers to Cromwell's forces because O'Reilly believed that Cromwell's
victory in Ireland was inevitable and Catholics would be more favourably
treated if they supported the new English government. A considerable number of bishops and priests
in Ireland and Irish émigrés abroad agreed that the Pope should not interfere
with the English civil government in Ireland.
They supported the position stated in Walsh's document, which became
known as the Irish Remonstrance of Peter Walsh.
Pope
Alexander VII saw this position as a threat that could potentially weaken his
authority in the civil matters of Catholic nations. Exiled Irish bishops and priests were
scattered throughout the capitals of Europe.
Many of them were the confidants of monarchs and statesmen who would
like to free themselves from the tradition of papal intervention in the affairs
of their governments. To discredit the
Irish Remonstrance, the Pope gave approval for the Archbishop of Armagh to call
a synod to denounce Walsh and the position he had taken. The synod ordered Peter Walsh to go to the
Franciscan priory at Louvain in France so his brother friars could watch him to
ensure that he caused no further trouble for the Pope. Walsh complied with the synod's order, but
other Catholic countries began to reject papal involvement in their civil
affairs. For Alexander VII and his
successors, Walsh's challenge to papal authority, which spread across Europe,
further demonstrated how wild and unpredictable the Irish could be.
Because
the hierarchy of the Catholic Church was dominated by Italians, the disdainful
attitude of the Italian Popes and Cardinals towards the Irish trickled
downwards into the Catholic clergy in Europe.
Although the Irish were well-educated and staunchly Catholic, they did
not contribute a cadre of clergymen who strongly influenced the doctrines and
political development of the Catholic Church in early modern Europe. Only in the monastic orders which operated
quasi-independently from Rome and could set their own internal rules did Irish
monks and priests achieve positions of influence and leadership. The Irish clergy, however, was very
successful in influencing Catholics as parish priests and as Jesuit, Dominican
and Franciscan educators.
The
attitude of the Catholic hierarchy towards the Irish often spilled out of the
religious arena and into politics.
Perhaps the most notable Irish émigré to be caught in the indecisiveness
of the Vatican policies was Hugh O'Neill, the Early of Tyrone. In 1605, he left Ireland along with several
other nobles in what became known as the Flight of the Earls. For many years, he had been engaged in
rebellion against England. With the aid
of Spanish arms and soldiers, he had almost succeeded in winning political
freedom for Ireland. But many of the
other Irish lords became impoverished during the protracted rebellion and
abandoned the cause. O'Neill ended his
rebellion in exchange for a pardon from Queen Elizabeth just before her
death. Despite the pardon, the
government of the new English King, James I, continued to harass O'Neill with
lawsuits challenging the title to his lands and spies who openly watched his
every move whenever he left his home.
When O'Neill was summoned to London to appear before James I to answer
false charges brought against him claiming that he had plotted to seize Dublin
Castle, O'Neill hastily fled to Europe rather than risk being imprisoned or
even executed by the King if he could not refute these false charges. In the dark of night, O'Neill boarded a ship
in Lough Swilly harbour, sailed to France, and then travelled overland to
Belgium, which was under the control of Spain at the time. He was accompanied by his sons, John, Hugh
and Henry; and by the Early of Fermanagh, who was also being threatened by English
plots to seize his lands, and fifty other Irish men and women who feared
similar reprisals for their part in the rebellion against England.
Although
the monarchs of France and Spain considered O'Neill the leader of the Irish
people, they were no longer at war with England and were reluctant to start
another conflict for Irish interests alone.
After a brief stay in Brussels, O'Neill, his son Hugh, and some of his
Irish followers made their way to Rome to seek the assistance of Pope Paul V in
forging a military alliance among the Catholic nations of Europe on behalf of
the Irish. O'Neill expected that hiss
reputation and his deeds in defence of the Catholic faith would receive serious
consideration from Pope Paul V. At this
time, however, the Pope was far more concerned with stifling the new movement
towards separation of church and state in France, and saw little advantage in
supporting Irish rebels.
The
Pope gave O'Neill an annual stipend and arranged for the King of Spain to give
him additional funds. O'Neill spent the
remaining years of his life in Rome, ineffectively trying to win support of the
political cause of the Irish among the Italian clergy that governed the upper
echelons of the Catholic hierarchy. His
words fell on deaf ears. He died in
1616, embittered and puzzled by Pope Paul V's apparent indifference to Irish
issues.
The
people of Rome spurned the services of Hugh O'Neill and the other Irish émigrés
who accompanied him. As the centre of
western Catholicism, the city was thronged with foreign pilgrims, religious
refugees and adventurers. The Irish were
but one group among many. In addition,
because of the notions of civility which classified the Irish as barbarous, the
Italians gave them little opportunity to demonstrate how they could contribute
to their adopted land. Most of the Irish
who did come to Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries eventually continued
their travels to pursue opportunities in other lands.
IRISH SOLDIERS IN
ITALY
With
so much of Italy under the control of Spain, France and Austria during the 17th
and 18th centuries, many Irish émigrés were temporarily in Italy serving as
soldiers and government administrators for these countries. The Irish Brigade of France frequently saw
combat in the north-western Italian provinces of Piedmont and Savoy. Many of the Irish generals of Austria gained
their initial experience in military campaigns during Italian battles and
skirmishes. But the Irish soldiers and
administrators were only temporary residents in Italy and left no permanent
mark on Italian society. Their primary
allegiance was to the nations which had sent them to Italy.
During
the 19th century, a large number of Irish entered the Papal armies, but they
too had little impact on Italian society.
In 1859, Napoleon III of France and the Italian kingdom of Piedmont
waged war on Austria, hoping to evict the Austrian Emperor, Franz Josef, from
northern Italy and annex his lands. The
coalition won the battles of Solferino and Magenta, but the threat of Prussian
intervention on the side of Austria forced them to the negotiating table. The peace treaty coming
from this made
One
of the primary forces opposing Italian unification was the Catholic
Church. In central Italy, the Popes
exercised direct political control over the territory known as the Papal
States, as they had since the time of the Renaissance. In governing their lands, they behaved as any
other ruler of their day, appointing administrators, collecting taxes and
waging war. Shortly after Piedmont
gained control of Lombardy, King Victor Emmanuel of Piedmont invaded the Papal
States from the north, a group of republican revolutionaries led by Giuseppe
Garibaldi marched on Rome from the south, and many people of the Papal States
rose in rebellion against Pope Pius IX.
The Pope refused to negotiate with King Victor Emmanuel and Garibaldi,
scorning their suggestions of democratic reform. Victor Emmanuel's invading
army quickly defeated Papal forces and surrounded the city of Rome, making the
Pope a virtual prisoner in the Vatican.
The
momentum of the Italian unification movement alarmed the Austrian
government. Piedmont, with the aid of
its French ally, had defeated Austria and annexed the prosperous city of
Milan. A unified Italy under the
leadership of Piedmont would place a strong nation on the southern border,
another potential enemy for the Austrian Empire, which was already bordered by
hostile nations. Besides, the Emperor
Franz Josef was concerned with domestic problems and did not want to risk
another war with Piedmont by aiding the Pope in hope of thwarting Italian
unification. So the Austrian Count
Charles MacDonnell, the descendant of Colonel MacDonnell who had fought for
Austria at Cremona in 1701, proposed a solution for Austria's dilemma. He suggested that he go to Ireland to recruit
a battalion of Irish soldiers to fight for the Pope's cause. The troops would be financed and trained by
Austria, but would be politically and militarily attached to the Papal
States. A contingent of Irish soldiers
in Italy would provide the Pope with badly needed military support and
stimulate other nations to send forces to the Papal armies. Both the Austrian Emperor and Pope Pius IX
approved the plan, and in 1860, Charles MacDonnell was dispatched to his
ancestral homeland.
MacDonnell
appealed to the Irish as Catholics, asking them to fight in Italy for the sake
of their religion. He received an
excellent response from young men eager to escape the grinding poverty of farm
life while advancing the Catholic cause abroad.
In a short time, thousands of Irish volunteers arrived in Italy to
defend the territory claimed by the Pope as his personal domain.
When
the Irish volunteers arrived at the city Macerata in west-central Italy where
they would be stationed, they faced a politically and militarily chaotic
situation. The people in some of the
cities and towns in the Papal States along with the remnants of the Papal army
defeated by Victor Emmanuel's troops supported Pope Pius IX. The people in other cities and towns -
sometimes only a few miles from cities and towns supporting Pius IX - believed
that the Pope's temporal power should end and Italy become united under the
leadership of Victor Emmanuel. Because
of the revolutionary character of this conflict, the Irish could not know if
the Italians around them were friends or enemies. To make matters even more complex for the
Irish, Emperor Louis Napoleon of France had agreed to send French forces to
help Pius IX maintain control of the Papal States, but had secretly instructed
the French generals not to oppose Victor Emmanuel's invasion. Frequently the French troops and Italian
supporters of Victor Emmanuel intercepted military supplies on their way to the
Irish soldiers, creating critical shortages in ammunition and rifles.
Due
to the rapidly deteriorating political and military situation in the Papal
States, neither the Austrians nor the Papal army provided the Irish Brigade
with suitable leadership or training.
The men who were rustic labourers in Connaught and Munster lacked the
discipline and experience to rapidly become effective soldiers. They found themselves on the field of battle
armed with unfamiliar weapons and led by foreign officers indifferent to the
loss of Irish lives. At the battles of
Spoleto and Perugia, more than five hundred were taken prisoner. Out of frustration and anger, they mutinied
at Macerata, rampaging through the town.
In spite of the Irish efforts, the emerging nation of Italy eventually
absorbed more of the Papal States except for the small territory of the
Vatican. Disillusioned by their foreign
adventure, the Irish volunteers returned home, their brief and hapless
intervention leaving no imprint on Italian society.
Because
of political conditions unique to Italy during the period of the Renaissance,
when large numbers of Irish were emigrating to Europe, and the general disdain
of the Italians towards the Irish because of their supposed cultural
inferiority, the Irish had hardly any effect on Italian society or historical
development. Most of the Irish who went
to Italy during the era did not stay long, and resumed their travels after
realizing that there was no worthwhile or productive place for them in Italian
society. They continued on to join their
fellow émigré countrymen in Spain, France and Austria - which held promise
closed to them in Italy.
CHAPTER
11
Eastern
and Central Europe
"I
see none more competent..."
- The Empress Maria Theresa when speaking
of Francis de Lacy.
ON TO THE EAST
While
most of the Irish émigrés of the 17th and 18th centuries found new homes in the
Catholic nations of western Europe, a few journeyed to the eastern nations of
Europe. Some of them were professional
soldiers discharged from service in France or Spain when the dwindling finances
of monarchs could no longer support a large standing army. But other Irish émigrés chose to wander
eastward for no reason other than their desire to explore different lands. They were individuals who had abandoned the
romantic notion that they would some day be part of a French or Spanish army
sent to free Ireland. Without this hope,
it made little difference to them where they settled as long as the country
tolerated their Catholic faith.
The
inhabitants of Austria, Hungary and even distant Russia had some familiarity
with Irish people and culture. During
the Middle Ages, Irish monks had settled in these
lands; and their deeds became part of the local history and folklore of central
and eastern Europe. In 17th-century
Vienna, Irish émigrés could visit the monastery founded in the mid 1100's by
the Irish monk, Gille-na-Maemh, which came under the control of Austrian
Benedictines shortly after the death of its founder. Any of the émigrés hardy enough to travel to
far-off Kiev would hear from local historians about the Irish monks of that
city who made a dangerous escape to Christian Poland when they refused to
submit to the Mongol invaders during the 13th century.
The
aristocracy of central and eastern Europe welcomed the
new wave of Irish émigrés because they brought with them military, technical
and agricultural skills sorely needed in these lands. A considerable number of the educated
nobility recognized that lingering medieval customs and ideas were preventing
their countries from prospering. In wars
with neighbouring countries, inferior armaments, inadequate logistics and
outdated tactics were often disastrous for the armies of Austria, Hungary and
Russia. Many armies relied on
poorly-trained rural conscripts who were viewed as little more than cannon
fodder by generals who had achieved their rank only because they were
aristocrats and not for their personal skill.
Because of their training and combat experience in the better-trained and
better-equipped armies of western Europe, the Irish
émigrés were quickly entrusted with positions of high command in the
military. The Irish also brought with
them technical knowledge in banking, medicine, and engineering. Their agricultural knowledge proved
particularly valuable when rapidly increasing populations led to food shortages
in Austria and Hungary during the 18th century.
Most of the crops were grown on feudal-like manors that could not
produce sufficient surplus to feed the people living in the cities. Like the medieval Celtic monks, the influence
that the Irish had on the nations of central and eastern Europe stemmed from
their ability to teach their skills to others.
As
they had proved in other countries, the Irish émigrés in central and eastern Europe possessed a favourable combination of
intellectual capabilities and practical skills which could help solve
problems. As imaginative, relevant and
effective as the activities of Irish émigrés may have seemed to the people of
eastern European countries, the Irish were just acting in ways they always had
throughout their long heritage stretching back to the Celts of the Iron
Age. This Celtic heritage enabled the
Irish to act thoughtfully and effectively in new circumstances. This heritage was formed by adapting to new
situations as the prehistoric Celtic clans ranged over Western Europe,
simultaneously imposing their own ways on other peoples they came into contact
with and, in turn, assimilating new ways, until they eventually prospered on
the remote island of Ireland.
In
general, the farther east the Irish émigrés went into Europe, the narrower
their effects were on the nations and cultures they became active in. There are three major reasons for this. The first is that by the 18th century when
the émigrés arrived in this reason and became involved in local affairs, the
cultures and nations were much more defined than those of western
Europe -
The
second reason the influences of the émigrés were relatively limited is that a
smaller number of Irish emigrated to these areas. Those who did were guided by a sense of
adventure, a wish to fill a role or gain a status which was already being
filled by other émigrés in the countries of western
Europe, or a desire for a chance to regain wealth they had lost in the changing
economic circumstances of western Europe.
The
third reason the Irish émigrés had a relatively limited influence in central
and eastern Europe was that the activity of the small number who did go there
was concentrated in a few areas. The
small number stood out, and the most able among them were enlisted by the
rulers of different countries to help solve social, political, or military
problems they faced. As a result, many
of the rest of the small number of Irish would follow into these areas and thus
did not find their way into a broader range of fields as the Irish had in other
countries of Europe. Whereas in Spain,
Portugal, and France (and in later times in the United States and Australia),
the Irish became involved in - and often became leaders in - areas as diverse
as education, religion, commerce, military affairs, agriculture, and diplomacy,
in central and eastern Europe, their activities were mostly concentrated in
military affairs and statecraft. It was
in these areas that the central and eastern European rulers found the services
of the Irish most valuable. As important
or crucial as it was, the Irish émigré influence in
these areas was limited because their activity was focused on a particular
pressing problem facing a ruler.
With
their small number, their involvement in only a few activities and no
successive groups of émigrés following them, the Irish émigrés of central and eastern Europe did not have the wide and continuous
influence of the émigrés in other parts of
PETER DE LACY AND
CZAR PETER OF RUSSIA
At
the close of the 17th century, most Europeans considered Russia a land of
medieval barbarism. Its feudal social
structures had changed little for centuries.
Serfs were tied to the land they tilled, and nobles were despots. To govern effectively, the Czar had to rely
on the goodwill of the nobles and the continuing support of his personal
regiment of bodyguards, the Strieltsy.
The science and technology transforming Europe during the Renaissance
and the Enlightenment had only a small effect on Russia. All foreign ideas and viewpoints were shunned
as the work of the devil, as potential threats to the existing social order
ordained by God.
When
Peter Romanov became Czar at the close of the 17th century, he resolved to use
his power and authority to lift Russian society out of its medieval
lethargy. He overcame the resistance of
the Russian nobles to foreign ideas, and he was so effective in modernizing
Russia that he is remembered as Peter the Great. He began by ordering his nobles to trim their
shaggy hair, shave their long beards and wear western-style jackets and
breeches. The nobles grumbled, but
obeyed. When Peter decided to travel
abroad, it caused a scandal among the conservative nobles of Russia. But travel he did, learning as much as he
could about the science and technology in Germany, Holland and England. During his journeys, he enticed a number of
European scientists, artisans and military leaders to join the small group of
foreigners who lived in Russia under his protection. Peter hoped to use their knowledge and skills
to revamp Russian society.
In
1698, while in Poland to see the Polish monarch, King Augustus II, about the
alliance they had formed to wage war against Sweden, Peter met a Polish army
officer of Irish origin named Peter de Lacy.
Czar Peter and de Lacy struck up an immediate friendship based on their
mutual enthusiasm for carousing through the night in seedy taverns and houses of
prostitution. Czar Peter also saw that
de Lacy had military experience and skills that he might be able to make use of
in his plans for modernizing Russia.
Emigrating
from Ireland in 1691, as one of the Wild Geese, de Lacy saw service in the
Irish Brigade of France. Being
discharged in the reduction of French forces after the Treaty of Ryswick in
1698, de Lacy went eastward because the Polish Count de Croy, who de Lacy had
met in France, had told him that the King of Poland would welcome experienced
Irish officers in his army. When he
arrived in Poland, de Lacy was given an officer's commission with the rank of
major.
When
Peter the Great continued his tour of Europe by travelling to Vienna, de Lacy
secured leave from the Polish army to join the Czar's entourage. While Czar Peter was preparing to visit
Venice, a messenger from Moscow brought news that the regiment of troops that
was his personal bodyguard, the Strieltsy, were plotting to crown Peter's son
Alexis as Czar of Russia. This plot
stemmed from the resistance to change among the conservative nobility. As he hurriedly prepared to return to Russia,
Peter persuaded de Lacy to join him. De
Lacy agreed, and Peter made him a major in the Russian army.
When
Czar Peter arrived in Moscow, he found that the Strieltsy had been arrested by
army forces led by a Russian noble named Schien who was loyal to him. To strike fear into the hearts of the nobles
who had secretly supported the Strieltsy plotters, Czar Peter personally
tortured and executed many of the members of his former bodyguard in a public
square near the Kremlin. Peter invited
de Lacy, as well as some of the other foreigners who had returned with him to
Russia, to take part in the hangings and beheadings. But when Peter held out an executioner's
sword for de Lacy, de Lacy declined it.
The Czar did not press it on him, but kept the sword and went back to
his grisly work.
In
the days following this harsh introduction to Russia society, Peter de Lacy
received his assignment from Peter the Great.
Along with other European officers recruited by Peter, de Lacy was to
train the Russian army in the techniques of European warfare, which included
rapid loading and firing of muskets, and hand-to-hand combat with
bayonets. But de Lacy ran up against the
inertia of centuries of Russian military custom requiring the use of sword and
cavalry instead of shot and cannon. He
encountered resistance from many Russian officers who believed that foot
soldiers were ignorant brutes capable only of overwhelming an enemy by their
sheer numbers. Their traditional tactics
called for launching wave after wave of soldiers at the enemy. If the attacking units found themselves
outnumbered, or if they sustained heavy casualties, they usually broke and
ran. The inertia of the Russian military
leaders was so ingrained that even with the active support of the Czar, de Lacy was able to train only one battalion of
soldiers in modern tactics. This
battalion - called the Grand Musketeers - was formed particularly for de Lacy
to command and composed only of Russian nobles.
These nobles later became officers of other units after serving under de
Lacy, thereby gradually extending the influence of his training methods
throughout the Russian army. Because of
the battlefield successes of the Grand Musketeers in the war against Sweden, in
1708 de Lacy was placed in command of the Siberian Regiment of Infantry. At the Battle of Poltava, the Siberian
Regiment distinguished itself by repelling the main Swedish attack.
In
1700, Russia and its Polish ally declared war on Sweden in what came to be
known as The Great Northern War. King
Charles XII of Sweden proved to be a masterful tactician, and the war went
badly for Russia. With a smaller army,
Charles defeated the Russians and their Polish allies at every encounter. The Czar's poorly-trained and ill-equipped
army could not prevail against the iron discipline and the rifled muskets of
the Swedes. By the spring of 1709,
Charles had advanced deeply into the Ukraine and was confronting a Russian army
near the fortress-city of Poltava, a strategically important point on the main
road between Kiev and Moscow. Although
the Swedes were heavily outnumbered, they were relying on the usual tactic of an
artillery barrage followed by a bayonet charge to cause panic among the
poorly-trained Russian soldiers. But one
of the regiments facing the Swedes at the point they chose for their main
attack was de Lacy's Siberian Regiment.
He ordered his troops to hold their fire until he gave the command. During the Swedish artillery barrage, de
Lacy's troops stood firm. When the
cannon fire stopped and the Swedes were charging towards the Russian lines with
bayonets bristling, the Siberian Regiment held their fire. Only when the Swedes were almost at the
Russian line did de Lacy order his men to shoot. The concentrated musket fire from de Lacy's
regiment caused such heavy Swedish losses that the entire Swedish attack
foundered. A Russian counter-attack
defeated the Swedish army, and Charles XII fled the battle, never to threaten
Russian lands again.
In
recognition of Peter de Lacy's services, the Czar made him a general and a
count. Because he had been so successful
at Poltava and now had a noble title, other officers in the Russian army took a
greater interest in the European methods of training and tactics that he was
introducing. For the next two decades,
the Russian army retrained and rearmed, largely under de Lacy's direction. He taught both officers and enlisted men the
fundamentals of European warfare of the day.
In 1736, he was promoted to Field Marshall.
The
few Irish émigrés who came to Russia after de Lacy also followed military
careers. They include Count John
O'Rourke in the army of Catherine the Great and his nephew, Major General
Joseph O'Rourke, who led Russian troops against Napoleon. Peter de Lacy, however, was the Irish émigré
with the most renown in Russian history and culture. Despite his prominence and
his rank, he never became fully at ease with Russian society. Its customs seemed too foreign, its
traditions seemed too alien from his Irish heritage. When his son, Francis, was old enough, he
sent the lad to Austria to become a cadet in an army regiment. Since Francis stayed in Austria and Peter had
no other sons, future generations of the de Lacy family were Austrian. The internal structural changes in the
military that Peter de Lacy helped to set in motion continued to influence
Russian training and tactics throughout the 18th century.
THE IRISH GENERALS
OF AUSTRIA
Russia
was not the only eastern European country whose military forces were
outdated. Austria's defeat in 1735 in
its war with the Ottoman Empire had exposed Austria's weaknesses in facing an
army employing modern tactics and equipped with modern arms. Although smaller than armies in previous
centuries, the modernized armies of the 1700's were composed largely of
professional soldiers, and they were thus more effective fighting forces. Conscription was used only in times of
national emergencies. Logistics had also
become an important factor for a modernized army so that troops in the field
would not have to depend on scavenging the countryside for food.
Austria's
humiliating defeat by the Ottoman Empire offered opportunities for advancement
into the high ranks of its army for a number of Irish émigrés familiar with the
latest developments in military administration, strategy and tactics, and
logistics. The modernization these Irish
generals effected for the Austrian army proved its worth in Austria's war
against France, Spain, Prussia and Bavaria, called the War of Austrian
Succession.
The
war began shortly after a young and beautiful woman inherited the throne of the
Austrian Empire in 1740. The new Empress
was Maria Theresa von Hapsburg - the heiress of an imperial dynasty founded
almost five centuries before when the Swiss Count Rudolph von Hapsburg was
elected as the Holy Roman Emperor in 1273.
There were many in Austria who felt that Maria Theresa was not capable
of governing the Empire because of her inexperience and because she was a
woman. Her cousin, Prince Charles Albert
of Bavaria, immediately challenged her right to wear the crown. He was supported by France, Spain and
Prussia, all of which saw the conflict between Charles Albert and Maria Theresa
as an opportunity to destroy Austrian military and political power in central
Europe. This led to the War of Austrian
Succession, which lasted eight long and bitter years.
The
War started when King Frederick of Prussia invaded Austrian territory. The King thought it would be easy to conquer
Austria now that it was led by the twenty-three year old Maria Theresa who,
Frederick believed, was surrounded by feeble and impotent ministers. In December of 1740, he sent an army of
thirty thousand battle veterans into Silesia, an Austrian province bordering
Prussian territory. He was certain that
his army would shatter all resistance and would soon be marching through the
streets of Vienna.
But
Maria Theresa was far more capable of governing Austria than any of her enemies
supposed. When Austria was invaded, her
first act was to seek the advice of her ministers and generals to decide how to
deal with the Prussian threat. She knew
that her Empire was in disarray because of bureaucratic abuses during the reign
of her father. The army's actual
strength was far less than the 100,000 claimed by its generals, and army pay
was more than two years in arrears. Many
of the Empress's advisors suggested the cautious route of political compromise
as the solution to the threat facing Austria.
But a small group of Irish émigré generals and colonels urged defiance
to Prussia and any other nation that sought to invade Austria to annex its
territory or topple its monarchy.
Maria
Theresa heeded the advice of her Irish military experts, not only because they
believed they could achieve victory against Prussia and its allies, but also
because their past service to Austria merited confidence in them. This group included men like Field Marshall
Oliver Wallis, whose grandfather, Oliver Walsh, came to Austria in 1666 and
changed his name to Wallis to make it easier for German-speaking people to
pronounce. For three generations there
had been a general Wallis leading the troops of the Austrian army. Another was General MacDonnell, whose father
had led Prince Eugene's attack on Cremona in 1701 and personally captured the
French commander, Marshal Villeroy. The
most ardent advocate of resistance to Prussia was Maximillian Browne.
At
the age of thirty-five, Browne was one of the youngest field marshalls in the
Austrian army. He strongly supported
Maria Theresa's desire to keep her throne and protect her empire from foreign
incursions. His father had received a
colonel's commission in Austria after he was discharged from the Irish Brigade
of France due to its reduction in size in 1698.
Maximillian was born in 1705, and at the age of five his parents sent
him to stay with relatives in Limerick so he would not lose his connection to
his Irish heritage. But his mother, who
was a Fitzgerald of the Desmond branch, soon regretted her decision to send her
son to live amid the strife in Ireland created by the newly enacted Penal
Laws. After a short time, the Brownes
recalled Maximillian and sent him to live with his uncle George Browne, a
Colonel of Hungarian infantry. Young
Maximillian Browne quickly discovered that his uncle George was a highly
respected officer who was the author of drill books and the military code of
justice used by the Hungarian army. He
watched his uncle transform the unseasoned Hungarian troops into an effective
fighting force. To follow in the
footsteps of his father and uncle, Maximillian resolved to pursue a military
career.
In
1725, Browne returned to Austria and received a Colonel's commission in the Austrian
army. He was given this high rank in
recognition of the administrative training he had received as a cadet in his
uncle's Hungarian regiment. This
administrative background made Browne stand out even among the other Irish
officers of the Austrian army. At the
time, the Austrian army sorely needed officers with administrative skills to
help the army modernize its organization.
Given command of a regiment, Browne soon proved his leadership and
organizational abilities by revising training methods and devising an efficient
logistical support system for his regiment.
Austria's
war with the Ottoman Empire in 1735 gave Browne the opportunity to demonstrate
the proficiency of his regiment. Twenty
years before, the Austrian army under the leadership of Prince Eugene defeated
the Ottoman Turks at Peterswarden and the siege of Belgrade. Upon the defeat of the Turks, Austria was
able to annex a good deal of territory belonging to Hungary and Serbia that had
long been under Turkish rule. The second
war grew out of the Turkish ambition to reclaim the disputed lands. In this second conflict, because of its
neglect of training and logistics, the Austrian army met with defeat after
defeat at the hands of the Turks. One of
the few positive signs offering hope for the future in the disastrous conflict
for Austria was the performance of the regiment commanded by Maximillian
Browne. Although it was unable to turn
the tide of battles it fought in, the good account it gave of itself
demonstrated the effectiveness of Browne's training in manoeuvring and modern
fighting methods. Based on the
outstanding performance of his regiment, Browne was given the rank of general
and put in charge of several regiments.
The war with the Turks ended, however, before the new methods Browne
brought to the Austrian army could be put to the test. But even after the war, Browne continued with
his modernization programme by establishing a training routine for the entire
army.
In
December of 1740 when the Prussians invaded the Austrian province of Silesia at
the start of the War of Austrian Succession, Browne - who was by then Field
Marshall Maximillian von Browne - entreated the Empress Maria Theresa to let
him lead an army of his modernized forces to challenge the enemy advance. The Empress readily consented. Because the Austrian army had shrunk in size
during the 1730's and few troops were stationed in Silesia, Browne could muster
a force of only 6,000 troops to meet a Prussian army five times this size. He knew that if his small army confronted the
Prussians directly, they would be quickly overwhelmed. So Browne relied upon the traditional Irish
tactics of ambush and manoeuvre he had learned from his father and uncle. Throughout early 1741, the Austrians raided
and withdrew to delay the Prussian advance.
During
the Silesian campaign, Browne introduced the new tactic of regiments of highly
mobile troops, which later became known as light infantry. These regiments were composed of infantrymen
armed only with muskets, without the artillery, engineers or supply trains that
normally accompanied infantry regiments.
They took up positions on the flanks and ahead of a regular infantry
column. Their purpose was to hold off
advancing enemy forces until the larger main body of troops was able to shift
from marching in a column to the line formation for battle, an involved and
time-consuming process during which the main body was vulnerable. Browne's light infantry regiment was composed
of Croatian sharpshooters who could slow down the approach of an enemy. After running into them in January and
February of 1741 during his advance across Silesia, Frederick II of Prussia
said they were the most dangerous opposition he had to face. Despite Browne's innovative tactics, he was
unable to prevent the advance of Frederick's much larger army.
While
Browne was defending Austrian territory in Silesia, Maria Theresa was
assembling and equipping a force strong enough to try to drive the Prussian
forces out of Austria. She would have
led this force into battle herself except that German society prohibited women
from taking part in warfare. When she
spoke of her desire to fight alongside her soldiers, only her Irish generals
and colonels offered her encouragement.
For them, the image of Maria Theresa riding at the head of her army
touched mythic chords from their Celtic-Irish heritage which revered female
military leaders like Queen Maev and Queen Boudica. But other advisors to the Empress feared that
Maria Theresa would loose the support of many of her conservative subjects if
she strayed so far outside the bounds of female behaviour dictated by
traditional Germanic culture. So when
her army marched north to engage the Prussians, she remained in Vienna.
In
April of 1741, while Browne was still in Silesia, the Austrian army that Maria
Theresa assembled met the Prussians on the field of Mollwitz on the border of
Silesia and Austria. Although the
Prussians carried the day, they took so many casualties that their advance into
Austria was halted. Over the next few
years, Austria unsuccessfully attempted to drive the Prussians out of
Silesia. At the same time that Austria
was fighting the Prussians, France had seized the Austrian-controlled province
of Alsace, thereby threatening invasion across the north-west border of
Austria. This threat from France was not
eliminated until 1744 when England became Austria's ally and the two nations
mounted a joint counter-offensive in Alsace.
Although the province was not recaptured, France was prevented from occupying
any additional Austrian territory. After
the war dragged on for four more years with neither side gaining a decisive
victory, the belligerents agreed to a peace conference in Dresden in 1748. Maria Theresa sent Maximillian Browne to this
conference as the Austrian representative because his military exploits and his
unswerving support of her right to rule the nation had made him one of her most
trusted advisors. In order to secure a
peace, he was forced to cede the economically important province of Silesia to
Prussia and to grant independence to several smaller Austrian territories in
Italy. Although Austria lost land, Maria
Theresa gained her objective when she was confirmed as Empress of Austria as
part of the peace settlement.
During
the ensuing period of peace, Austrian generals taught their troops to protect
regular infantry columns with light infantry regiments. Prior to this time in European armies, the
tactic of ambush and manoeuvre was used only at the discretion of a regimental
commander whose unit was operating independently from the main force. There were no regiments specializing in the
tactic. As word of the success of the
Austrian light infantry spread, this type of specialized regiment was added to
the armies of other nations. By the
close of the 18th century, virtually every army in Europe was using light
infantry units as skirmishers and flankers.
The
War of Austrian Succession also led to the establishment of the military
academy of Wiener Neustadt. During the
long years of the war, Maria Theresa's armies relied heavily on the leadership
talents of émigré military officers from Ireland, France and other
nations. Once peace was made, she
resolved to create an officer corps that was modern, efficient and made up of
native-born Austrians. In 1752, she
ordered the construction of a military academy to train Austrian cadets.
The
academy was located in a citadel built during medieval times to keep watch for
attacks from Mongols who had overrun neighbouring Hungary. Many of its first instructors were Irish who were skilled veterans of the Austrian army. In 1771, it became known as the Theresian
Academy to honour its founder, a name it still bears. To remind the young cadets of the heritage of
honour and service they were expected to live up to, a series of portraits of
Austria's prominent generals was hung in the Academy's great hall. Out of thirty-seven faces looking down on the
students, ten were men who were born in Ireland or who were descendants of
Irish émigrés. The Irish influence of
Austrian military affairs became part of army tradition and culture, affecting
to some degree every cadet who passed through the Academy.
In
1756, Austria became engulfed in the Seven Years War which broke out across
Europe. The conflict grew out of the
territorial ambitions of the major European nations in both Europe and the
Americas. The former Austrian province
of Silesia remained in the hands of Frederick II of Prussia, and he made no
secret of his ambition to annex even more of Austria. When he learned that Maria Theresa was
planning to form military alliances with France and Russia to both safeguard
Austrian territory from Prussian aggression and to possibly regain Silesia,
Frederick simultaneously attacked both Russia and Austria before this coalition
against him could be formed.
Once
again, Maria Theresa relied upon her Irish generals to defend her Empire. In one of the first battles of the war near
Prague, Field Marshall Browne was mortally wounded when a cannonball crushed
the bones of his leg. Theresa appointed
Browne's cousin by marriage, Count Francis de Lacy, to replace Browne at the
command of her armies on the Prussian front.
Francis
de Lacy had shown the same outstanding, dependable military capabilities as
Browne. De Lacy had a reputation for
stressing the value of an efficient supply for the units under his command so
that the soldiers could concentrate on training and fighting instead of
foraging for food. Because the officer corps
of the day was still largely composed of aristocrats with little practical
experience in supply or commerce, he often found himself teaching them matters ranging from overall logistic plans to
negotiating prices with farmers.
During
the Seven Years War, de Lacy did not have the military resources to drive
Prussian forces out of Silesia. With
parts of the Austrian army occupied in other areas, he did not have enough
troops. Furthermore, although Austria
had made considerable progress in equipping its troops with the latest
armaments such as rifled musket, its weaponry was still not equal to that of
the Prussians. Handicapped as he was, de
Lacy was able to reach only a stalemate with the Prussians. Considering the disadvantages he had in this
conflict, it required remarkable military skill for him to achieve this
deadlock. Recognizing this, in
commenting on de Lacy's achievement, Empress Maria Theresa wrote in a letter to
her Chancellor, "I see no one more competent than de Lacy". When the War ended, the Queen made him
President of the Council of War. In this
position as head of the Austrian army, de Lacy continued to direct the gradual,
costly process of modernizing the Austrian army's equipment, supply system and
organization.
The
part played by Irish émigrés in the military and political affairs of Austria
during the 18th century was important to Austria's survival and development as
a nation. As a central European empire,
the country was surrounded on all sides by nations who were potential enemies. Austria's military setbacks in the War of
Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War had exposed the weaknesses of the
Austrian army. Austria had lost portions
of its territory and had to negotiate for peace from the weaker position. Irish émigré military leaders played
important roles in saving Austria from total defeat. Although Austria had suffered setbacks, the
Austrian monarchy was still in place and Austria was still a whole, independent
nation. Austria had learned that a
modernized army was fundamental in offering any hope of protecting its borders
against the potentially hostile nations surrounding it. In the years after these two wars, Irish
military leaders - de Lacy and others such as General Laval Nugent and General
William O'Kelly - took the lead in improving training, logistics, armaments,
and organization of the Austrian army so that Austria could effectively defend
itself when attacked by another nation.
From 1690 until the mid 19th century, Irish émigrés and their
descendants played central roles in the wars of Austria and the evolution of
the Austrian army.
AGRICULTURE AND THE
IRISH IN CENTRAL EUROPE
In
the 18th century in Austria, Hungary and Russia, food production still depended
on serfs working small plots of land owned by nobles who were entitled to a large
portion of the crop. Surplus crops were
ordinarily meagre, however, because the farming tools used by the serfs were
primitive, and it was the rare serf who had a horse or ox for ploughing. The serfs were ignorant of the practices of
crop rotation or fertilization to keep the soil from being depleted. Instead, they planted the same cereal crops
of wheat and sorghum year after year.
Despite the arduous, thankless life of the serfs in toiling to produce
meagre harvests, they could not engage in any other kinds of employment or move
to a more fertile location without permission from the local noble. But a noble would hardly ever give such
permission. Rather, with the surplus
crops they sold in the markets being their main source of revenue, the nobles
continually demanded higher production from their serfs.
In
Austria's
food crisis had a serious effect on the nation's military when the Seven Years
War began in 1756. After
a full day's drill, no matter how hot or cold the weather, soldiers could
expect only a bowl of thin soup.
They were often weakened from hunger when they went to battle with enemy
forces. Many deserted just to look for
food.
Faced
with growing discontent in all parts of Austrian society, Maria Theresa
directed her Chancellor Wenzel Kaunitz to seek a solution to the problem of low
food production. She had appointed him
Chancellor in 1753, and he had capably administered her government. She picked him for this
task over her other advisors because he had a keen interest in
agriculture and recognized that food production was essential to maintaining
social harmony in
Taaffe
had been interested in farming all his life.
His father, Francis, had been a gentleman farmer on his lands in
Taaffe's
success did not bring an immediate end to the problem of food production in
Austria. New ideas in farming spread
only by the slow method of word-of-mouth, and were implemented only spottily
and haphazardly. Besides, the start of
the War of Austrian Succession interfered with any progress Austria might have
made in food production. When the War
ended, some of the landowners belonging to agricultural societies became
interested in potato cultivation, including Field Marshall Oliver Wallis, an
Irish émigré also involved in farming who followed
Taaffe's lead by planting potatoes in the fields of his estates. So when Austrian food production could not
keep up with the growing population in the 1750's, both Taaffe and Wallis began
to work closely with Chancellor Kaunitz to inform farmers about their success
in potato farming.
Taaffe
and Wallis also joined with Kaunitz in advocating fundamental reform in the
agricultural practices in the Austrian Empire.
Following their advice, the government passed regulations to control the
type of crops planted and to create market incentives for farmers to produce a
surplus. The agricultural societies were
used to educate other farmers in the most advanced farming techniques. Peasants and landlords alike were taught the
value of crop rotation, fields left fallow for a season, and efficient pest
control. The programme was successfully
implemented, but it took decades before the inefficient practices of a
serf-based agricultural system were replaced with more modern farming methods
throughout Austria. Year by year, food
production increased until the spectre of famine was lifted from the Austrian
Empire.
In
the second half of the 18th century, Nicholas Taaffe's success in convincing
Austrian farmers to raise potatoes had an effect that went far beyond
alleviating the Austrian food shortage.
As the Austrian army increasingly relied on potatoes for its rations,
other nations began to see the benefits of using the cheaply-produced and
long-lasting potatoes as one of the staples in the diet of soldiers. By 1777, the War of Bavarian Succession -
fought between Austria and Prussia to prevent the Austrian Emperor from
inheriting the crown of Bavaria - was popularly called "The Potato
War" because the troops of both sides depended so heavily on potatoes for
their rations. By the Napoleonic era,
the potato was an important to the French soldiers marching across Europe as
their muskets and bayonets.
In
Austria, Taaffe, Wallis and other Irish émigrés played an important role in
implementing changes in farming methods during the 18th century. They demonstrated that the soil could produce
a much greater quantity of food. But
even more vital were their efforts to educate farmers. Replenishing the soil with fertilizer,
rotating crops, and cultivating larger plots was the core of their
message. Because of their prominent
social position in the court of the Austrian Emperors, they became the primary
agricultural advisors. Irish émigré
landowners, statesmen and soldiers in Austria influenced the government and
farmers to meet the need for food for the growing population, thus helping
Austria move into the modern age.
THE MYSTERY OF
PRINCE RUDOLPH'S DEATH
In
1969, an elderly man named Edward Taaffe, who was known to his friends as
"Yaxi", died in Dublin. He was
a direct descendant of the same Nicholas Taaffe who helped to lead Austria out
of its food crises in the 18th century.
Although Yaxi was born near
Rudolph
was the first-born son of Franz Joseph, Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
in the late 19th century. To his
father's dismay, Rudolph seemed more interested in gambling, drinking, and
carousing with artists and anarchists than in the responsibilities of a Crown
Prince. Although libertine behaviour was
characteristic of the Austrian royalty at the time, Emperor Franz Joseph
considered his son's behaviour disgraceful, and barred him from any role in
public affairs. In 1881, Franz Joseph
insisted that Rudolph marry the Belgian Princess Stephanie in the hope that
they would produce a child better suited to become a monarch. Rudolph assented, but he found his new bride
priggish and continued a number of affairs with women of the royal court.
Rudolph
fell in love with one of his paramours, the Baroness Marie Vetsera. In 1889, he asked his father for permission
to divorce Princess Stephanie. Franz
Joseph postponed responding to his son's request while he considered the
political consequences. If Rudolph
divorced Stephanie, he would be ineligible for the crown and Rudolph's cousin,
Franz Ferdinand, would become the Crown Prince of Austria. The Emperor consulted with his Prime
Minister, Count Edward Taaffe, who strongly advised against granting a divorce. Although Taaffe believed that Franz Ferdinand
would be a more suitable Crown Prince than Rudolph, he was concerned that
liberals seeking to limit the power of the Emperor would use a divorce scandal
to discredit the Emperor and his family.
Taaffe
had earned the confidence of the Emperor for his years of devoted service to
Austria. In 1867, as Deputy Minister
President, he was one of the principal architects of the agreement with Hungary
that created the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. This organized the Empire into a
confederation, with Austria and Hungary as separate states that recognized the
same monarch - Emperor Franz Joseph. The
people of Austria and Hungary could elect their own legislators and decide most
internal matters for themselves. But the
arrangement left nationalist groups within the Austro-Hungarian Empire
dissatisfied. As minorities, the Czechs,
Croats, Serbs and Slovaks did not believe they were adequately represented in
the legislators and clamoured for as much autonomy from the Hapsburg Emperor as
the Hungarians enjoyed. Nihilists,
anarchists, and communists added to the political ferment in the Empire with
their radical agendas.
After
he became Prime Minister in 1879, Taaffe negotiated a compromise with Czech
nationalists. The Czech language would
be given equal footing with German in Bohemia; a Czech university was founded;
and more positions in the government were promised to the Czechs. The other nationalities within the Empire
responded by asking for similar concessions.
Throughout the 1880's, Taaffe continued negotiating with the dissident
ethnic groups, hoping to achieve internal political stability for the
Austro-Hungarian Empire while avoiding any incidents - such as a divorce in the
royal family - that could ignite rebellion.
Although
Taaffe knew that the conservative nobility, clergy and middle-class merchants
of the Empire were already concerned that Rudolph was unfit to wear the crown,
he advised the Emperor against granting Rudolph a divorce because the scandal
would create misgivings about the Emperor and his family, and potentially
alienate the Christian Socialists, the most important Austrian political
party. These conservatives supporting
the Emperor were termed the "Iron Ring", and Taaffe believed that the
political stability of the Empire depended on their continued support. It was largely due to Taaffe's influence that
Franz Joseph refused to grant Rudolph a divorce. But the problem of Prince Rudolph's
outrageous behaviour, which was making him unsuitable to wear the crown,
remained unsolved.
The
dilemma was unexpected resolved in June of 1889, when Rudolph took Maria
Vetsera to his hunting lodge at Mayerling so they could enjoy each other's
company in seclusion. The next day, both
Crown Prince Rudolph and the Baroness Maria Vetsera were found dead from
gunshot wounds. Rumours of intrigue and
assassination swept through Austria.
Publicly, the Emperor declared that Rudolph had shot his lover and then
killed himself. But privately, he
instructed Count Taaffe to conduct a discreet investigation to answer questions
that arose about the death of his son.
A
few months later, Count Taaffe finished his report and delivered it to the
Emperor. Franz Joseph read it and returned
it to Taaffe with the order that it was to be kept secret. Taaffe was to safeguard the report, and it
was to be passed down to the eldest son in each generation of Taaffe's
descendants for perpetual safekeeping.
Yaxi Taaffe was the last male descendant of the line and should have had
these documents in his possession, but they were not found after his death in
1969. Some historians speculated that
the documents were destroyed in 1916 when a fire ravaged the Taaffe estate in
Ellischau, Austria. Because of several
letters from Catholic bishops to Edward Taaffe referring to the documents,
other historians believed that the papers were entrusted to the Vatican, sealed
forever in its archives. Because these
documents were not found after Yaxi Taaffe's death and because of the steadfast
refusal of the Vatican to reveal if they have any Taaffe's archives in their
possession, the truth of the Mayerling affair will probably always be a
mystery. But it did reveal the amount of
trust and power that the Emperor placed in his Prime Minister, Edward Taaffe.
After
Prince Rudolph's death, Edward Taaffe prevented the scandal surrounding the
Prince's death from damaging the monarchy by granting additional concessions to
ethnic minorities in the Empire. His
policy of striking a balance between the liberals who desired to dismantle the
Empire and the conservatives who desired to stifle all political reforms kept
the Austro-Hungarian Empire intact.
Despite Taaffe's keen negotiating skills,
however, he could engineer no permanent solutions for the Empire's ethnic and
political rivalries. Taaffe retired in
1893. A little more than two decades
after Taaffe's death in 1895 at his estate at Ellischau, the patchwork
Austro-Hungarian Empire broke apart from internal social and economic stresses
intensified by World War I.
Edward
Taaffe was one of Franz Joseph's most trusted officials. This exemplifies the role of Irish émigrés or
their descendants in Austrian society.
Because of their small number, their roles in crises of Austrian society
- whether military threat, a food shortage or a scandal involving the monarchy
- the contribution of Irish émigrés and their descendants to Austrian society
and history is especially evident.
CHAPTER
12
The
Enduring Influence
All
those far seas and shores that must be crossed,
They terrify me; yet
Go
you, my son, swift be your cleaving prow
And
do not quite forget
- Colman, c. 7th century
During the millennium covered in this book - from the 700's
to the 1800's - men and women from Ireland had a steady influence on the
formation of Europe. It was during this
millennium that the origins of Western culture were laid in the Carolingian
Renaissance, Christianity took root throughout Europe, universities were
founded, the bases of science were established, nations were formed, democracy
was established, and the various states of Europe became interrelated by
diplomatic and economic activity. Irish
émigrés had significant, and in some cases major, parts in each of these
developments in the formation of Europe.
The
unusual aspect of this steady, multifarious and identifiable influence of the
Irish is that they did not bring anything essentially novel to Europe. Irish lore and activities stimulated the
seeds of Celtic culture which remained in Europe after the Roman Empire
collapsed and during the barbarian invasions and rule. The re-emergence of fundamentals of Celtic
culture in Europe from the influence of the Irish émigrés was not so strong
that these fundamentals supplanted aspects of Roman civilization and barbarian
culture which had taken root. But the
spirituality and knowledge the Irish related, the skills they taught and the
effects of their activities ensured that Celtic culture, along with classical
and northern barbarian culture, would play a permanent and central part in
Europe's history and cultural development.
The
remarkable influence of the Irish in Europe stemmed not only from the qualities
the Irish émigrés brought with them - qualities that were primarily reflections
of ancient Celtic culture. It also
stemmed from the pattern of Irish emigration over the millennium, plus the
numbers of Irish in this pattern.
Although there were dips in this pattern of emigration - most notably the
period from the waning of the Carolingian Renaissance (c. 900) until the late Middle Ages (c. 1300) - over the entire millennium, the
Irish influence is seen as continual.
Although the numbers of Irish émigrés - almost all monks - fell markedly
in the late 800's, the influence of generations of monks up until this time was
such that it remained strong and formative despite not being regularly
reinforced or extended by the fewer numbers of monks who came to Europe
afterwards.
One
of the principal reasons the monks journeying to Europe towards the end of the
Dark Ages had such a long-lasting influence was the sturdy monasteries they
built which became spiritual and educational centres for the surrounding
populations. A number of these
monasteries survive today, engaged in the same spiritual and educational work
as they were in the time when they were founded. The early Irish monks determined the purpose
and set the tone for these early medieval monasteries, establishing customs and
observances continued by following generations of monks whether they were from
Ireland or not. Another reason the
influence of the early monks lasted beyond their time is that they taught the
rudiments of practical activities such as growing crops and animal
husbandry. During the Middle
Ages, such practices continued virtually unchanged, so that the methods taught
by the monks remained in use for centuries.
A third reason why the influence of the monks persisted is that the
monks influenced the spirituality, interests such as education, and other
aspects of the manner of rule of petty kings in different parts of Europe. This manner of rule adopted by the petty
kings in the period of change from the Dark Ages to the Middle Ages continued
long into the Middle Ages, thus prolonging the influence of the early Irish
monks.
Another
important reason that their influence continued was that the Middle
Ages were an embodiment of basic cultural elements that were strongly
influenced by the monks, and in some cases were almost direct reflections of
them. The monks had a strong influence
on the development of the Christian spirituality which became bound in the Middle Ages. The
closeness between the spiritual leaders and temporal rulers had its basis in
the relationship between the Irish monks and the petty kings. But more than this, the monasteries founded
by the Irish monks were the models for the manors upon which feudalism - the
foundation of the Middle Ages - was based. Like the monasteries, the manors were meant
to be self-sufficient. The manors were
meant to provide for the spiritual concerns as well as the practical needs of
the people involved in them. The variety
of skills possessed among groups of monks who founded a monastery - such as
stone masonry, woodcraft, animal husbandry - were possessed by the varied
persons who belonged to a manor. The
class structure with its reciprocal obligations by which a manor's
self-sufficiency could be maintained was a more complex and explicit representation
of the organization of a monastery. The
influence of the Irish monks in the beginnings of the Middle
Ages shaped the spirituality and way of life which came to be the main feature
of the Middle Ages. Since the Middle Ages were a long period of stability during which
there was no significant change in the spirituality or the way of life, the
influence of the Irish lasted long beyond their appearance in
When
Irish émigrés again began arriving in Europe in appreciable numbers towards the
end of the Middle Ages - in the 1400's - they readily adapted to the broad
changes underway in the culture of Europe which was moving into the Renaissance
and the modern era. Whereas the monks of
the late Dark Ages and early Middle Ages had come to
New
émigrés and descendants of previous émigrés from Ireland were involved in the
trends shaping the Europe of the modern world during the Renaissance. The central movement shaping Europe at this
time was the Protestant Reformation.
Although Irish émigrés and their descendants played only a small role in
those European countries that largely became Protestant, the Irish helped
Catholicism to remain vibrant and dominant in those European countries which
resisted the Reformation. The numbers of
Irish lay persons who were staunchly Catholic, along with the activities of
Irish clergy, contributed to the strengthening of Catholicism in countries such
as France and Austria which had sizeable Protestant minorities. Many émigrés played roles in shaping the
responses of these countries to Protestantism, which responses figured heavily
into the nature of these countries in the modern world. For instance, in helping certain countries of
Europe remain Catholic, the Irish also played a role in their
secularization. The Irish had never been
authoritarian, hierarchical or ceremonious in their practice of Catholicism. Yet they had always been defenders of
Catholicism. In the close
interrelationship between Church and State in the Middle
Ages, it had been bishops, cardinals and popes representing Roman Catholicism,
not Celtic Christianity, which influenced the kings and nobility that ruled a
country. Even though many countries in
Europe remained Catholic, despite the major historical movement of the
Protestant Reformation, they were nevertheless inevitably much affected by the
trends of secularism of the time. When
such trends brought about the increasing separation of Church and State, the
influence of the Irish émigrés and their descendants grew. Although strong Catholics, the Irish always
had a more practical and democratic approach to daily life, political and
social matters, as well as religious views.
This practical and democratic approach was more in tune with the
secularization of the era, and therefore the Irish often had considerable
influence with a country's ruler and in the fields such as business and
medicine which were developing as a part of the secularization.
Besides
secularization, nationalism was another movement which emerged following the Middle Ages. The
Irish, with their sense of individuality and concept of clan loyalty, played
substantial parts in the nationalistic trends shaping a number of the countries
of Europe. These parts were played not
only by Irish counsellors, diplomats, statesmen and government officials, but
also by Irish military leaders and soldiers.
The exploits of military units led by Irish officers or all-Irish
military units helped Spain from being conquered by Napoleon's forces, Portugal
from losing territory to Spain, and Austria from being defeated by Frederick
the Great of Prussia. Such exploits not
only epitomized the nationalistic spirit, but also led to the geographic shape
of a number of the nations of modern Europe.
Although
the Irish émigrés had a capacity for adaptability which allowed them to
cope with changing social conditions and historical developments over centuries
in Europe, they also had a worldview which gave them a stability in particular
circumstances and in the course of historical changes. The Irish had a holistic worldview that had
its origins in Celtic culture. As with
the ancient Celts, the Irish saw knowledge, spirituality, and practical
abilities and skills as interrelated.
This worldview enabled Irish émigrés to offer solutions to the problems
perceived by rulers and local populations of Europe. There were times when the solutions offered
could seem almost visionary. But besides
this practical dimension of the worldview, it also afforded the émigrés and
their descendants a position in the changing circumstances which kept them from
adopting absolutist forms or radical ideas for dealing with the changing
circumstances and problems they became involved in. Thus, while genuinely and firmly Catholic,
the Irish never completely accepted the doctrines or the absolutist authority
of the Pope. With their Catholicism, the
earlier émigrés were welcomed across Europe; and then when the influence of
Catholicism began to wane with the Protestant Reformation, the Irish did not
undergo a change in their principles or beliefs in order to play a role in the
secularization of the countries which remained Catholic. They played their influential role without
having to change the Catholicism they always practised and by resisting the
Protestant Reformation. This unique
position the Irish would hold in historical changes occurring in Europe is
perhaps best evidences in the reliance of different European monarchs on the
Irish as counsellors and diplomats in the transition of their countries from
kingdoms into nations and also as advisors and political leaders for reforms in
response to the movement of democracy.
While being mostly egalitarian and democratic from their Celtic roots,
émigrés nonetheless served rulers and nobility loyally and effectively. When democratic tendencies grew in European
societies, the émigrés were well suited to serve a country's monarchs by
helping in their response to these tendencies.
In these circumstances, the Irish acted on their inherent beliefs and
principles without joining the revolutionary movements growing in the countries
of Europe.
Despite
their exceptional capacity for adaptability and their focus on particular
problems or needs in various European societies at different times, the Irish
worldview remained constant during the centuries of emigration. It had the effect of reinforcing the
accomplishments and qualities of earlier generations of émigrés, which
substantiated the Irish influence on Europe.
Not
only the pattern of the generations of Irish émigrés,
but their number accounted for their exceptional influence. Their numbers were not so large that they
could not be absorbed by the countries they went to, but not so small that they
were assimilated without a trace.
Because their numbers were not so large and were spread out over the
whole period of emigration and several countries, following generations of Irish
were welcome in countries favoured by the émigrés. In these countries, since the numbers of
previous émigrés had been enough so that there was nonetheless an Irish
presence, following generations of émigrés were attracted to them. The intermediate number of émigrés also
enabled particular Irish who became distinguished in different fields to gain
their prominent and influential positions.
There were never so many Irish in any one country that its rulers and
other leaders or its native population were concerned that Irish who rose to
prominence were leading the way for an Irish take-over of a field.
The
basis for the Irish influence was not only the interaction between Irish
émigrés and populations of the countries they went to, but also the interaction
among Irish within a country and between generations of émigrés. This basis can be illuminated by a comparison
of the Irish with both the barbarian tribes of northern Europe and the Jews. The barbarians of northern Europe came to
Europe in such numbers that they overturned the societies based on Roman
administration and reflecting the Roman domination. They replaced this Roman system with their
own hodgepodge of petty kingdoms. These
kingdoms were basically warrior societies in which the crafts and arts slipped
into desuetude and spiritual inclinations had no outlet. The culture and characteristics of the
barbarians obviously dominated Europe.
But the Irish never came to Europe, or any part of it, in such hordes
that they had such a totally transforming effect. Rather, the Irish were like waters of
nourishment or were innovators in various fields, usually fields they were
assigned to or allowed to enter by the rulers of a country.
When
compared to the Jews, the Irish were present in greater numbers, and over a
considerably broader range of fields.
Thus, although particular Jews made notable or outstanding achievements
in certain fields, these achievements were based on the particular qualities of
the individual, not cultural attributes.
Thus where Jews had exceptional influence over a field of the broader
culture, this is seen as reflecting practices of the existing culture, not
materially contributing qualities or capacities of Jewish culture to the
traditional culture of a country. Jewish
culture was just not compatible with the culture of Europe in the essential way
that the Irish culture was with its Celtic roots. Besides, there were not following numbers of
Jewish émigrés to reinforce and substantiate the achievements of individual
Jews.
Besides
the qualities, enterprise and innovative spirit of the Irish émigrés which were
reflections of their culture of Celtic origin, their emigration pattern over
the geography of Europe and the numbers of émigrés spread over the centuries of
emigration were factors in their identifiable, unique and enduring influence on
European history and culture.
To
note this exceptional influence of the Irish émigrés on the formation of Europe
as we have in this book is not to minimize or disregard the influence of national
characteristics, ethnic traits, or other immigrant groups. To note this Irish influence, however, is to
point to the common ground of Celtic culture from which their particular
influences arose. The story of the
influence of outstanding Irish individuals and descendants and the numbers of
Irish émigrés is to bring to light a significant influence on the formation and
nature of Europe; and it also discloses its foundation in Celtic culture and
the reawakening and ongoing influence of this culture which was represented
most clearly by the Irish.
____________________
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