Preface

Matthew J. Culligan & Peter Cherici's

THE WANDERING IRISH IN EUROPE

THEIR INFLUENCE FROM

THE DARK AGES TO MODERN TIMES

Digital electronic transcription by John O’Loughlin

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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 Europe trails off.

It is not that the Irish involvement in Europe in the centuries after the Dark Ages and early Middle Ages has not been recorded. It is, however, so widely scattered in numerous histories and biographies that it is unrecognizable to the average person and even to many historians and scholars. For instance, no sound history on certain subjects or eras of France can be written without at least mentioning the connection of the first universities with the monasteries founded by the Irish monks, the style of combat and victories in battle of the Irish Brigade, the Marshall Marie-Edmé-Patrice de MacMahon, a descendant of Irish émigrés who helped to balance monarchist and republican political aims in a period of instability in 19th-century France. Likewise, there can be no history on certain subjects or eras of Austria without at least mention of the Irish military commanders who led campaigns which helped Austria maintain its independence. Yet, the roles of such Irish émigrés and their descendants usually become obscured in the multitude of faces and points of such works or overshadowed by their overreaching theme.

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 England became a Protestant nation drove numbers of Irish men and women to emigrate to different countries of Europe. Like the monks from Ireland at the close of the Dark Ages and early Middle Ages, these later Irish were Catholic. But unlike the monks, the later émigrés possessed a much wider range of skills; and they did not emigrate with the aim of missionary work. The later émigrés had much experience and well-developed skills in the fields of the military, business, medicine, agriculture and diplomacy, as well as the fields of religious work and education. With their variety of skills and the initiative they took to apply them to their situations in their new countries, many émigrés entered the mainstream of a number of European societies and some of them became leaders in their respective fields.

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 Italy, Russia and other nations in central and eastern Europe, their influence in these areas was limited. It should be no surprise that those areas of Europe shaped mostly by the Roman Republic and Empire, Vikings and Mongols, and the Germanic tribes were those areas where the Irish had the least influence. Since the effects of Roman imperialism and barbarian invasions barely touched Ireland, Celtic culture was able to remain free of outside influences and to evolve according to its inherent tendencies. Christianity was the first external influence of any significance on Celtic culture in Ireland. (Later in the Middle Ages, the Vikings were present in Ireland, but they had only a limited effect on the fundamentals of Celtic culture.) And Christianity was accepted by the Celts because its spirituality and lore struck a chord in the immemorial Celtic culture. Christianity was modified by the surviving Celtic culture in Ireland, so that it became known as Celtic Christianity to differentiate it from the Roman Christianity in the rest of Europe.

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