foreign armies, Irish in

foreign armies, Irish in. Military migration from poorer parts of Europe into the armies of great powers was commonplace during the ancien régime. Irish recruitment into continental armies, especially of Spain and France, began for political reasons after the second Desmond War and was sustained thereafter by further defeats and by religious and economic factors.

In 1605 Spain formed a separate Irish regiment under the command of Hugh O'Neill's sons. Spain created five more Irish regiments in the 1630s and recruited 30,000 ex‐soldiers of the Confederate Catholics in the early 1650s. France first enlisted Irish troops in 1635 but its Irish brigade stemmed from the 16,000 ‘wild geese’ migrating after the Williamite War. Initially commanded by James II, these regiments were later integrated into the French army still wearing their red coats. Replenished by an average of 1,000 recruits per year, mainly from Kilkenny and the Munster counties, they earned fame at Fontenoy in 1745.

Whereas France and Spain recruited the Irish en masse, the Austrian, Swedish, and Russian armies looked for career‐minded Irish officers. In the 18th century there were at any one time 500 Irishmen holding foreign commissions. Irish Catholic gentry were able to gain the positions of command and political appointments in continental Catholic countries they were being denied at home.

All ranks experienced heavy casualties in warfare and from camp diseases. By 1649 Spain's first Irish regiment had suffered 17,000 casualties; by 1738 Dillon's regiment in French service had lost 7,000. Spanish and French garrison towns developed identifiable Irish communities which provided a local recruiting base. Strong links existed between the regiments and Irish colleges.

Dublin's plan of sending idlemen to continental wars backfired as the likes of Owen Roe O'Neill, Thomas Preston, Patrick Sarsfield, and Justin MacCarthy returned expert in modern warfare. Émigré Irish regularly plotted invasions of Ireland. Hugh O'Neill in Rome demanded use of Spain's Irish regiment. Four hundred Irish brigade veterans formed the core of the Jacobite invasion of Great Britain in 1745.

By the late 18th century the Irish regiments in the French and Spanish armies were in practice multinational forces, only their officer corps retaining a distinctive Irish identity. The decline of recruitment from Ireland had many causes: the collapse of Jacobite hopes, the opening up of the British army to Irish Catholic recruits, and greater prosperity, offering alternatives to military service generally. The regiments in French service, associated with the ancien régime, were abolished in 1791, following the French Revolution, although United Irish exiles later formed an Irish Legion. The regiments in Spanish service were dissolved in 1818.

See also irish brigade.

Bibliography

Henry, Gráinne , The Irish Military Community in Spanish Flanders, 1586–1621 (1992)

Hiram Morgan