Creating an Online Archive of Life in Local Communities in 20th century Ireland

Lawrencetown National School, co. Galway, 1946

As part of my Outreach work at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway in association with the Galway Education Centre and Galway County Council I am providing an online facility for schools and active retirement groups to digitally archive stories, films and photographs of life in their localities over the last one hundred years as part of their contribution to the Easter Rising commemorations.

 

Junior Infants class, Creggs National School, 1971

The BEO (Irish for ‘alive’) project is a wonderful opportunity to commemorate the struggle for Irish independence and its subsequent impact on the lives of of ordinary people. It provides a way to capture online the changing face of local communities throughout a century, that experienced phenomenal economic, social, cultural and political change, by collecting and digitizing the pictures and words of ordinary people that have been handed down through families over many decades. 

 

At Coxtown Bog, Kiltormer, co. Galway, 1940s

In spite of the massive transformations that Ireland has experienced in technologies, economics and population movements since 1916, the parish school in many parts of the country still serves as the heart of its locality and the people that reside there. It is probably the only vibrant communal institution left that can act as the gatherer of such heritage material. 

 

Donkey & Trap, McEvoy family, Roscommon, 1909

The BEO project has been in operation for a number of years at this stage and has provided a lovely way particularly for the Irish Diaspora to re-connect with history of their youth, or that of their parents or grandparents. 

Honeymooning in Killarney (Carmel Garvey), 1957

Participating schools as well as heritage and active retirement groups are encouraged to host social evening BEO local heritage events for members of the local community, where attendees bring along or enjoy viewing images and artifacts of their school and geographical area in times past that offer a unique insight into an older Ireland of communal harvesting, livestock markets, religious devotion, a belief in banshees and fairies, turf cutting, dance halls, the ‘Big House’ and the small family farm. Much of this priceless heritage material brought to the school or community hall is often kept in family photo albums stored in attics, wardrobes and drawers often forgotten about as the years pass. 

 

Harvesting, Eyreville, co. Galway 1940s

The digitised images are then placed on a shared website for the benefit of present and future generations. There will be an information session for schools interested in taking part in the BEO project at 5pm on Tuesday next February 2^nd in the Galway Education Centre.

Scanning old photos. BEO Local Community Heritage Night, Lawrencetown School 2015

The Village School - the Heartbeat of Rural Ireland

Enjoying a communal meal, GAA Community Centre, Kiltormer June 2014

Last Saturday, I attended a wonderful 50th celebration of a school in the little village of Kiltormer in east Galway. Thanks to the herculean efforts of principal Grainne Dooley, the teaching staff of Margaret, Sean and Mary and their committee, the local population united in a supreme effort to celebrate, not just the opening of the present St. Patrick's National School in 1964, but even more to celebrate the meaning of 'community'.

Traditional musicians, GAA Community Centre, Kiltormer June 2014

There was an array of exciting events to mark the occasion: a parade, a communal mass, children's outdoor fun activities, a display of vintage farm machinery, a hurling match comprising players from across the decades; young traditional Irish musicians, an in-school local history museum and an exhibition of photographs of Kiltormer in times past.

Artifacts and old photographs on display, Kiltormer school celebrations, June 2014

I played a small role in this event by helping the school host an open community night where people from all across the locality brought in old photographs reflecting life in days gone by. 
These images are still being digitised, cleaned up and posted online as part of a digital heritage archive action known as BEO (Irish for Alive) which could become the most important national heritage project since the 1937 Irish Folklore Commission. It will reinforce the connections with the Irish Diaspora.

Eyreville demesne, 1930s

Like many towns and villages across rural Ireland, Kiltormer has been devastated by a high level of emigration exacerbated about by the economic collapse in 2008 that resulted from the activities of a greedy unpatriotic troika of property speculators, bankers and politicians. But the problem goes much deeper and further back in time, to 1973 when the state joined what was then known as the European Economic Community(EEC). The key characteristic of Ireland for over 5,000 years has been agriculture. But ever since the early 1970s, there has been a huge exodus of people away from farming as the policies of successive governments favoured the big rancher, supermarkets and agri-corporations at the expense of the family farm. This is not what the population expected- we were promised a sustainable agriculture that would give a living wage to farmers and their families.
The small manufacturing industries that once dominated rural towns have all but closed down as a result of cheap imports, with their localities failing to secure replacement jobs in the new technologies sectors such as biomedical and computing. 

Kiltormer village, 1932

Ghost Villages
Ireland in the 21st century has become a land of ghost townlands and villages as young people emigrate to Australia, Canada and elsewhere  to find employment.
As we the people and our descendants are being forced to pay for the gambling debts of financial and property speculators and their cronies, austerity measures are leading to the closure  of Garda stations. post offices, pubs, marts and schools across the country. 

Kiltormer School, 1959-'60

The decline of the small rural school
Schools are the lifeblood of rural Ireland.  Without schools, communities die. More than ever before, we need to ensure that the schools stay open so that the heritage, stories and memories of a hinterland are still treasured and passed on to a new generation; and the children and their parents continue to transform the word 'community' into a living reality. 

Carrowreagh Bog

Hopefully the politicians of this land wake up soon to the destructive nature of their economic and social polices on rural Ireland. So well done to St. Patrick's National School Kiltormer for the wonderful work that they are doing to help reverse what can feel like a terminal decline. Giving people a sense of place will give them an identity,  a sense of value, of belonging and of purpose. Everyone involved is a true patriot.

Hurling match, Kiltormer Celebrations, June 2014

What did the Irish Ever do for Us? The Americas

An Irishman's Guide
to the History of the World- 'The Americas'

Irish- First Europeans to Discover America?
The great Irish writer Oscar Wilde once said, “Of course America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.”
There is a certain grain of truth in this quote. For it was probably Irish monks who were the first Europeans to sail to the Americas via the Faroes Island and Iceland as they travelled too far distant lands to seek a sacred solitude that they felt would bring them closer to God. The modern explorer Tim Severin successfully sailed across the Atlantic in a leather-skin boat that was a replica of one that could have been used by the sixth century Irish saint Brendan the Navigator whose sea voyages were renowned throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. The Celtic North Atlantic routes were probably sourced by Norse from captive Irish monks who followed their paths to Iceland and possibly Greenland and later America (Vinland).
The medieval Icelandic Landnamabok (Book of Settlements) mention Vikings exploring west of Iceland being met by indigenous peoples (Skraelings) who told them of Irish priests (papar) living amongst them.

Was the First European born in America Irish?
On the premise that all the Celtic monks living in these northern climes were celibate (unlikely!) or at least did not take their female partners across the Atlantic, the first European born on the continent came from the Viking settlement of L’Anse aux Meadows on Newfoundland in circa 1000AD. Yet though the child’s father was Norse, it is quite possible that the baby’s mother was one of his Irish slaves(thralls) forced to submit to his lusty desires. A not uncommon occurrence at the time; female Celtic slaves were common and highly sought after by Vikings. Modern excavations uncovered Irish style clothes pins amongst the artifacts found in the Norse settlement.

'Hy Brasil' – An Mythical Celtic Land
Later still, Hy Brasil – which according to Irish legends is the name of a mythical land located the far side of the Atlantic - appears on European maps, inspiring voyages of Exploration and Discoveries as well as giving its name to a part of South America.

The Irish Liberation of the Americas - A Forgotten HistoryThroughout the centuries, the Irish have made a notable contribution to their new American homelands in many fields including music, architecture, politics, religion, education, law, human rights and business. But it was in the struggles for freedom from European colonial rule stretching from the United States to Chile that the Irish left a permanent mark on the history and folklore of a whole continent. Conscious of their own struggles in their native Ireland against foreign occupation, Irish men became leaders of liberation movements in at least nine American countries.
Of course there were many Irish that sadly took on the role of the oppressor and committed great crimes against native Indians, slaves and laborers. But these 'bad apples' were more than compensated for (I hope!) by their more enlightened fellow countrymen.
Yet this proud Celtic role has oftentimes been overlooked becoming lost in the mists of time even in Ireland. So starting with Mexico, I hope that my contributions here will hopefully go some way to rekindling interest in the Celtic elements of the history of the New World.

What did the Irish Ever do for Us? Part 4 - Mexico

Was Zorro Irish?
Zorro is considered by many to be the greatest folk hero in Latin America. The dashing noble swordsman from Mexico was a champion of the downtrodden natives who fought and stole from the cruel Spanish aristocracy, giving his booty to the poor. It was not only the riches of the colonial nobility that he robbed. For many of their young beautiful daughters, married and unmarried, lost their hearts to this Latino equivalent of Robin Hood.
But amazingly, the exploits of this legendary Hispanic hero could well be based on the true story of William Lambert (aka Lampart or Lombardo) a seventeenth century soldier of fortune who hailed from County Wexford. William fled from Ireland to serve in an Irish regiment of the Spanish Army, received commendations for his bravery and eventually found himself posted to Mexico. However he eventually became disgusted with the harsh colonial regime and empathised with the oppressed peasants and the native Indians. Declared a traitor, he became a target of the feared Spanish Inquisition, the guardians of Spanish rule in 'New Spain'. Though captured he made a dramatic escape from prison and in true Hollywood style daubed the walls of Mexico City with autographed anti-Spanish graffiti!
His adventures of daring and intrigue continued for many more years. Yet even William’s final arrest only further enhanced his romantic folk stature. For he was finally caught while making love to the wife of the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico, the Marquis Lope Diez de Caderyta!!
This time though there was no happy ending and the Inquisition had him burnt at the stake in the Zocalo the main square of Mexico City.

Mexico Granted Independence by an Irishman!
Buried in Mexico City’s cathedral is the man accredited with granting independence to Mexico. General Juan O’Donoju O'Rian (O’Donohue O’Ryan) was born in Seville of Irish parents. He was the last Spanish Viceroy of Mexico who decided soon after his arrival in the country in July 1821 to negotiate with the rebels when he saw how little support Spain had. On September 28th, he signed the Act of Independence.
O’Donoju became a member of the Mexican Provisional Ruling Junta. But he died 11 days later of pleurisy.

Defenders of Mexico Against Yankee Imperialism-
the Irish Boys of St. Patrick’s BattalionIn a massive land grab, the United States in 1848 invaded and annexed the northern territories of Mexico- California, Nevada, Utah and parts of New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Wyoming. During the war, most of Mexico’s army units did not acquite themselves well due to the incompetent leadership of Santa Anna. However one unit was noted for its bravery, namely the Los

Batallon de San Patricio or St. Patrick’s Battalion. Made up of Irish and other deserters from the US Army under the leadership of a Private John O’Reilly from Clifden in County Galway Ireland, its soldiers later paid dearly for switching sides to align themselves with a people that like them were both Catholic and of poor peasant stock fighting an invading Protestant army.

It is estimated that the Irish then made up circa 24% of the US army with another 23% coming from countries other than the United States. Many had been recruited straight off the ships as they landed in the eastern ports filled with Irish emigrants fleeing the Great Famine then devastating their homeland. The prospect of immediately securing good pay, lodgings, and clothing in the US military and citizenship understandably proved attractive to many of these starving Irish.
However their arrival as part of an foreign army invading Catholic Mexico shocked many especially when rape, murder and pillage occurred. The anti-Catholic propaganda of the American press did not help either. Nor did the harsh treatment that was meted out disproportionally to the Irish soldiery or ‘potato heads’ as they were at times insultingly called by their commanding officers. Approximately 500 (including Germans, Scots, English and a few escaped African slaves) deserted and became part of the Mexican Army serving under O’Reilly’s command. They marched under the flag of St. Patrick. The Mexicans nicknamed them the “Los Colorados Valientes” or “the brave redheads”, as so many had the Celtic features of freckles and red hair.The San Patricios performed well in their engagements against the Americans particularly at the Battle of Buena Vista, a battle that could have been won had not Santa Anna decided to withdraw. But the Irish were finally defeated at the battle for the convent of Churubusco. Though they pulled down the white flag hosted by their Mexican allies on a number of occasions, the 87 surviving brigade members out of a force of 220 eventually surrendered. Their treatment was particularly cruel. 16 were executed immediately. A further fifty condemned prisoners were taken to Mexico City. Nooses were placed around their necks and they were kept waiting for hours under the blazing sun until the US Flag flew over the last enemy stronghold of Chapultec fortress signifying its capture. Then the carts were pulled from under them and they hung until they died. 19 others including O’Reilly escaped the death penalty as they had switched sides before they formal declaration of war with Mexico was issued. But they were given 50 lashes, branded with the letter D on their faces and forced to bury their dead comrades at Churubusco.
The San Patricos have since become national heroes in Mexico and their story forms part of the history curriculum taught in schools. A memorial was erected in their honour in San Jacinta Plaza where Irish President Mary McAleese laid a wreath to their memory in 1997.
They have been praised in glowing terms by modern Hispanic revolutionaries such as subcommandante Marcos of the Zapatistas, the Mexican rebel movement.
Finally, a fine version of the song from musician David Rovics that celebrates the heroics of the St. Patrick's Battalion can be listened to by clicking here

First Mexican Ambassador to Britain was Irish!
Captain Tomas Murphy of the Mexican Army was taken prisoner at the aforementioned Chapultec and narrowly escaped summary execution by American soldiers thinking he was a survivor of the San Patricos due to his Irish name.In fact he was the son of another Tomas Murphy who was of Irish descent and became the first Mexican ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1827.
Thomas was probably a member of the Irish-Spanish merchant family of Murphys who traded from the major Mexican port of Vera-Cruz from at least the early eighteenth century.

Mexico’s greatest actor-Son of an Irish revolutionary
Hollywood legend Anthony Rudolfo Oxaca Quinn (1915-2001) was born in Chihuahua, Mexico the son of an Irishman Frank (Francisco) Quinn and a Indian Mexican mother (Manuela).
According to his biography, his father died fighting with the renowned revolutionary Pancho Villa.
Anthony appeared in over 200 films his most notable role being the lead in 'Zorba the Greek'.
He was also an accomplished painter, sculptor, boxer and architect.
(Some other biographies of his life state that his father was Mexican born to an Irishman of the same name).

Irish Origins of ‘Streets of Laredo’
The Streets of Laredo is one of the best loved Cowboy ballads of all time. Laredo was part of Mexico until the 1830s. A twin city just on the far side of the Rio Grande bears the same name (Nueva Laredo). The song has been recorded by many well-known artists including Johnny Cash, Joan Baez and Arlo Guthrie and tells the story of a dying cowboy pleading with those that listen not to follow his life of crime.
But it is almost a direct copy of a much older traditional British song entitled Locke Hospital recorded by Irish musician Christy Moore on his album Prosperous (1972). See relevant lyrics below. Locke hospitals became associated with British garrison troops for the treatment of venereal disease. Christy believes that the tune is Irish. Which should come as no surprise as the Irish formed up to 40% of the British army up until World War One.

Some verses from the Streets of Laredo

As I walked out on the streets of Laredo.
As I walked out on Laredo one day,
I spied a poor cowboy wrapped in white linen,
Wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay.

Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin.
Six dance-hall maidens to bear up my pall.
Throw bunches of roses all over my coffin.
Roses to deaden the clods as they fall.

Then beat the drum slowly, play the Fife lowlyPlay the dead march as you carry me along.
Take me to the green valley, lay the sod o'er me,
I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.

Some corresponding verses from the Locke Hospital

As I was a-walking down by the Locke Hospital
Cold was the morning and dark was the day
I spied a young squaddie wrapped up in old linen
Wrapped up in old linen as cold as the day

Get six of me comrades to carry my coffin
Get six of me comrades to carry me on high
And let every one hold a bunch of white roses
So no-one will notice as we pass them by
So play the drums slowly and play the fifes lowly
Sound a dead march as you carry him along
And over his coffin throw a bunch of white laurels
For he's a young soldier cut down in his prime.

To hear Johnny Cash singing 'Streets of Laredo', click here

Gringo- Latino slang for ‘White Americans’ Comes from Irish Song
'Gringo' is the term used across Latin America to refer to white Anglo-Americans particularly those from the United States.
It is likely that the word originated during the American-Mexican War of 1846-1848 probably from Irish troops of the US Army or the San Patrico Brigade singing the popular traditional Irish song ‘Green Grow the Lilacs O’ as they marched along.
To the Spanish speaking natives, ‘Green Grow the Lilacs O’ sounded to their ears as if it was ‘Green Goes’ or ‘Gringoes’

O’Brien- Mexican Revolutionary General & President of Irish descent

With a name like O’Brien, the revolutionary general and President from 1920 until his assassination in 1924, Alvaro O’Brien or Obregon just has to have Irish ancestry!
Ciudad Obregon (meaning O’Brien’s City in English) in the northern state of Sonora is one of many places called after him.

Fox-Another Irish President of Mexico
Vicente Fox Quesada was President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. His grandfather, Joseph Fox, was an Irish immigrant who migrated to Cincinnati and later to Guanajuato in the 1890s.
Fox was the first president to be elected from an opposition party since that other Mexican-Irish lad, Alvaro O’Brien in 1920.

Two of his daughters spent part of their education in school in Ireland.

Founder of Mexico's First TV station & popular Mexican Newspaper was Irish
Rómulo O'Farrill (Farrell) Senior founded the newspaper Novedades and Mexico's first commercial television station in 1949 which later became known as Telesistemas Mexicano and later Televisa. His grandfather was a Stephen O'Farrell from County Longford. His son Romulo O'Farrill Jnr (1917-2006) became an even more powerful and influential business person with strong links to the ruling party(PRI). He was Irish honourary consul to Mexico for circa 20 years.

Architect and painter Juan O'Gorman (1905—82) was the son of painter and mining engineer Cecil Crawford O'Gorman who arrived in Mexico from Ireland in 1895.
Juan’s greatest mural and easel paintings focused on historical, cultural and nationalistic themes and include the murals in the National Museum of History in Chapultepec Castle Mexico City and the huge murals (4,000 square meters) of historical scenes of the Central Library of the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Interestingly, his fantastic mural at Mexico City airport (1937–38), was removed in 1939 by a conservative government who considered it too anti-religious and anti-fascist.
Edmundo O'Gorman (1906 -1995) was another son of Cecil who established himself as one of Mexico’s famous writers, historians and philosophers.

Sean Mallory- Fictitious Irish Republican Hero of the Mexican Revolution
The 1971 Hollywood film- A Fistful of Dynamite directed by Sergio Leone and music by Ennio Morricone- starred American actor James Coburn as Sean Mallory, an Irish republican explosives expert on the run from the British who came to Mexico to help the native revolutionaries during the Mexican Revolution of 1910-1920.

The movie contains more radical and social commentary than any other Leone film whose works include 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'.

Hugo Oconór (Hugh O' Connor) was a military governor of Northern Mexico (including what is now the US State of Texas), was Spanish viceroy of New Spain from 1767 until 1777.

Irish Famine caused by Mexico!
After all that we Irish did for Mexico you would think that the country would be extremely grateful to the Emerald Isle. Not a bit of it! For the greatest famine in Irish history leading to the deaths of up to 1.5 millions and the forced departure of an estimated 2 million peoples was caused by Mexico!
For it was in the highlands of central Mexico that the pathogen 'Phytophthora infestans' originated that caused the disease which destroyed the potato crop in Ireland during 1845-1852.
It was the highly nutritious potato that provided the only food crop for most of the majority poverty stricken population of Ireland who cultivated it on their tiny strips of land. They were Irish farmers thrown off their ancestral lands by British colonists and forced to live as tenants on small holdings by their new landlords who used most of the Irish countryside to graze cattle for the export market. While a few of the landowning aristocracy were progressive property owners who established vibrant village enterprises and undertook extensive building programmes for local communities such as Lord Ashtown in Woodlawn Galway, many more were absentee landlords who enjoyed the 'high life' in Britain financed by charging exorbitant rents to their Irish poverty-stricken tenants.

References: Guinness Book of Irish Facts & Feats, Ciaran Deane. Irish on the Inside, Tom Hayden, Verso

Famous Irish Quotes & Sayings Part 8

Patriotism is your conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it.
George Bernard Shaw

I just love that quote from Shaw; it should provide a reality check to us all.
We have no say in where we are born and our birthplace confers on us no special powers or higher intellect. No matter what our nationality, creed or race, we all bleed red blood when our arms are cut.
Though extremely proud of my Irish pedigree, nevertheless I despise those of my countrymen who feel that today they are a step above all others & that being Irish gives them a special licence to misbehave especially when abroad. It is great that Ireland's new found wealth has given our people a growing sense of national self-confidence and that we now aspire to be world leaders in so many different fields. Yet our very successes have made quite a few of us, notably those of our young folk who have never experienced poverty, ooze almost a racial arrogance which is certainly new to the Irish character.
Yet an understanding of our nation's history should have instilled a deep sense of moral humility and respect to all those that are less privileged than ourselves. It is still in living memory that the Irish were despised in countries such as USA and Britain where they are now feted. So much of the positive elements of our society's traditional caring nature, its music and literature were shaped by centuries of struggle against oppression. These have oftentimes been our greatest gifts to the world at large; we have shown that anyone can overcome adversity and even do it with a glint in the eye and a lilt in one's step!
But though we relied largely on our own efforts to climb out of the gutter, nevertheless we were often given a helping hand by others even from those we claimed were our enemies. The 'Good Samaritans' came from distant shores spurred on by their own sense of injustice- I think of courageous individuals from modern England such as Gareth Pierce, Ken Livingstone, Clare Short, Tony Benn and Chris Mullen who took up Irish-related Human Rights causes such as the 'Birmingham Six' & 'Guildford Four' when our own political leaders were too afraid to do so.
"The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: 'If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?' " Martin Luther King


It is worthwhile remembering that all nations and cultures have their brief moments of glory and a place in the Sun, but what follows can often be long periods of great loss and subjugation.

Those countries now viewed as poverty stricken and underdeveloped such as Cambodia, Laos, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt, Guatemala, Mongolia, Peru, Sudan, Armenia, Yemen and Ethiopia were once the centres of great civilisations that contributed positive elements to world culture.

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".

Martin Luther King

What did the Irish Ever Do For Us?

An Irishman's Guide
to the History of the World

In my travels overseas I am often accosted by locals in an Irish-themed bar -sometimes after they have consumed four pints of Guinness, two Jameson whiskies and one large glass of Bailey's Cream Liqueur before completing what seems like a never-ending rendition of 'The Irish Rover'- and asked the eternal question, "OK then, what the hell did the Irish ever do for us?"

Sadly my highly illuminating replies too often get lost in the noises and bustle of a busy pub night. So in order to solve this problem and allow me to enjoy a pint in peace and comfort in the future, I decided to publish here a 'History of the World as told by an Irishman'.

So...
Though brutally oppressed and occupied by those nasty British for over 800 years, nevertheless we Irish managed to take time out from our own endless struggles to help raise the torch of freedom and learning amongst nations and peoples across the globe. Where ever there was conflict, revolution or famine you can be sure that there was some bright young thing from Ireland’s green shamrock shore doing their best to help bring peace, justice or much needed merriment to troubled lands.

Over the next few weeks in a spirit of global enlightenment, this website will focus in on individual countries and nations to highlight the great debt of gratitude that the world’s population owe to the Celtic Irish & Anglo-Irish. We will view the planet through ‘green-tinted’ glasses.
Countries covered will include Mexico, Romania, India, United States, Israel, Australia, Scotland, Greece, Spain, France and virtually the whole South American continent.

The History of Austria as seen through 'Green-tinted' Glasses

As the university research institute (DERI) that I work in has had a strong Austrian input over the years, I decided therefore to start our tour of the world with a focus on the ‘Jewel of the Danube’.

The image of Austria conjures up the beauty of Vienna, the famed ecclesiastical architecture of Salzburg, the economic importance of the city's salt mines, the country’s Catholic heritage, its proud tradition as a centre of learning, its once great military prowess that enabled it to withstand the constant merciless onslaught of the Turkish hordes and other nasty invaders such as Napoleon and build a great Empire that straddled across central Europe.
Well without the Irish, none of these successes might ever have occurred!

Vienna, Bertie Ahern & the Irish Government connection

The land that is now called Austria was inhabited by Celtic tribes long before the arrival of the Romans circa 2,000 years ago.
The name ‘Vienna’ is Celtic in origin and could possibly have the same roots as ‘Fianna’ a mythological elite band of warriors led by the Irish hero Fionn MacCumhaill that gave the name to today’s main Irish political party –‘Fianna Fáil’ (English= ‘warriors of destiny’).
However the subsequent arrivals (Romans & later Germans) could not quite get their tongues around the ‘f’ sound and mispronounced it as a ‘v’.

Irish Bring Urban Life, Business Acumen & Learning to Austria

During the ‘Dark Ages’ after the fall of the Roman Empire to marauding German tribes, Austria was left desolated, its once great cities with their libraries and manufacturing enterprises reduced to dust, its economy destroyed. The poor natives lost the ability to write, to enjoy the arts and to take part in international trade. It was a time when there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Hope, happiness and learning only returned to this God-forsaken land in the 7th century with the arrival of a merry band of brave young Irish lads and lassies. Their leader was a highly intelligent and saintly entrepreneur known to history as St. Rupert who had been sent by the Duke of Bavaria to evangelise the region after his successful efforts in Germany. As well as founding the abbey of St. Peter’s in the ruins of the old Roman town of Juvavia along the River Danube, his establishment of a salt mine nearby gave the area its new name of Salzburg.
Though the French claim Rupert as one of their own, the evidence reinforces his Irish ancestry. Rupert took on the dual title of ‘abbot’ and ‘bishop’, a feature of the Irish Celtic Church of the time.

Irish Women do their bit for Austria

Furthermore it was written that Rupert once returned from a trip home bringing with him his sister (or niece) who went by the name of Erintrude and who established Nonnberg, the world’s oldest convent. ‘Erin’ or ‘Eirinn’ is the Irish Gaeilge term for Ireland. Furthermore promoting women to positions of authority in the church was also a contemporary Irish characteristic. Female emancipation appeared early in Irish society!


Builder of Salzburg Cathedral was an Irishman
Over 50 yrs after Rupert's death, the city’s bishopric was granted to another Irish man Saint Virgil (trans. ‘Fergal’ in Gaeilge Irish). Fergal O’Neill laid the foundations of Salzburg Cathedral (where his statue and that of St. Rupert still stands at the entrance) and is reputed to have transported the bones of two famous Irish female saints(St. Brigit & St. Samthana) to its hallowed grounds. Just goes to show that few Irishmen, even celibate saints, can survive without their womenfolk (dead or alive)!
Nicknamed ‘the Geometer’, Virgil was a clever lad and renowned scientist who was vehemently condemned by his contemporary St. Boniface (an Englishman of course!) for his statements on the Earth being round and on the existence of other worlds! A man well ahead of this time.

Austria's First Patron Saint: Murdered Irish Tourist

Sometimes the Austrians could be a xenophobic lot taking their frustrations out on innocent foreign tourists. One such unlucky traveller was an Irishman by the name of Colman passing through the country in 1012 on pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Palestine. Unfortunately some hostile locals at Stockerau near Vienna accused him of being a spy. He was tortured and hanged. The fact that he couldn't speak German and hadn't a clue about what he was being accused of didn't help his survival chances! His accusers soon learned they had made a big mistake and had killed an innocent man. Mortified, impressed by the Irishman's bravery under torture and noticing that people were being miraculously healed from disease whilst praying at his graveside they soon had Colman (or Koloman) declared the country's first patron saint.
Colman became the patron saint for hanged men.
Sadly the incident didn't improve Austrians' attitudes towards tourists. In the next century the great warrior Richard the Lionheart, after fighting wars in France, Sicily, Cyprus and the Holy Land as well as surviving shipwreck, was kidnapped by Duke Leopold and his troops near Vienna and held until a king's ransom was paid by his mother.

‘Sound of Music’ & how the Irish Taught the Austrians to Sing
(& probably how to Dance!)(...The Hills were Alive with the Sound of Irish Music...)

The internationally acclaimed Roger and Hammerstein musical ‘The Sound of Music’ is based on the true life story of the Austrian ‘Von Trap’ family. The story’s main protagonist is Maria Kutschera who, while a novice at a convent, was asked to teach the children of the widowed war hero Commandant Georg Ludwig von Trap. Her great gift was singing. Ludwig was so enamoured with Maria that he later married her. The rest as they say is history.
The convent that Maria came from was in fact Nonnberg founded by the Irish woman Erintrude in the early 8th century. The chanting of daily evening vespers by Erintrude and her female companions was obviously the beginning of the (Austrian) hills coming alive with the sound of music.

Jolly Group of Dancing Irish Nuns?

Austrian Navy- an Irish invention!

Yes, landlocked Austria once had a large powerful navy whose founder was an Irishman. Up until 1918, Austria controlled a vast empire stretching from the southern Poland to the Adriatic coast along what is now Croatia and Italy.
George Forbes from Granard in Co. Longford was made Vice-Admiral by Emperor Charles VI in 1719 and established the first Austrian Habsburg naval force in the Adriatic waters.

Austrian's Most Decorated War Hero- had Irish ancestry
Known as the ‘Eagle of Trieste’, Gottfried von Banfield was one of World War One’s most famous flying aces. A naval officer and founder of the Austrian air force, he was the last recipient of the Austria-Hungarian Empire’s Order of Maria Theresa. Gottfried was a member of a well-known Irish-Austrian military family, his grandfather being a Banfield from Castle Lyons in Co. Cork.

“The more Irish in the Austrian (military) service the better…”

On the principle of the ‘enemy of my enemy is by friend’, hundreds of thousands of Irish during the 16th, 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries served as soldiers in the armies of European powers at war with an English state that was occupying their homeland. Their departure from Ireland was looked on with great sorrow by the families they left behind who romanticised them as wild geese flying across the seas to distant lands many never to return. Hence the popular term for these Irishmen - 'The Wild Geese'. They found though a hearty welcome in the armies of the continental empires of their Catholic coreligionists where their military prowess was much valued. This was especially true in the Austrian Habsburg Empire where many Irishmen reached the ranks of field marshals, generals and military governors and whose descendants continued to serve the monarchy until its collapse in 1918.
The Irish American writer Brian McGinn, who has written extensively of the Irish that served in foreign armies, gave details of a letter written by Emperor Francis 1 (husband of Maria Theresa) in 1765 which summarised the esteem that they they were held in by the Habsburgs: "The more Irish officers in the Austrian service the better; our troops will always be disciplined; an Irish coward is an uncommon character; and what the natives of Ireland even dislike from principle, they generally will perform through a desire for glory."

St. Patrick’s Day Palace Party , Vienna 1766

How influential these Irish became in Austria can be shown by a review of the attendees at the world’s first recorded St. Patrick’s Day house (well actually palace!) party that took place on March 17th 1766 in Vienna hosted by the Spanish ambassador to the Imperial court.
First of all the host himself, Ambassador Count Demetrio O’Mahony, was the son of the Irish war-hero Daniel O’Mahony who won international acclaim for his bravery fighting with the Irish Brigade at the Battle of Cremona in 1702.
The guest list included Count Francis Maurice Lacy, President of the Imperial Council of War, along with generals O'Kelly, O'Donnell, Browne, Maguire, McElligott, and Plunkett as well as dozens of other Irish serving as governors, privy counsellors and army.
It must have been one hell of an ex-pats party!

Loss of Irish Soldiery Leads to Collapse of Austrian Empire

This tradition of Irish men attaining positions of high military authority continued into the next century. Lavall Nugent and Thomas Brady, two Irish officers in the Austrian Army who served with distinction during the Napoleonic Wars were both conferred with the rank of Field-Marshal.
Another Irish Field-Marshal, Andreas von O'Reilly, was Governor of Vienna in 1809 when he was left with no choice but to surrender the city to the more powerful French Army of Napoleon.
However by the middle of the 19th century, the flow of Irish to the armies of Austria had dried up as they emigrated instead to the Americas and parts of the British Empire. This loss of talented Celtic warrior talent may explain why the Austrians were defeated in World War One and their Empire crumbled- Just a theory!


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Popular Nationalist Support of Catholic Empress Visits to Ireland Scares British Regime. Leads to Government Banning her from country

Empress Elisabeth (Sissi) was the ‘Princess Diana’ celebrity of her day. Beautiful and stylish, she abhorred court convention, became an international fashion icon, loved equestrian pursuits, travelled continuously and in the process made many of her holiday destinations ‘must see’ tourist locations.

Not surprisingly, she was intensely disliked by her husband's old-fashioned conservative royal family but was adored by many of the ordinary people of the Habsburg empire.

In 1879, she spent a month hunting in Ireland staying at Lord Longford’s residency of Summerhill House in county Meath. In spite of the agrarian unrest caused by bad harvests, the increasing evictions of tenants by a hated Anglo-Irish aristocracy and the beginnings of a Land League campaign for a revolution in land ownership, crowds enthusiastically greeted Elisabeth wherever she travelled in the country. According to historian Tony Canavan, she had a horse called St. Patrick, owned an Irish wolfhound and wore a sprig of shamrock on St. Patrick’s Day.

Empress Elisabeth with her Irish wolfhound 'Shadow'

As the Empress of the greatest Catholic power in the world, the British regime feared that public support for her from a largely downtrodden Catholic, nationalist and angry peasantry could translate into calls for a Habsburg Catholic monarchy in Ireland as a way of ending foreign British Protestant rule. It was well known that Elisabeth was a sympathiser of the Hungarian rebellion that led in 1867 to the loss of sole Austrian hegemony and the establishment of the dual Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

Elisabeth returned to Ireland for another month of hunting in 1880 but was prevented from doing so the following year by the British authorities.

Irishman Saves Emperor’s Life

Except for Louis XIV, Franz Josef had the longest reign (68 yrs) of any European monarch. But his time on the throne would have been one of the shortest of any Habsburg Emperor where it not for the fact that his life was saved by an Irishman. On 18 February 1853, an Imperial officer Maximilian Karl Lamoral O’Donnell was out walking with the Emperor when he foiled an assassination attempt by a Hungarian nationalist Janos Libenyi.

O'Donnell was a descendent of a distinguished family who had served as high ranking Imperial officers for decades and were part of the Irish soldiery known as the Wild Geese who, throughout the 17^th and 18^th century, escaped repressive English rule in Ireland in their tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) to serve in the armies of Spain, France, Portugal and Austria.

As a result of his endeavours, Maximilian was made an Imperial Count, conferred with the Commander's Cross of the Royal Order of Leopold, and the O'Donnell coat-of-arms was augmented by the initials and shield of the ducal House of Austria and the double-headed eagle of the Empire. These arms are still emblazoned on the portico of his residency at No. 2 Mirabel Platz in Salzburg.

Galwayman Secures Global Stardom for Austrian’s Most Popular Composer

In a country that is famed for its music composers, Johan Strauss Jr. can rightly claim to be its most popular due to the public appetite across the world for his waltzes that included such classics as The Blue Danube and Tales from the Vienna Woods. It was Johann who made the city of Vienna synonymous with dance music.

But it was an Irishman, Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore from Ballygar in County Galway, who made him an international star by bringing him to the United States of America to take part in the Boston International Music Festival where crowds of up to 120,000 watch performances in an outdoor coliseum. It began the trend that is still with us today of European musicians having to perform and ‘make it’ in the US in order to become global icons.

Gilmore himself was a composer who is recognised as the principal figure in 19^th century American music. Among his many achievements was the revamping of US military band music, the writing of the marching song ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’ (adopted from an old Irish song) , setting up Gilmore's Concert Garden in New York which became the Madison Square Garden and introducing the tradition of seeing in the New Year in Times Square.