The definitive history of the Wild Geese including the Revolutionary War, the French Revolution, and Napoleon's Irish Legion.
Synopsis
Ireland has been a rebellious and troublesome colony
since the 12th century English Conquest and the Irish military tradition
of soldiering abroad in Continental Europe began after failed
rebellions and religious discrimination at home. Following defeat in The
Jacobite War (1689-91), which was fought between Jacobite supporters
of the deposed Catholic King James and supporters of the Protestant
King William, the Irish army withdrew to France in what became known
romantically as; 'The Flight of the Wild Geese.' The Irish were formed
into units called 'Irish brigades' in France and Spain. There were also
Irish regiments formed in Austria, along with a long tradition of Irish
service in Bavaria and in Catherine the Great’s Imperial Russia and
beyond.
Irish troops took part in most of the defining battles of
the 18th and early 19th centuries and served all over Europe, in India,
Africa, Canada and alongside General Washington in the American
Revolutionary War. Irish Brigades Abroad covers the period from King
James II's reign of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland
in 1685, until the disbandment of the Irish Brigades in France and
Spain. The book looks at the origins, formation, recruitment, and the
exploits of the Irish regiments, including their long years of
campaigning from the War of the Grand Alliance in 1688 right through to
the Napoleonic Wars in 1815. What emerges is a picture of the
old-fashioned virtues of honor, chivalry, integrity and loyalty, of
adventure and sacrifice in the name of a greater cause.
AuthorStephen McGarry is an author and historian and lives
in Dublin, Ireland. He spent many years living in Belgium where he
discovered its links with Irish history, particularly to the Irish
Brigades. He has been researching the subject for many years, both in
Ireland and across Europe.
Reviews
'Not since J.C. O'Callaghan's 'History of the
Irish Brigades in the Service of France'...has there been such a
comprehensive compilation of the Irish Brigades who fought across the
Continent...making it every military historian's must-have book on the
Irish Brigades.'-An Cosantoir, the Irish Defence Forces Magazine.
'The
book has become the first stand-alone history written in nearly 150
years...and looks at subjects including the first Jacobite Rising, the
Flight of the Wild Geese, the French Revolution and Napoleon's Irish
Legion.' TheJournal.ie