E92 Irish Latin Americans and the San Patricio Battalion

Gladio Free Europe

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Since the 17th century, nearly 10 million Irish people left their homes for an uncertain life abroad. While stories of Irish settlement in the United States and Canada are well-known, the lives of tens of thousands of Irish people who settled in Latin America are much more obscure.

In the first Gladio Free Europe solo episode, Liam runs through the long history of the Irish presence in Latin America. As early as the time of Shakespeare many Irish people began pledging their service to the formidable Spanish Empire, out of desperation, defiance, or duty to their Catholic faith. These Irish volunteers, later termed "the Wild Geese," were deployed on Spanish military adventures across the entire known world, but saw their most notable success in the American colonies. Some Irishmen would settle in Latin America as members of the colonial elite, while others would shake the foundations of the Spanish empire and push toward independence.

The Irish experience in Latin America would have its most brilliant moment in the middle of the 19th century, after Spain had been evicted from the American continent and a new hegemon emerged. At the start of the Mexican-American war, a group of mistreated Irish recruits and survivors of the great famine defected from American service to join the enemy. Driven by both Catholic and republican ideals, these men would form their own unit to defend the Mexican state against United States aggression. Although the San Patricio Battalion would be short-lived, they played a crucial role in halting the American advance and their sacrifice is a testament to over two centuries of Hispanic-Hibernian cooperation.

Ending song: El Caballo by The Chieftains