Irish Brigade (France)
Irish Brigade | |
---|---|
French Royal Army | |
Type | Infantry |
Size | Three to six regiments |
Motto(s) | Semper et ubique Fidelis (Always and Everywhere Faithful) |
Colors | red |
Engagements | Nine Years' War |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | The Hon. Arthur Dillon Justin MacCarthy Thomas Arthur, comte de Lally, baron de Tollendal, maréchal de camp |
The Irish Brigade (
Formation
When
- Lord Mountcashel,
- Butler,
- Feilding,
- O'Brien, and
- Dillon's Regiment, commanded by Arthur Dillon.
The French reformed them and disbanded Butler's and Feilding's, incorporating their men into the remaining three regiments, which were:
- Mountcashel's
- O'Brien's, and
- Dillon's
These three regiments formed the first Irish Brigade in France and were known as Lord Mountcashel's Irish Brigade and served the French with distinction during the remainder of the Nine Years' War (1689–97).
Under the terms of the
Service
With the
The Irish Brigade became one of the elite units of the French Army.[4] While increasingly diluted by French and foreign recruits from elsewhere in Europe, its Irish-born officers and men often aspired to return to aid Ireland and regain their ancestral lands, as some did during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.[5]
Irish regiments participated in most of the major land battles fought by the French between 1690 and 1789, particularly
Units of the Irish Brigade took part in the
In the interim, however, the Brigade found itself briefly opposed to its Spanish counterpart in the
Irish regiments served in the
From January 1766 the
During the American War of Independence, the brigade participated in the
Recruitment
Until the Seven Years' War the British authorities had turned a blind eye to semi-organised recruitment within Ireland itself for the regiments of the Brigade. As long as the Irish troops were not employed against Britain or its allies, this was seen as a useful way of removing potentially discontented men of military age. In 1729 a confidential treaty between the French and British governments made provision for the engagement of 750 Irish recruits provided that this activity remained unpublicized.[15] After the employment of the Irish Picquets in support of the Jacobite rising in Scotland showed the danger of such a policy, measures were taken to reduce the flow of Irish recruits to French service. Individual recruiters for the Irish Brigade were hanged if caught and during the Seven Years' War all British subjects in French service were declared traitors by Parliament and liable to execution if taken prisoner.[16] This draconian measure does not, however, appear to have been implemented, except where individual prisoners of war were identified as having first deserted from the British Army.
By the eve of the French Revolution in 1789 direct Irish recruitment into the Irish Brigade had diminished to a limited number having the motive and opportunity to make their own way to France. Irishmen serving in the British Army and taken prisoner during the French wars might find themselves being encouraged to literally change their coats and enlist in the Brigade. The shortfall in numbers was made up by the increasing substitution of German, Swiss and other foreigners, plus some Frenchmen. The officers, however, were mainly drawn from Franco-Irish families which might have existed for several generations since their founders had migrated to France. Distinguished military service led to such families being accepted into the French aristocracy while retaining their Irish names and consciousness of origin.
Uniforms and flags
The Irish Brigade wore red coats throughout the eighteenth century with different facing colours to distinguish each regiment. It has been suggested that the red coat was an expression of their loyalty to the Stuart claimants to the throne of Britain and Ireland. However, uniforms of this colour were widely worn by foreign regiments in the French service, notably those recruited in Switzerland.[17] The use of Saint George's Cross on all the Brigade's flags reflected their acceptance of the central importance of James III's claim to the Crown of England.
Details of individual regiments were:
- Buckeley Infanterie. Red coat, collar and lining, dark green cuffs and waistcoat with white (i.e. pewter) buttons.
- Clare Infanterie. Red coat and waistcoat, yellow facings, white buttons.
- Dillon Infanterie. Red coat and waistcoat, no collar, black cuffs yellow (i.e. bronze buttons.
- Roth Infanterie. Red coat, no collar. Blue cuffs, lining, waistcoat and breeches, yellow buttons.
- Berwick Infanterie. Red coat and waistcoat, black collar and cuffs, white lining, double vertical pocket flaps, yellow buttons, six on each pocket flap.
- Lally Infanterie. Red coat, bright green collar, cuffs and waistcoat, yellow buttons.[18]
The 1791 provisional regulations, on the eve of the disestablishment of the Irish Brigade, gave black facings to all four regiments with only minor distinctions to distinguish each unit.[19]
Most of their
Language
Some officers of the Irish Brigade are believed to have cried out Cuimhnígí ar Luimneach agus ar fheall na Sasanach![21] ("Remember Limerick and Saxon perfidy") at the battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Modern research by Eoghan Ó hAnnracháin claims that it is very doubtful if the regiments would also have been chanting in Irish, a language unknown to probably a majority of the brigade at the time.[22] Others strongly dispute this, as over the course of 100 years new recruits were brought into the brigade mostly from the Irish-speaking regions of West Munster, the homeland of, among others the O'Connell family of Derrynane House. Stephen McGarry also makes the point in his book Irish Brigades Abroad that Irish was widely spoken in the Irish regiments of France.[23] Daniel Charles O'Connell was the uncle of The Liberator Daniel O'Connell and was the last Colonel of the French Irish Brigade in 1794 and rose to general rank. The O'Connells were native Munster Irish speakers and members of the dispossessed Gaelic nobility of Ireland. According to official French Royal Army regulations, officers of the Irish Brigade regiments had to be Irish, half of whom had to be born in Ireland and the other half born of Irish descent in France.[24] In practice by the outbreak of the French Revolution most serving officers of the Brigade fell into the second category.
Seamus MacManus shows in his book The Story of The Irish Race (1921):
"In truth, it was not the "Wild Geese" who forgot the tongue of the Gael or let it perish. We are told that the watchwords and the words of command in the "Brigade" were always in Irish and that officers who did not know the language before they entered the service found themselves of necessity compelled to learn it."[25]
End of the Irish Brigade
The Brigade ceased to exist as a separate and distinct entity on 21 July 1791. Along with the other non-Swiss foreign units, the Irish regiments underwent "nationalization" at the orders of the National Assembly. This involved their being assimilated into the regular French Army as line infantry; losing their traditional titles, practices, regulations and uniforms.[26] The initial (early 1791) restructuring of the army had already seen the Dillon Regiment become the 87e Regiment, Berwick the 88e, and Walsh the 92e.[27] The 92nd Infantry Regiment remains in active service the French Army today, having seen action in the Napoleonic Wars, the Franco-Prussian War, and both the World Wars.[28]
Gentlemen, we acknowledge the inappreciable services that France has received from the Irish Brigade, in the course of the last 100 years; services that we shall never forget, though under an impossibility on requiting them. Receive this Standard as a pledge of our remembrance, a monument of our admiration, and our respect, and in future, generous Irishmen, this shall be the motto of your spotless flag: 1692–1792, Semper et ubique Fidelis.
The members of the Irish Brigade had historically sworn loyalty to the King of France, not to the French people or their new republic of 1792. In 1792 some elements of the Brigade, who had rallied to the émigré Royalist forces, were presented with a "farewell banner" bearing the device of an Irish Harp embroidered with shamrocks and fleurs-de-lis.
Of the two senior Dillon officers who remained in the
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-8139-3833-2.
- ISBN 0-7190-0688-0, pp. 1–2. The army of Great Britain had an 'establishment' army from each of the three nations comprising it. At the accession of James II, the English establishment army was 8,665; the Irish establishment was 7,500 and the Scottish was 2,199
- ISBN 0-7190-0688-0, p.xiii.
- ^ McGarry, Stephen, Irish Brigades Abroad, Dublin 2013
- ISBN 0-8063-4835-6
- ISBN 0-1400-2576-6.
- ^ Glenshiel notes accessed Sept 2009
- ISBN 1-85182-805-2
- ^ Skrine, Francis Henry. Fontenoy and Great Britain's Share in the War of the Austrian Succession 1741–48. London, Edinburgh, 1906, p.373
- O'Callaghan, John Cornelius. History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France, London, 1870, p.359
- ^ McGarry, Stephen. Irish Brigades Abroad, Dublin, 2013, p. 94.
- ^ McGarry, Stephen. Irish Brigades Abroad, Dublin, 2013, p.135
- ^ O Ciardha, Eamonn, op cit., page 365.
- ^ Irish Soldiers In the American Revolutionary War, see Irish Soldiers In the American Revolutionary War
- ISBN 978-0-8139-3833-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8139-3833-2.
- ISBN 1-85532-623-X.
- ISBN 9780752492148.
- ISBN 2-203-14315-0
- ^ Mackinnon, Daniel.Origin and services of the Coldstream Guards, London 1883, Vol.1, p.145, "Irish (Foot) guards"
- O'Callaghan, John Cornelius. History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France, London, 1870, p. 358.
- ^ Eoghan Ó hAnnracháin, "Casualties in the Ranks of the Clare Regiment at Fontenoy", Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Number 99, 1994.
- ^ McGarry, Stephen, Irish Brigades Abroad, Dublin 2013 p. 31-2,
- ISBN 1-58545-122-3, p. 64, translated by G.F. Nafziger from the original 1882 French publication.
- ISBN 0-517-06408-1, p. 477
- ISBN 978-0-8139-3833-2.
- ISBN 1-84176-660-7
- ^ "The 92nd infantry regiment". French Embassy in Ireland - Ambassade de France en Irlande. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
- ^ List of officers – search for Dillon
References
- Childs, John. The army, James II, and the Glorious Revolution, Manchester, 1980, ISBN 0-7190-0688-0, pp. 1–2.
- Crowdy, Terry. "French Revolutionary Infantry 1789 – 1802", ISBN 1-84176-660-7
- Eoghan Ó hAnnracháin, Casualties in the Ranks of the Clare Regiment at Fontenoy, Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, Number 99, 1994.
- Funcken, Lilane et Fred. L'Uniforme et les Armes des Soldats de La Guerre en Dentelle ISBN 2-203-14315-0
- Mackinnon, Daniel. Origin and services of the Coldstream Guards, London 1883, Vol.I.
- McGarry, Stephen. Irish Brigades Abroad: From the Wild Geese to the Napoleonic Wars, The History Press, 2014. ISBN 1-845887-999
- Moulliard, Lucien, The French Army of Louis XIV, Nafziger Collection, 2004, ISBN 1-58545-122-3, p. 64, translated by G.F. Nafziger from the original 1882 French publication.
- O'Callaghan, John Cornelius. History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France, London, 1870.
- O Ciardha, Eamonn "Ireland and the Jacobite Cause, 1685–1766" (Four Courts, Dublin 2004) pp. 182, 235; ISBN 1-85182-805-2
- Prebble, John. Culloden, Penguin Books 1978
Literature
Stephen McGarry's Irish Brigades Abroad (Dublin, 2013 Kindle edition, paperback May 2014) is a new book on the subject and finally updates John Cornelius O'Callaghan's History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France (London, 1870). Mark McLaughlin's The Wild Geese, (London, 1980) was published by Osprey as part of their Men-at-Arms series and provides an introduction to the subject.
See also
- Flight of the Wild Geese
- Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan
- Battle of Fontenoy
- Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta
- Garde Écossaise
- Franco-Irish Ambulance Brigade
External links
- limerick to antwerp irish brigades abroad 1690-1815/
- Military History Society of Ireland
- Flags of the French Army
- Wild Geese Heritage Museum and Library
- Uniforms and Regimental Regalia: The Vinkhuijzen Collection of Military Costume Illustration Sections on the French army from 1740 to 1789 show color plates of Irish regiments in French service.