Irish Immigration to Latin America

By Harry Dunleavy B.S. B.A. M.S.

The material in the book has its genesis with Ireland's early relationship with Spain dating back to the eighteenth century when thousands of Irish emigrated from Ireland to that country. This in turn led to Irish immigration to the Spanish-Latin American colonies. The book then elucidates on the Spanish colonies of the Americas, from north to south, where the Irish travelled in significant numbers. It begins with Florida which had different Irish regiments such as the Hibernia located in Saint Augustine, Florida, and other North American States such as Louisiana and Texas, which at one point in time were all part of the Spanish colonial empire. It deals in detail with specific Irish colonies organized in certain countries such as Mexico, which had two fairly large Irish colonies, the McMullen and McGloin colony, also known as the San Patricio de Hibernia Irish colony and the Power and Hewetson colony, also known as the Refugio colony; Peru, which had an organized Irish colony and the most powerful family in the country at one point in time, the Grace family; and Brazil, which had Irish colonies on tributaries of the Amazon on both the north and south side of that mighty river. The largest immigration to all Latin American countries was to Argentina where several areas became predominately Irish. The book finally ends in the most southerly countries of South America, Argentina and Chile, where an Irish descendant became president of both countries--Edelmiro Julian Farrell in Argentina, and Bernardo O'Higgins in Chile.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jan 8, 2020
• ISBN: 9781645315827

Book preview

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Irish Immigration

to

Latin America

Harry Dunleavy B.S., B.A., M.S.

Copyright © 2019 Harry Dunleavy B.S., B.A., M.S.

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2019

ISBN 978-1-64531-581-0 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64531-582-7 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Appreciation

Introduction

Starting from the North and Ending in the South

Spain and America

My Early Travels in South America

Irish Emigration Before Independence from Spain

The County of Mayo: From the Irish of Thomas Lavelle

The Land and the People

Spanish Colonization and Early Irish Influence

The Irish in Cuba

Earliest Irish Emigrants to Cuba

O’Reilly’s Adventures in Cuba

O’Reilly Returns to Cuba

O’Reilly Returns to Spain (Temporarily)

O’Reilly in Louisiana

O’Reilly as Spanish Governor of Louisiana

O’Reilly returns to Cuba and Spain

Other Irish Emigrants to Cuba

Richard (Ricardo) O’Farrill

Nicolás Mahy (1757–1822)

Leopoldo O’Donnell (1809–1867)

Luìs Prendergast (1824–1892)

Prudencio de Hechavarria y O’Gaban

Ernesto (Che) Guevara (1928–1967)

Irish Railroad Workers in Cuba

Irish and the Colonial Period of Puerto Rico

Alejandro O’Reilly

Tomas O’Dály

Jaime O’Daly

Demetrio O’Daly

Irish Influence in Puerto Rican Sugar Business

Irish Expelled from Puerto Rico

Irish in Spanish Colonial Florida

Irish in the Second Spanish Period of Florida

Irish Romance and Love in Saint Augustine, Florida

The Irish Involvement in Recapturing Florida

Prominent Irish in Spanish Florida

Timoteo O’Daly

Enrique (Henry) White

Sebastian Kindelan y O’Regan, Governor of East Florida

The Irish in Mexico

Hugo O’Conór (O’Connor) (1732–1779)

Arthur or Arturo O’Neill (1736–1814)

Juan de O’Donojú (O’Donoghue) y Ryan (1762–1821)

Mexican Independence from Spain and Colonization Laws

Power and Hewetson Refugio Irish Colony James Power (C1788–1852)

James Hewetson (1797-1870)

Time Line Acquiring the Irish Power-Hewetson Colony in Mexico

Details

The San Patricio de Hibernia Irish Colony

John McMullen (1785–1853)

James McGloin (1799–1856)

The McMullen and McGloin Land Grant

The San Patricios

The Battle of Churubusco

The Irish in Panama

Spanish Conquest

Irish Immigration to Panama

Forgotten Graves among the Palm Trees: Irish Burials in Panama, Central America, 1858–1973 Dr. Peter Pyne, November 2010

Corozal Cemetery

North of South America Gran Colombia

Description of Countries and Irish Involvement

John Devereux (1778–1854)

Journal of Research on Irish Maritime History

Daniel Florence O’Leary

Major Robert Piggot

Arthur Sandes (1793–1832)

Irish in Bolivia, General Francis Burdett O’Connor (1791–1871)

Michael Dwyer

Irish in Peru

Ambrosio O’Higgins, Viceroy of Peru

Captain George Young

Other Prominent Irish who Immigrated to Peru

Henry Hilton Leigh

Roger Casement

Irish in Brazil

Irish in Uruguay

In the Shadow of the Ombú Tree by Hugh Fitzgerald

The Irish in Paraguay

Carlos Murphy

Eliza A. Lynch (1833–1886)

The Irish in Argentina

Prominent Early Irish Arrivals in Argentina: Father Thomas Fehilly

Captain John McNamara, British Invasion

Dr. Michael O’Gorman (1749–1819)

Thomas O’Gorman

Irish in The British Invasions of Argentina Viscount Beresford

Argentine War of Independence from Spain, 1810–1818

Admiral William Brown

General John Thomond O’Brien (1786–1861)

General John Thomond O’Brien’s Chronology

Joseph O’Brien

Thomas Armstrong (1797–1875)

John Brown

Mulhalls

Irish Medical Doctors Who Went to Argentina

Dr. John Creaghe (1841–1920)

Regular Immigration to Argentina from Ireland

Immigration, Sheep-Farming, and Success

John Mooney (1808–1873) and Patrick Bookey (1810–1883)

The Dresden Fiasco

Irish Sheep Farming Success

Michael Duggan (1827–1888)

Eduardo Pedro Maguire (1865–1929)

John James Murphy (1822–1909)

The Kilrane Boys by Walter McCormack*

McCann’s Two Thousand Miles’ Ride Through Argentina

Education

Chronology of Irish Clergy Arriving in Argentina:

Irish Schools and Institutions

Margaret Mooney de Morgan (1839–1923)

The Keating Family

The Fahy Farm and Institute

Mater Misericordiae School

Saint Brigid’s College, Buenos Aires

Clonmacnoise College, San Antonio de Areco

The Michael Ham Institute

Plaza Irlanda, Buenos Aires, and its Schools

Father Anthony Dominic Fahy (1805–1871)

Father Fahy’s Irish Relief Fund 1847

Father Patrick Dillon (1842–1889)

Fathers Michael and John Baptist Leahy

Father William Grennan

Father Henry Gray (1850–1928)

The Irish Passionist Fathers

The Irish Pallotine Priests

The Irish Sisters of Mercy

William Bulfin (1864–1910)

Eamon Bulfin (1892–1968)

The Irish Hospital (Irish Immigrant Infirmary) (1848–1874)

The Southern Cross Newspaper

The Hurling Club

The Recoleta Cemetery

Prominent Irish-Born Argentines Margaret Mooney de Morgan (1839–1923)

Lynches

Descendants of Galway Immigrant Patrick Lynch Justo Pastor Lynch y Galayn (1755–1830)

Patricio Lynch y Galayn Born 1789

Benito Lynch, Second Son of Justo Pastor Lynch

Estanislao Lynch y Roo, Third Son of Justo Lynch (1793)

Ventura Lynch (1828–1905)

Benito Lynch (1856–1902)

Benito Lynch, Novelist (II) (1882–1951)

Don Patricio Lynch

Francisco Lynch (Great-Grandson)

Che Guevara Lynch (1928–1967)

Nicholás Barrios-Lynch (1910–1986)

Adolfo Bioy Casares Lynch (1914–1999)

Domingo Cullen 1791–1839

José Maria Cullen (1823–1876)

Patricio Cullen (1826–1877)

Eduardo Casey (1847–1906)

President Edelmiro Julián Farrell (1887–1980)

Eduardo Bradley (1887–1951)

Rodolfo Walsh (1927–1977)

Conclusion

Irish in Chile

Ambrosio O’Higgins (1720–1801) Spanish Viceroy of Peru and Governor of Chile

Ambrosio O’Higgins Time Line

Huilliche Rebellion of 1792

O’Higgins’ Plan for Scientific Exploration

Bernardo O’Higgins (1778–1842)

John McKenna or (Juan) Mackenna (Chile) (1771–1814)

McKenna’s (Mackenna’s) Career in Chile

Revolutionary Wars and McKenna (Mackenna)

Patricio Javier de los Dolores Lynch y Solo de Zaldívar, Son of Estanislao Lynch Y Roo (1825–1886)

Bibliography

Dedicated to my wife, Mary C. Dunleavy,

and to my late wife, Rosemary T. Dunleavy.

Appreciation

I would like to thank the following individuals for assistance without whose help the manuscript would be close to impossible:

Dr. Edmundo Murray. Dr. Murray, an Irish Argentine native and an expert on the history of that country, especially Irish Argentine History. He took the time and effort to painstakingly peruse the section on the Irish in Argentina and made corrections and suggestions.

Dr. Jorge Chinea. Dr. Chinea took the time and effort to review the sections on the Irish involvement in Puerto Rico and Cuba. He made corrections and suggestions.

Dr. Brian Stauffer, historian and translator of the Texas General Land Office, who supplied information and maps on the McMullen & McGloin Colony in addition to the San Patricio Colony. He also reviewed the section on the above colonies.

Guillermo MacLoughlin, editor of the Southern Cross Newspaper in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the oldest extant Irish Newspaper outside Ireland. He gave permission to use valuable information and photographs from the newspaper.

Ivor Hamrock of the Social Studies Department, Mayo County Library, Castlebar. He supplied newspaper clippings on John King and also gave additional information on the history of the poem The County of Mayo and the possible name or names of people who may have been involved in the early connections between Spain and Ireland.

Michael Lynch, archivist of the Kerry County Library, supplied information on the background of Arthur Sandes, which indicated he would have to be from Tarbert or Listowel in Kerry, but neither is definite.

Kieran Wyse, Reference & Local Studies Department, Cork County Library, who supplied detailed information on Francis Burdett O’Connor who became famous in Bolivia.

The Meath Branch of an Taisce, which gave information on the O’Connor’s estate in Meath after leaving Cork; and Kevin V. Mulligan’s Protected Structures of Meath.

Clement McGann of the Irish Maritime History Museum in Dublin, who gave advice on essential readings.

Cormac Lowth, Irish Maritime History Museum in Dublin and author of Journal of Research on Irish Maritime History, who supplied information on recruitment for Simon Bolivar in Ireland.

Clare Horgan, Claregalway Heritage Society, who gave details on the location of Lydican Castle, original home of Patrick Lynch whose ancestors left roots wide and deep in South America, particularly in Argentina, Chile, and to a lesser degree, in Peru.

Chris Hare, Senior Librarian, West Florida Public Libraries Genealogy Branch, Pensacola, Florida, who supplied addresses and emails for sources to contact regarding early Florida History.

Charles A. Tingley, Senior Research Librarian in Saint Augustine, Florida, who was helpful with the history of the early Irish in Florida, especially Saint Augustine.

Anne Lewellen, keeper of records for the National Parks Association at Castillo San Marcos, Saint Augustine, Florida. She took the time to supply documents on the Hibernian Soldiers at the Spanish Fort, Castillo San Marcos, Saint Augustine, Florida. Dr. Peter Pyne, University of Ulster, Derry, Northern Ireland. Dr. Pyne allowed his research information on Irish Graves in Panama to be used.

Dr. Margaret Brehony, who allowed use of her material about the Irish Railroad Workers in Cuba.

Introduction

Starting from the North and Ending in the South

My experience in writing this book comes from two sources: my own travels through South America in my youth, which took several months when I visited all major countries with the lone exception of Bolivia; and then years later when I spent three years working as an officer on American ships almost exclusively on the West Coast of South America and the Spanish-speaking islands of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean sea.

In previous articles that I had published, I concentrated solely on places that I had personally visited. There is little exception here, and I am mainly writing about places I have been to on several occasions. While I have only been a mathematics teacher in high school and college level with degrees in that subject, my previous studies of Spanish over a number of years made my travels through Latin America more rewarding and productive.

When writing about the history of Latin America, it’s exigent to reference certain areas of today’s United States, such as Florida, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Montana, Nevada, and California, because in earlier times, they were all part of the Spanish Empire. However, the states in which the Latin or Spanish imprint is of the greatest degree are undoubtedly California and Texas. All the major cities and a myriad of the smaller ones in California have Spanish names. In comparison to other states, California has twenty-one old Spanish Missions, two of which are north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County.

Texas had twenty-six old Spanish missions, most of which are still under the active control of the Catholic Church with exception(s) like the former Franciscan Mission, San Antonio de Valero, commonly known as the Alamo.

Emigration from Ireland to Latin America has been occurring over centuries. The military connection began and continued with many Irishmen who had been part of colonial armies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, making their mark on South America. Famous names include John Thomond O’Brien, Admiral William Brown, Ambrosio O’Higgins, Alejandro O’Reilly, Leopoldo O’Donnell, Patricio Lynch, William Bulfin, and Father Fahy.

It’s also of the essence to differentiate between the different types of Irish emigration to a certain degree. One could easily jump to the conclusion that the earlier emigrants were mainly members of aristocratic families who belonged to what has been commonly referred to as the Flight of the Earls, or The Wild Geese. They gave up their estates rather than change their religion, while later ones were laborers similar to the mass exodus to the United States during the famine and to Britain and America after the Second World War. Such an analogy would completely obviate the in-betweens who went for a myriad of other reasons in earlier times.

A large section of the early emigrants from Ireland to Latin America were individuals, while later ones to places like Argentina in particular were not strikingly different than the mass of emigrants who went from Ireland to the United States and England. Some of the Irish emigrants of all classes who went to Latin America were highly successful; while for others, it all went sour.

Spain and America

When writing or studying about the history of the Irish in Latin America, it’s of the essence to begin with Christopher Columbus (Colón), a native of the Italian Republic of Genoa, and his voyage to the New World with three vessels—La Niña, La Pinta, and La Santa Marìa. The voyage on behalf of the Spanish King and Queen, Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, arrived at Samana Cay in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, and set the scene for the colonization or conquest of America.

The island of Samana Cay is uninhabited today, and on my two voyages to the Bahamas, I was unable to visit the proposed arrival spot. The most reliable reports suggest that Columbus (Colón) next travelled to Cuba, and his vessels are believed to have first been sighted on October 28, 1492, at Bariay, in Holguín Province, on the east of Cuba. He then travelled to the island of Hispaniola, now divided between French-speaking Haiti and the Spanish-speaking Dominican Republic, the latter I have visited on several occasions. Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, has been continuously inhabited since 1496 and is now believed to be the oldest inhabited city in the Americas from a European point of view.

Many stories have been circulated that some Irishmen were among Columbus’s men on his maiden voyage to the New World, but this cannot be confirmed with any degree of authenticity or historical investigation. The Spanish continued their exploration around the Caribbean, visiting what is now Jamaica and Venezuela. It’s documented that Rodrigo de Bastidas sighted Florida on Flower Sunday, 1501, Venezuela a short time later, and then sailed to the Isthmus of Panama later that year.

Florida remained a Spanish colony from 1513–1763 when it was exchanged with the British for Cuba, which they had captured from the Spanish in March 1762. Florida was later recaptured from the British by the Spanish leader, Bernardo de Gálvez, during the Spanish period of control over Louisiana which lasted from 1763 to 1783, in which the Irish played a significant role. The island city of Galveston, Texas, is named after Gálvez.

Spanish colonization of the Americas lasted for about four centuries from Columbus’s arrival at Samana Cay in the Bahamas on October 12, 1492, until the early nineteenth century when most of its American territories declared their independence, except for Cuba and Puerto Rico. After the loss of these two colonies in the Spanish American War of 1898, along with Guam and the Philippines in the Pacific, the lights went out for Spanish territorial control in Latin America, but the Spanish language remained, probably for eternity.

My Early Travels in South America

Having been to eighty-two countries and all continents, Latin America is my favorite. My early journey through South America was mainly for scenery and general knowledge of the continent. It was not to research the part played by the Irish in the history of that extensive and beautiful land. After passing through the cities of Recife, Sao Paulo, and the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, my real journey to view the South American landscape began in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay in the 1960s.

This fascinating city is situated on the banks of the world’s second widest river, the River Plate or Rìo de La Plata, River of Silver. With a statue of José Gervasio Artigas regarded as the liberator of Uruguay from Spain located on the main square or Plaza de Independencia, Montevideo (which means I see a mountain) was an old and beautiful Spanish-style city. Little did I know on my arrival in Uruguay that a section of that country, not that far from Montevideo, was once populated by Irish farmers who later owned additional land on the south side of the River Plate in the Argentine Province of Buenos Aires. The latter was acquired at the invitation of Juan Manuel de Rosas who, during his career, served as governor of the viceroyalty of the River Plate Provinces, Buenos Aires Province, and the Argentine president.

After a week traveling in Uruguay, I rode by bus along by the River Plate from Montevideo to Colonia, where I picked up a hydrofoil to cross the Rìo De La Plata (River Plate) to the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. I visited the Irish Embassy in Buenos Aires, the only Irish Embassy in South America at that point in time, to acquire some information. The embassy personnel couldn’t have been any nastier or unhelpful.

An Irish Argentinian Embassy employee expressed her surprise that I came to Buenos Aires without knowing anybody and told me to find friends to get the information I required. I contacted the Buenos Aires Amateur (Ham) Radio Club,¹ and then became aware of a large Irish immigration to that country in the second half of the nineteenth century. Members of that society subsequently took me to the Hurling Club and the Father Fahy Club where I was simultaneously introduced to Irish Argentinians.

I spent a few months travelling around that beautiful country but always wound up back in Buenos Aires. I then decided to leave for Chile and travelled west by bus to San Martìn de los Andes, a majestic Argentinian town in the province of Neuquén in the shadow of the Andes Mountains. Since I wanted to travel by lake to Chile, I took a long bus ride south close to the area where the boat normally departed for Chile. After getting off the bus, I was only to find that there would be no boat crossing for another four or five days. The bus I had travelled on had already left, and I had no choice but to return by foot back toward San Martìn de los Andes.

After about six hours on foot, I arrived at a police outpost with the shadows of nightfall already setting in. My documents were checked again, and I received a badly needed glass of water from one of the police officers. Then the young officer in charge of the station came to check me out or more likely to pass the time with a social conversation. I needed a place to stay for the night and was a little nervous in a wilderness area.

I asked him if the area was safe, and he replied that nothing happens around here. He advised me of a boarding house in the nearby forest where the woodworkers stayed and said he would accompany me there. He also said he would come back the next morning and take me to San Martìn De Los Andes where I could catch a bus daily through the Andes to the border with Chile. All went according to plan, but San Martìn de los Andes was so beautiful with a lake and a town surrounded by towering mountains that I decided to stay there for two days.

I then left Argentina by bus to the border with Chile, went through customs, and entered that country. I travelled by different bus routes in Chile as far south as possible before a branch (rama) of the Andes Mountains intervenes and juts out to the Pacific Ocean. The only choices left were to enter Argentina again and cross back into Chile a short distance further south or take a short boat ride around the branch of the Andes, which stretched out into the Pacific Ocean and reentered Chile south of the mountain branch.

I decided to do neither and instead opted to travel north by train to the Chilean capital, Santiago, where I noticed the first glimpse of Irish influence in Chile with the name of O’Higgins prominent. In later years, while working on an American passenger vessel, the Santa Mariana, I was able to pass through the scenic Straits of Magellan, which cuts off mainland Chile and Argentina from Tierra Del Fuego, and view some of the majestic scenery of Southern Argentina and Chile. After a few weeks in Chile, and viewing as much as possible, I returned to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where I spent some additional time. There, I frequently visited the Irish Hurling Club, and on one occasion, the Father Fahy Club.

I then travelled to Paraguay. Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, was a quaint and unusual city whose streets were lined with orange trees loaded with fruit. My knowledge of Eliza Lynch’s exploits in Paraguay, the huge estates she once owned, and the major part this Irish woman from Cork played in the history of that country, then totally unknown to me. After a week in Paraguay, I attempted to travel to Bolivia, but it was just not possible for political reasons to travel to that country from Paraguay. So I had to fly directly to Lima, Peru, probably the most history laden of all the South American countries with famous tribes like the Incas and world famous ruins like Macchu Picchu.

After travels in Peru, I made my way to Ecuador where an American-born cousin was a priest in a poverty stricken area of the country’s largest city, Guayaquil, called Parque Forestal. While Guayaquil is Ecuador’s largest city and major port, the capital, Quito, surrounded by scenic hills, was much prettier. The remaining part of my journey took me to Colombia and then to Panama, where the end of my adventure in South America was complete, at least for the time being.

I returned to New York where a sister and brother-in-law were there to meet me. I had left South America without a great knowledge of any of the countries other than Argentina where I spent more time than all the others put together. In later years, I would become more familiar with most of the other countries when I worked as an officer on United States vessels. History, unlike mathematics, is laden with myriads of contradictions, and there is no lack of dichotomies available when writing or researching about the Irish in Latin America.

Irish Emigration Before Independence from Spain

Irish emigration to the Spanish colonies of Latin America has its genesis in the Iberian Peninsula, which today comprises Spain and Portugal but, to the Romans and the Visigoths, was but one land. The largest Irish migration prior to the Great Potato Famine of 1845–48 was to Spain in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. After the rising of 1641, an estimated thirty-four thousand Irish emigrated to Spain. The Irish, who were awarded Spanish citizenship on arriving in Spain as persecuted Catholics, joined the Spanish army’s Hibernian Regiments and became some of Spain’s best soldiers and most famous generals.

Many of these were posted in Cuba and married into the island’s aristocracy, establishing our own great Irish-Cuban families: the O’Farrell’s, the O’Reillys, the Kindelans, the Madans, the Duanys, the O’Gabans, the Coppingers, and the O’Naughtens. Four Captain Generals of Cuba were of Irish origin: Nicolás Mahy, Sebastián Kindelán, Leopoldo O’Donnell, and Luís Prendergast.² Alejandro O’Reilly held the position for a brief period.

Additionally, Irish emigration to Mexico and several of today’s southern United States also has its roots in the marriage of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. The union of the two Spanish provinces, combined with the expulsion of the Moors after the battle of Granada in January 1492, set in motion the road for the colonization of America. There is also a variety of different types of immigration to the Latin American countries from Ireland.

Before independence from Spain, immigration to the region was haphazard. Some of the emigrants were from upper-class families who could avoid English aggression at home if they changed their religion. Others were military men who joined Spanish armies, while others were merchants and skilled artisans who were mainly successful. Lastly, there was regular emigration to countries such as Argentina, Mexico, and Uruguay, where land was available for a pittance and often free. Then there were those who couldn’t find employment at home and just left in the hope of acquiring employment and a better standard of living.

While most people are only aware of the Flight of the Earls after the Battle of Kinsale in 1601, or the Wild Geese after the Treaty of Limerick in 1691 with Patrick Sarsfields, trade between Spain and Ireland flourished as far back as the Middle Ages when iron and wine were imported from Spain and fish and hides exported from Ireland to Spain. Galway appears to have been the main port for importation and exportation. There were also early Irish pilgrimages to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, the northwestern province of Spain populated by ethnic Celts.

The Spanish Arch in Galway (An Póirse Spáinneach), erected around 1584 in Galway City located in the area now called Spanish Parade, was really the point where wine came through from Spain and fish and hides were exported. It was constructed during the mayoralty of William Oge Martyn (Martin) in 1584 and called Ceann An Bhalla (the head of the wall).

An Irish regiment, Tercio Irlanda, was formed in Spain as early as 1587. Spain also had the Hibernian division in its ranks in Spain and the Spanish Netherlands as early as 1709. For a protracted period of its history, Spain had actually four regiments made up exclusively of Irishmen. They had their own uniforms and Irish officers, and some of these served in the colonies of Latin America.

These connections may also account for the documented fact that early emigration to the Spanish colonies of Latin America was confined to the province of Castile in Spain and Ireland. The commonly held belief that a large number of Irish, commonly called the Dark Irish, are descended from the Spanish Armada of 1588 does not withstand serious intellectual or historical scrutiny. There are, however, documented facts that thousands of Spanish from the Armada died unnecessarily on landing on the Irish Coast.³

Did the majority Irish originally come from Spain and/or the Iberian Peninsula? It seems very plausible that some did. Were it not for the language difference in Galicia, a province of northwest Spain, one could well imagine from the features of the people that they were in Ireland. Then there is the poem or song The County of Mayo, translated by