Page 256 - Demo

256 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
when recruitment to foreign armies was forbidden, many legal trading ships, along with countless smuggling vessels that plied their trade between the ports of Europe and the rug- ged and lonely coast of Ireland, bringing their cargoes of silks, wines and other contraband, often carried as their return cargoes new recruits who flocked to the ranks of the “Wild Geese.” In fact it is documented that many of the ships’ manifests showed their cargoes as “wild geese” a legal and approved export in those far off days.
It is said that the “Wild Geese,” these honourable, sometimes ‘reckless men of careless courage’ never lost their love of country and the sorrow of their exile remained always with them, deep in their hearts, clothed in their bravery and love and longing for their native land. And, as the folklore informs us, when by some friendly chance on foreign shores a ‘sup’ was taken, it always helped keep their hearts warm and courage bold.
As is now known, the name stuck and the men of the many Irish regiments serving in foreign forces became known as the “Wild Geese,” and as already stated, while the original meaning of the term was applied to those who left Ireland to serve in European armies of the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly in France, however, it eventually took on a wider meaning and was applied to all those Irish who had established themselves in Europe and beyond. More latterly, some have applied the term to all who became part of the Irish diaspora.
The Wild Geese shall return
and we’ll welcome them home
So active, so armed, so flighty a flock
was never known to this land to come Since the days of Prince Fionn the Mighty.
Of course, in bygone days streams of Irish exiles had also travelled to many other coun- tries, to Austria, Russia, Poland, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal, America,Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, amongst others.
In Russia, for instance, Brigadier-General Peter Lacy of Limerick, is credited and lauded for having whipped into shape the heretofore disorganised army of Peter the Great. In his History of Limerick, the eighteenth century historian, John Ferrar, claims that Lacy was the tactician directly responsible for plotting the defeat of the forces of the King of Sweden, and so able a commander and soldier was he, that under his leadership the army quickly went from being known as the worst soldiers in Europe to the best.
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