Page 257 - Demo

Chapter Seven 257
At the time of his death (1751) he held the position of Governor of Livonia, a prov- ince on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Another Irishman, George Brown, was Field- Marshal in the Russian service and became Governor of Riga, while Count John O’Rourke also commanded in the Russian army. Count O’Rourke, whose nephew Joseph would also command with distinction in the Russian army, was the author of an important military instruction book ‘A Treatise on the Art of War’ which was published in 1778.
The numbers of Irish in Austria shone in both the army and diplomatic service. General Maximilian Ulysses Brown, a cousin of the aforementioned Russian Field-Marshal, was one of the most celebrated and decorated of all the Austrian commanders in the Seven Years’ War; eventually becoming commander-in-chief of the Austrian army. One of the ancient O’Donnell clan of Donegal and Mayo, Con, or Karl, as he became known, was also an Austrian Marshal, as was Francis Maurice Lacy, later enobled and germanized as Count Franz Moritz de Lacy, son of Peter. An infantry regiment of the Austrian army remained linked to his name down to the time of the First World War. In his biography of Maximilian Browne, The Wild Goose and The Eagle, military historian Christopher Dufy describes Lacy as “the reformer of the Austrian Army, the acknowledged European master of the science ofsupply.theepitomeofthespiritofeighteenth-centurywarfare.” TheCountsTaafe, of Austria, a family who still rank high in the nobility of that country, originally came from counties Louth and Meath; members of the Taaf family also served as Governors of re- gions of Austria. A hero of Cremona, Captain Francis McDonnell of the Austrian army, was descended from an ancient clan of “gallowglasses” from county Mayo.
For centuries Spain had been one of the chief refuges of the leeing Gael, a country into which they were always cordially welcomed, given substantial aid, high-ranking postings and ribands, for Spain’s Irish regiments had for long distinguished themselves and earned the gratitude and respect of their adopted country.
So appreciated were the Irish that in many cases their rise to prominence was swift, so much so, that in 1714, an Irishman, Patrick Lawless, whose family once owned lands in Kilkenny and Dublin was installed as Spanish Ambassador to England. Some years later, another Irishman, Richard Wall of Waterford held the high oice of Spanish Prime Min- ister.
Demetrio O’Mahoney, son of the famous swordsman, soldier, and politician, of Cre-