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262 Stephen Dunford: The Journey of The IrIsh
Segur, Château Pichon-Longueville de Lalande, Château Langoa-Barton. The Irish wine- makers became so important, that when U.S. Ambassador to France Thomas Jefferson vis- ited Bordeaux in 1783 to order a stock of fine bottles for President Washington, he noted the number of Irish families there: Lynch, Barton, MacCarthy, Lawton among the top Bordeaux Château. Other Wine Geese got into the trade in North America, Chile and Australia.
At the dawn of the eighteenth century, the Irish had also begun to figure large in the life of America, and in the last quarter of that century, during the American Revolution, when the colonies were attempting to declare their independence, it is estimated that fully one-half of those fighting on the side of the Americans were Irish-both the wretched Catho- lics who had been driven out by persecution and starvation, and their Ulster Presbyterian countrymen, driven out, also by persecution and England’s destruction of the woollen and linen industries.
Three of the signers of the American Declaration of Independence were born in Ire- land: James Smith from Dublin, Mathew Thornton from Derry, and another Ulsterman, George Taylor. Another eight of the 56 signatories were of Irish descent, the most celebrat- ed being Charles Carroll, whose ancestors came from Offaly; and it was an Irishman from Derry who penned the Declaration itself. In fact, George Washington publicly thanked the Irish for their assistance in winning American Independence, and from John Adams to Barack Obama, no fewer than 20 Presidents of the United States of America have traced their ancestry to Ireland.Wexford native, Admiral Barry was the founder of the American navy and is still lauded as “The Father of the American Navy,”
Another distinguished seaman, Admiral Browne of Foxford, county Mayo, is celebrated as being the founder of the Argentine navy and the saviour of that country. The grand- mother of Che Guevara was a Lynch from Galway, William Lamport is celebrated in Mexi- co, Lt Colonel William Ferguson from Antrim and Daniel Florence O’ Leary from Cork are feted in Bolivia and Venezuala, Limerick-born Jesuit, Thomas Field is remembered in Brazil and Paraguay, as is Captain William Cotter, while Chile holds in esteem, Sligo-born Am- brose O’Higgins, Governor of Chile and Viceroy of Peru, and his son, Bernardo O’Higgins, known as the ‘Liberator of Chile,’ while John O’Reilly and his ‘San Patricians’ will always be remembered in Mexico.